Panel: How has the season changed compared to the first two?

James Roday: It’s 20% bigger.  That was sort of the mandate that we put on the table, and we’re sort of blowing it out with the summer stuff, sort of using pretty much our entire season’s worth of budget on just the summer season.  So look forward to a lot of winter episodes that happen primarily in the police station. No, we’ve got big stories! We’ve got pirate treasure and dare devils and roller derby and Shawn does his high school reunion. The idea sort of being that, you know, try to compete with the summer blockbuster entertainment that’s always available and just go big. So that’s what we’re doing.

Panel: I hear there’s going to a more emotional side of you this season. Can you elaborate on that?

James Roday: Twenty percent more everything!  No, I think that the challenge that was sort of posed to us, which we’ve chosen to accept from our network, was, like, “So you guys want to be the torch bearer for the USA?” Like we want you to sort of start adding layers, and one of those layers is the idea of sort of earning our comedy with each episode, sort of giving it an emotional spine.

 You know, one thing that Monk has had from its conception is that, you know, his wife was murdered, so they always sort of had that to go back to any time they needed to get heavy on that show. And we don’t really have that, so it’s sort of like, with each episode we’re sort of coming up with sort of an emotional backbone that launches us into the world and helps sort of balance some of the silly things that we do. It’s been good. I think it’s got everybody on their toes. We’re all sort of working muscles that we haven’t necessarily been working in the first couple of seasons, and I think we’re doing it. Yeah. Every episode there’s been at least one or two scenes that you’re seeing different sides and all that garbage, doing things that we’ve never done before.

Panel:  Will we see some of that with the introduction of your mother?

James Roday: Absolutely. That’s what sort of kicks it all off. You sort of find out that everything isn’t necessarily what it may have seemed, and Cybil Sheppard came in and she said,  “You guys did a nice job.” It was tough. It’s sort of tough to sort of come into a situation like this when you haven’t been with the group from the beginning. You got a lot put on your shoulders, and we’re also counting on her to deliver this pivotal scene. She was up to task. So, yeah, we definitely set the tone in the premier for this new sort of soft side of Psych. 

Panel: Is it a fine line to walk between getting too comfortable with a character after two seasons?

James Roday: It’s always a fine line, with this character especially. I think the longer that we go, the line will get even finer because like the older that I get the tougher it gets to solve this sort of puckish guy who doesn’t want to grow up. There comes a certain point, I think, where it’s just sort of sad.  So, yeah, it’s always sort of walking that line and making this guy likeable and slappable at the same time.

Panel: Now the character of Shawn has got an eclectic job history. Are there any roles that you’d like to see Shawn go in undercover that use talents that you think might just be fun?

James Roday: You know what, I grew up a big jock, so I’m ready for a sports episode. I mean, I’ve played everything, so they can throw everything at me, and I would have a blast with that. Except for hockey.  Except for hockey.

Panel: So that’s the one they’ll do.

James Roday: I think there’s mutterings of a football episode this season, which would be awesome. But that’s sort of like the foolproof set up of this show is, you know, he’s worked so many jobs and just about anything that comes up somewhere in the world, he did it. And if he didn’t, then, you know, Gus has read about it in his IQ.

Panel: Speaking of Gus and your character, what has been your favorite nickname that the writers have come up with?

James Roday: Wow! You know, it was sort of, they’re not unlike our Psych Outs, the first couple sort of happened very kind of on the spot sort of organically, and now it’s become like a challenge in the writers’ rooms to top each other every week.  The first one we ever did was Silly Pants Jackson, and that was just me messing around. I think the early ones are probably sort of the best just because there were no expectations for them. Now we’re getting into it, it’s just ridiculous. . In this episode was Long Branch Penny Whistle.  But it’s one of those things that you just never know what’s going to catch on. We do so much messing around out there that it always shocks me what the writers take to and say, “Oh, that’s something fun. We’ll do that every week now.” The names caught on.

Panel: Speaking of names, Billy Zane?

James Roday: I just wanted to get that guy on the show. If I can keep dropping him in there once or twice a season, then maybe we can actually get him on the show. There are certain actors that I think really lend themselves to what we do. They sort of bring a cool sort of kitch back to it, and Billy Zane is definitely the guy. We just got to come up with the right role for him.

Panel: What was your reaction when you heard Cybil might be joining the cast?

James Roday: Yes. It was not completely surprising to me because Steve Franks is, sort of worships at the altar of Moonlighting.  He named the character. And you know, there’s that sort of snappy reference to dialogue that they kind of coined for that show. So, yeah, it wasn’t a shocking name to have come up. The fact that we actually got her was probably more surprising than the idea itself. You know, I was stoked. She was really good on that show and there is the whole like, how exactly did two super Arians come together and make me but I don’t know, I think it was a score for the show, and she seemed to have a pretty good time while she was out here. And for Steve it was big.

Panel: Are Shawn and Juliet going to get a little bit closer this season?

Dule Hill: Not often. A lot of times, I think out of the cast, I’m one of their best at keeping it together. A lot of times if I think it’s funny, and I break it up, then the audience is not going to have a chance to see it. So, I try my best to keep it there, you know? So, most of the time I’m pretty good.  He tries hard though, because sometimes you’ll see where I’m like, “Damn you.”

Panel: Do you have a favorite episode that you worked on so far?

Dule Hill: Probably American Duos because I got to be Michael Jackson—just because of the ending. There are so many episodes that I like but that one I had a great time doing. I mean you’re there dressed up as Thriller, yeah, Michael Jackson and Thriller, you have this audience that Landis had got to come. And then you had the guy who directed Thriller directing you. I mean I get to move up on a stage and smoke.

 When I was growing up, I used to dress up all the time.  I’m a big Michael Jackson fan. So, that was great. I loved it. I loved it. I think that would be my top one so far just because of that moment. But I love all the episodes.

Panel: Is there something that you’d like to see Gus do?

Dule Hill: I want to see a dance episode. We have to figure out a way to organically work it in there. There’s a friend of mine named Jason Samuel Smith, who’s one of the greatest tap dancers out here who I really want to have on the show. I’ve mentioned it a few times, and we’ve talked about it. So, just when the time is right, hopefully, we can get it worked out. If anything it would be like a Gregory Hines episode, we each had a dream one day, that’s when we’ll know show’s about to go off the air though.  But I’d like to see Gus, you know, dance—do the tap in there somehow.

Panel: Have there been any skills that you’ve had to learn while doing episodes?  Were you on skates this episode?

Dule Hill: I was on skates this episode. That’s right. I have to tell you about the blur. I actually forgot that one. I forgot about doing an episode about roller derbies, but I was on skates, but I didn’t have to learn that though, because I used to skate when I was younger growing up.

Panel: Inline or quad?

Dule Hill: Quad. Quad. And then about when I was doing Bring in ‘da Noise in New York, me and my cousin would have like these nostalgic Sundays. We’d meet up and go roller skating. And then about five or six years ago, Sarah Michelle Geller had a birthday party that I went to at a roller skating rink in LA. And I kind of had like a big flashback then because I hadn’t done it in years up to that point, too. The rental skates are terrible. And I was on rental skates then. I was like, “Man, this is wild, man. I can’t even find the key.”  So, I went and I bought roller skates there.

Panel: How long do you guys spend up here?

Dule Hill: About six months, with two weeks off in July.

Panel: Do you have anything scheduled for July, for your off season?

Dule Hill: I’m going to go to New Jersey and see my new niece. She was just born two weeks ago.  I’m going to do that for a week, and then I’ll go to LA for a week and spend some time at home. But I definitely look forward to seeing the newest Hill to arrive.

Panel: Are you going to do anymore campaigning?

Dule Hill: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean if they ask me. Either way, I’ll be doing my own campaigning on my own, just trying to get out the vote.  I want to talk to people. But I do intend to go back out in the general. I think it’s too important of a time. Well, actually, since I’ve been here, I’ve only gone once since I’ve been back at work because it’s just too much, trying to work thirteen hours a day, and then fly on the weekend. I went to Oregon because it was close by. But before that, most of the time, I was doing it in the off-season. And I had a lot of free time then. I campaigned for Al Gore in 2000 during the general election; I’m still a big fan of Al Gore. But the main reason why I first took the first step out was because Martin Sheen came knocking on my trailer saying, “You’re coming with me. We’re going to campaign for Al Gore.” And you don’t really say no to Martin Sheen, right? And I was a big fan of him anyway. It wasn’t like he was asking me to go and campaign for the devil. But then as I got out there, I was inspired by the people throughout the country and how much throughout the country people are really involved in democracy. Just being involved, door to door, and just standing up for what they believe and.

Panel: What policy is most important to you?

Dule Hill: It was a couple of things. It was the war in Iraq. There was, obviously, the economy. The lobbyist was a big thing to me for Senator Obama because I think that’s a big issue to sort of getting the people’s business done. And I think we’ve seen too much over, I don’t know how ever long you want to say where our business as citizens of the country is not being handled. It’s like what is going on here?  We’re the greatest nation in the world; we should be able to take care of our own, at least give us all a reasonable playing field to be able to succeed whether you’re black, white, man, woman, rich, poor, you know, Hispanic, Native American, whatever, we should all have a  reasonable chance.

Panel: So, how was your experience on West Wing?

Dule Hill: That was great. It was great for multiple reasons, I mean one, because of the experience. I mean John Spencer would always say, “We wouldn’t be doing this if we want a cop show,” because all the stuff we got to experience. I played basketball with Juwan Howard with the White House in the background, was able to tour around the White House. I was able to watch the last President’s  State of the Union from the White House. You know what I mean?

 Some of the cast was able to play basketball on top of the Supreme Court.  Just like all of these experiences were just absolutely amazing and to think about. But for me, it was pretty much a night and day thing because this stuff started happening after the first season. And the year before that, I was an out-of-work actor, you know, would have had a maybe another month and a half worth of rent to pay.  But  the night and day change was just like, “Wow! I just got dropped by my agent four months ago. And now, I’m working for Aaron Sorkin and I’m in D.C. and talking to presidents and things like that. It was great though.  I don’t know if because of my age that I got more involved in what was going on in politics and in the world or if it was because of the show or a mixture of both, but the timing was absolutely perfect.   

Panel: After so many seasons on sort of like such a serious show, were you looking for something like completely different like Psych after that?

Dule Hill: Psych is exactly what I’d asked for. I mean I told my managers, my agents, it was always like if I had to do another TV series, what I’d like to do would be something on cable, a comedy and I would have more of a leading role, because I thought if I did a drama, I would only be compared to a West Wing type thing. I didn’t think I’d  get cast in a role completely different from Charlie.   I thought it would be a letdown because I was very much aware that I was in a very unique situation with the show winning so many awards, and having a writer like Aaron Sorkin and the level that they wanted to be at every week.  And if I did a drama, I would feel let down. I would be like, “Isn’t this great? Is this the dialogue?”

 So, I figured it’d be better for me to take a step back from that line. And, as I said, I wanted to have more of a leading role, and do comedy, because, you know, you don’t always want to come to work with putting your heart out there. There are some times you just want to have a good time. And this came along. And I read the script, and I thought this was a great opportunity. I thought if we could develop the characters and keep going with it, it would be a really funny show. The audience is going to love it.  

Panel: Is there anyone that you would love to see do a guest spot on the show?

Dule Hill: I still would like Martin Sheen. From the first season, I’ve been wanting to get him on. So, hopefully, at some point, I’m going to get him on. Any of the West Wingers, you know, I just want to have all of them come through at some point, just because of the nostalgia. And also, who would I like to have come through—anybody really. I mean there’s so many wonderful actors out there.  

Panel: Are there any shows that you want to do a guest spot on?

Dule Hill: I wouldn’t mind doing a guest spot on Heroes. I love Heroes.

Panel: What power would you want?

Dule Hill: That’s a good question, too. What power would I want? Maybe I can have my super-fast feet.