By Christina Radish
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James Roday stars as Shawn Spencer. Photo USA Nework. |
The USA Network television series Psych, last year’s number one new show on cable, returns this week, for its second season. San Antonio, Texas native James Roday stars as young police consultant Shawn Spencer, who solves crimes with powers of observation so acute the detectives think he’s psychic. And, Shawn certainly doesn’t do anything to dissuade them from that belief. Playing Shawn’s reluctant sidekick, Gus, New Jersey native Dule Hill (The West Wing) helps his best friend solve every case they’re presented with.
Co-stars James Roday and Dule Hill tell MediaBlvd Magazine about what fans can expect from the new season, as well as what makes working on their show so much fun.
MediaBlvd Magazine> Which storylines are you most excited about this season?
Dule Hill> I’m very excited about the season premiere. I think the season premiere is very funny. We had a great guest cast, with Tim Curry and Gina Gershon. And, it’s an episode that James co-wrote. I always love the episodes that he writes. That is one of my top ones that I’m excited about, for this season. And then, throughout the season, we have multiple episodes that I’m really excited about. I’m excited about the horse racing episode because that was a lot of fun to do, and I think we have a lot of funny moments in that episode.
James Roday> I have to agree with Dule. I’m pretty psyched about our premiere. We went pretty big with it, across the board. It was just a bigger, better, faster Psych. Getting to watch Tim Curry work was really an honor. And, Gina Gershon knocked it out of the park. We also have an episode that takes place in the world of something like the show Pimp My Ride. I got a kick out of that, too. We often try to put Shawn and Gus in worlds where they don’t fit in, or where they’re fish out of water, but I think that one especially served that premise. It’s got a little bit of an urban feel to it, and I think it’s really funny.
MediaBlvd> Any big guest stars that you guys were excited to work with?
James> We had John Amos come in and do an episode. It’s just cool to be standing next to John Amos.
Dule> I was excited to work with Lou Diamond Phillips.
James> Yeah, Lou came and did his thing. That was a fun episode. He plays a character that’s like Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), times 20. He’s the Federal version of Lassiter. That was fun.
MediaBlvd> Did you guys audition together? You have such great comic timing with each other. Was that something that you knew, early on?
Dule> They had cast Roday first, and then, we got together to read, just to see how the chemistry would be, before I joined the show. From the beginning I was like, “Okay, this can work.” It wasn’t what is on the show right now, but you could see the framework. I thought we could have a really good time.
MediaBlvd> Would you ever want to see these two guys go legit completely and work for the cops, or do you like the dynamic the way it is?
Dule> I wouldn’t want to see them work for the cops. Part of the fun is beating the cops at their own game. Plus, if they really started working for the cops, they’d have to answer to people. I think they enjoy doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, and how they want to do it.
MediaBlvd> James, do you think Shawn ever has a shot of being more than friends with Juliet (Maggie Lawson)?
James> I think Shawn definitely has a little schoolboy crush on her. But, when reality sets in, he’ll be gone. He’s proven that, with all of his various jobs and his bouncing around in life. So, I think it’s one of those things that’s perfect on paper, but if it were to ever happen, he would probably freak out and leave town, or something. He can flirt with her and he’s a constant presence and he gets to see her a lot, but he doesn’t actually have to grow up on any level to make a relationship work. That’s probably where he stands on the subject.
MediaBlvd> Have you heard comments from any real psychics about what you do on the show?
James> To be honest, after the pilot episode, I’m not sure how many psychics kept tuning in. I think we’re doing a pretty good job of spoofing that entire line of work. I met with a couple of psychics before we got started, and there that through line of believing that a lot of people have the gift and don’t realize they have the gift. But, I’m not sure how popular we are with the real psychics out there.
MediaBlvd> James, you pretend to be a psychic detective on the show, but have you ever had a career where you had to pretend to be something else, and then you were actually good at it and they thought you were able to do it for real?
James> I think the closest thing I could say would probably be basketball. It was the sport that I picked up like last, in my jock years. And, I really didn’t play a lot of basketball growing up. I just watched a lot of basketball on TV. Isaiah Thomas was my hero. So, I basically talked a bunch of trash, having the perfect crossover in my head, but having never actually executed it. I started playing basketball with guys that had been playing for a lot longer than me, and I basically just BS’d my way into having them thinking that I was decent player, when really I’m not that good.
MediaBlvd> Dule, on The West Wing, you were the aide to the president. On Psych, you’re the aide to the psychic cop. Do you find any similarities there?
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Dule Hill as Shawn's best friend, Gus. Photo USA Network. |
Dule> In real life, if I had to be an aide to anybody, I’d rather be an aide to a President. But, in both situations, you’re trying to get someone to focus on their job, when a lot of times they don’t really want to. They get sidetracked, whether they want to or not. In terms of which one was more interesting, I think they were both interesting, in different ways. The character of Charlie was interesting because it was a dramatic role, and I love doing drama. He played a lot of things close to his chest. And, I had the chance to work with these great actors. With Psych, it’s a similar thing, but just on the flip side of it, where Gus speaks his mind. He is very outgoing with his emotions. And, I feel like I’m getting the chance to work with great actors on this show, too, especially James Roday, in terms of comedy. The two jobs are like yin and yang. They compliment each other.
MediaBlvd> Are there any actors from The West Wing that you’d like to have as a guest star on Psych?
Dule> I would like to get them all, eventually. My number one shot, that I still would want to work out, one of these days, is Martin Sheen. I would love to work with him in a different capacity, with a different dynamic. And, I think Richard Schiff can be very funny, so I would love to see him on the show. Josh Malina would be my third pick. Mary McCormack is doing another USA show, so that’s not going to happen anytime soon, but she is a big fan of the show. She said she’s our number one fan. But, after that, if any of The West Wing cast wants to do an episode, I would love to have them on.
MediaBlvd> A lot of the episodes are stand-alones. Are there any plans to have more of a continuous story arc throughout the season?
James> The closest thing we have to continuous story arcs are more on the relationship side, like the growing relationship between Shawn and his dad. As far as a through line, like maybe with a case that lasts over the course of the whole season, I think the trepidation is that we are viewed as a stand-alone series. You’ve got to be one or the other. It’s either a serial, or you have to start watching every episode and become invested. With Psych, if you can catch it, you don’t have to know what happened the week before, and you can still laugh and have a good time. Not to say that it’s impossible to pull off something like that, but there doesn’t seem to be major interest in putting together a storyline that tracks for more than one or two episodes.
MediaBlvd> When it comes to those Psych-Out moments at the end of the show, do you guys just break into a song a lot, or was it something you started doing, specifically knowing that it would air?
Dule> It started with the pilot. During the pilot, when we got to Vancouver and started filming, Roday and I figured out that we could bond over singing 80’s and 90’s songs. We would just sing them throughout the whole pilot, and make up our own songs, and things like that. By the last day of our shoot, we came up with the “Man In the Mirror” Psych-Out that we did on the pilot. We were planning on having a good time, and then, Roday was saying his speech and I started singing Michael Jackson in the background. Originally, I think we did it just because it was the last shot we were doing. And then, it turned out to be so funny that they decided to put it with the episode. We did not know, at the time that we did that, that we’d be doing Psych-Outs for the rest of the season, but that’s how it all started.
MediaBlvd> Are you guys going to be doing that again this season?
James> I think we’re going to try to mix it up a little, so that it’s not a song every week. We’ve got a couple other things up our sleeves that I think we’ll be trying out this year, for the Psych-Outs. There are always bloopers and things that go wrong on the set. And, I think a couple of public service announcements would be funny. We’ll see what we can throw together.
MediaBlvd> What do each of you have planned for your hiatus?
Dule> After this last year of being away from home so much, I’m really looking forward to getting back to my house that I’ve been paying the mortgage on, but I’m never in. That’s my plan for the fall. After that, I’m not too sure what I’ll be doing. We’ll go from there. Last year, I was in New York, doing a play, and I did an independent last fall. I haven’t really been home, so I’m definitely looking forward to just being in my bed and putting my feet up on the couch for a little while.
James> I’m still trying to get this movie off the ground that I want to direct. It was supposed to happen after last season, but it didn’t, so now we’re going to try to make it happen as soon as we finish this season. You never know which way things are going to go with independent film. But, that’s the hope, for now. It’s called Gravy, like the kind that you put on your turkey.
MediaBlvd> Are you just going to direct it, or are you also going to be in it?
James> I co-wrote it with my best buddy, and I’d always planned on not being in it, but it seems like every time I sit down with someone that has dough, the first question they ask is, “You are going to be in this, right?” So, I may have to make my peace with adding that hat. If it means getting the movie made, then absolutely. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’m tired of Zach Braff just beating me to the punch. Everywhere I turn, he just keeps beating my ass, and I won’t have it. I’m not going to stand for it anymore.
