Drama QueensDirected by our very own Sophia Bush, she shares behind-the-scenes details of what went into the the iconic Halloween zombie sequence — from costumes to the logistics of filming while directing — with Rob recalling the challenge of speaking through extensive prosthetics. The special effected essentially left him without a mouth, and took hours to apply, so it was quite the challenge!
Plus, Sharon Lawrence makes her debut as Julian’s mother, and the cast reflects on their most emotionally challenging scenes to film.
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Okay fam It's season eight, episode six, not Afraid. It originally aired October nineteenth, twenty ten. As Halloween approaches in tree Hill, Book and Julian get an unexpected visitor, and Nathan begins a new career. Meanwhile, Clay and Quinn struggle with life back at the beach House, and Hayley and Mia host an open mic night at Trick. It was so much fun to direct this episode and it was written by Johnny Norris.
Ah and Lou.
I went to storage yesterday in anticipation of today.
No, I still have orange hat.
And I brought it home. Fascinator the tool what it is?
Right, yeah, fascinator?
Yes? Oh god, I just Brinstone just fell off of it. It's not in great shape, but it really does give me a giggle. I did not save the paper mache orange, but I'll never forget it. I did also pull out my directing binder that I mean still has everything.
Like shotlet hopeous notes, So that makes me missdirecting. Oh I'm looking at that notebook makes me so nostalgic.
I know all of like my little blocking notes on all little set photos. It was so fun to go through this, so fun.
You really do keep it all. Speaking of your costume, did because there's nothing I love more than when a girl the tradition of like it's Halloween, so I'm going to be sexy. I love the fact that Brooke was just a giant orange. Yeah, did you have any input in that or was that just as scripted?
Well, Carol and I had so much fun, and obviously the ideas go as a clockwork orange, and it's I sort of love that Brooke decides to do this very avant garde, high fashion version of like a Kubrick costs.
Of course, it's the only way Brooke would have actually gone. It couldn't have possibly been this is something else.
No, And so I remember going into wardrobe to sit with Carol and talk about all of this, and she was like, I think, let's just put you in the orange. And we we got a variety of exercise balls.
Yeah. I was gonna say that's what That's what it was, right, They paper macheded exercise ball.
Yeah, so we payper machee them because it had to be big enough that when we cut the headhole and then the hole for my legs, it had to cover you know, my whole body. Couldn't have slid it over you exactly. I couldn't have like half my ass hanging out. It would have been uncomfortable and also inappropriate. So we ended up I think we made one and realized it only covered like two thirds of my torso. And then we had to get a bigger exercise ball and we just sort of had to wing it and you know, wait for the paper mache to dry, and then they'd start cutting the holes and then they'd have to pop the exercise ball or deflate it to get it out. And I realize, I remember this with you, Joy, because we were figuring out you and Kate, you know, coming into trick and I was in costume directing, so I was hitting the ball and I tried to tell camera like, okay, I want to bring them in, you know, like this, and like every director does, you're doing the thing with your hands and I couldn't get my hands up because I had like t Rex arms in the little ball, so I wound up having to like, you know, take a pen and point. It was so ridiculous and just so much fun.
I would have I would just love to see footage from like from a distance, so you can't hear what you're saying, but you can tell that like you're going up to an actor and giving very serious notes while wearing this giant orange costume. Everyone's taking it very very seriously.
No, I remember you had such a good sense of humor about it. I remember you coming up and giving direction and it was just like I know, okay, just bear with me here.
Ignore my tiny little veil, and yes.
Yeah, And it was great. I mean, we were all dressed ridiculously so, but that paper mache orange reminded me so much of was yours dry completely by the time you put it on? Or were they scrambling because I when I was in I don't know, I must have been like eleven. I was in a play I did to kill a Mockingbird and at one point Scout has it it's a town festival, it's a school play or something. And I had to wear a giant Ham. And they made this huge Ham costume very much like your Orange, out of paper mache and chicken wire, but they made it too late and so the opening night I had to put it on. It was still like sticky and wet inside was going on stage in the sticky ham paper mache costume. It's pretty funny engross, but I'm glad yours was dry.
I think that would have that would have really been like a hat on a hat of just wow. I am uncomfortable and trying not to feel absolutely ridiculous being theoretically in charge whilst looking like the court jester. That would have been tough.
Yeah. Well you had another great costume in this too, the Zombie. The Zombie opening with the Laura Cross.
Yeah, that was so much fun and my whole goal with it, particularly because I loved that they wanted to do this big sort of you know, hyper realized nightmare. But I was so glad getting the script that Johnny wrote the jokes in like Haley and Quinn arguing if they were vampires or zombies. Really for me as a director, set the tone of the whole thing, and it gave me permission to lean into the absolute camp of it and our whole goal and it was so much fun to do with Peter Kowalski, was to make it as stylized and silly. We were watching clips of, Oh, come on, what's the movie that the spoof movies that Chris Evans and Anna Faris did, Scarcy Movie, Scary Movie. We were watching clips of how absolutely ridiculous those movies were, you know, in these comedic horror homages, and we were like, that's what we want. And it was nice to see it again because, as always happens on you know, a one hour show, particularly with a cast as large as ours, you lose a lot. And there was so much that we shot for that opener that had to be cut for time, these crazy transitions and these things, and some of them made it, but in my mind I hated that opening because we were missing so much, and watching it last night, I was like, wait, this is still so funny, Like we crushed it, and the little transitions that you know, I was attached to at the time totally didn't matter, and I was cackling. And some of my friends were over for dinner last night and they watched the episode with me, and they were in like peals of laughter watching all of you guys, and I was like, Oh, this makes me feel really nice. I love it well.
I thought it was incredible, and then I found myself after it was over going. I feel like during season seven, we were doing an episode and we were talking about directing, and you brought up the scene and you were talking about how it was difficult for you to watch because because you loved what you shot, and then it got chopped up and it wasn't nearly what you thought it was. And I just found myself going, that's wild, because I thought it was incredible. I loved money, it was the right blend of action and comedy. So I mean I didn't notice anything.
Well, I really appreciate that. And what I think it is as a great lesson is, you know, we can get attached to things as actors, as artists, and of course we do. You know, that's our job is to be obsessed with how to tell a story, how to communicate something whatever. But it's also really nice, I think to learn to take a step back and much like writing, you have to cut things down. You have to edit, you know, an op ed or a book. You have to cut scenes to make a full story flow in the best way possible. And sometimes it's really nice to go back and look at something and be like, oh, I actually didn't I did. I didn't need that. I don't miss it. I just missed it at the time because Rob did something I loved, or you know, Joy did something really funny and I only got to keep two of the three beats I liked. But for the story, it works, and it's it's kind of a nice lesson.
Always hard to kill your darlings. Yeah, often necessary.
I remember doing the prosthetic for my face, and I mean it was a hole to do. And oh and then I remember on the day it was so hard for me to talk in well because it was your mouth, yes, which it plays because I'm missing half a mouth basically. But I remember actually telling you, I think, being like, if you could just like Enanci a little more so we can understand you're saying, like, I'm trying my best here, I.
Can't do it.
It's like you have the giant thing in at the dentist and you're like, I actually can't enunciate it because my lips can't touch.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's so funny. I just loved it. And it was really interesting too to be able to, you know, do the whole journey with Quinn, because every place she goes, something else ridiculous is happening. And I remember, you know, working with Chantelle on some of those things and being so excited about like, we're going to do this fast zoom into your face and I want full like iconic horror movie scream. And she was such a good sport about just really leaning into it and being able to get some of that sort of classic old Hollywood stuff in this and then also lean into the comedy. Even when we're at close over Bros. And you see Brooke and Julian in their you know, teenage mutant Ninja turtles, Laura Croft kind of be like, when Austin turns and looks at me in shock because of what she's saying.
Yeah, I thought he was Buffy the vampire Slave. I thought that was your guys's motif.
I guess a little bit of all of it. He was giving me Casey Jones energy. Okay, but yeah, I just everyone was so game to be ridiculous, and I loved watching.
It, including the hair and makeup department, the special effects, particularly Rocky did such a great job. Rocky Falkner was our resident special effects guy who he did great beauty makeup, but he really loved special effects. And he went on to work on True Blood and he's probably I think did he do interview with the Vampire with our other with our costume designer Carol Gutshall. I know he's doing the Michelle Yo Show right now. Oh wow, I mean he's he's just doing great things. So talented, so creative, so talented. Always had great ideas, grew up watching all of those like Japanese slasher flicks like Tarantino always did, so he had a real breadth of knowledge of like the difference between realistic and silly. And when it was time to go overboard with the thing with my makeup, with the bubbling forehead, I think we had to like put a tube through my hair, right am I remembering this right? And they so I had a fake forehead and then they had a tube running through my hair and then like a little squeezy thing at the back. And I don't know if I squeezed it, or if there was somebody under the bed that was squeezing it for my shot. I don't know.
Somebody did it for you because we did it as a special It was a close up and essentially it was like a yeah, the tube came through and then the the prosthetic was sealed on the edges, so it just blew and they could, yeah, they could inflate it with a little what is that, like a little rubber That's what it's called. Thank you? Yeah, And it was yeah. I mean just the things Rocky came up with were so impressive, you know, the even the contact lenses, all of it. I remember, you know, having to look at the at the VFX shot because we shot you no contacts and then contacts and we had to then do special effects to make them transition in that close up of you. And it was just such a fun thing to see a whole other element of movie making.
So difficult to schedule when you've got all of us and then there's prosthetics like that, like Rob, how long did yours end? Kate's not Katie, sorry, Amanda's take? Do you remember?
I don't remember. I think mine was the most involved though Amanda's was a bit more like it was a couple of small pieces and many contacts, whereas mine was it was an entire like head piece, face piece.
Your whole jaw is missing. So yeah, yeah ours.
Yeah, And because you especially were such a great reveal. You know, she needed to look almost normal and when you turn the face is so shocking. But I remember even little things, you know. The reveal with Nathan was that he looked normal and then you know, he pulls out his own kidney, you realize he's not. So we had to start shooting with James in regular hair and makeup, and then he had to go back to the trailer and get fully young.
Yeah, you moved on to something else and then came back right, uh huh.
And so it was a really complex thing for our you know, ad department to schedule. But again, just so cool because by the time you're eight years into a show, you're such a well oiled machine and everybody knows what they're doing, and you know what the company moves look like and how it is to go from location to location, and suddenly everybody had to do something different and people were really excited about it, and it was fun to see.
I wish I could have been a part of the camp. The humor action part because it was mine was great. But it was so fun watching it that I felt myself I had a little foam mo just going like, oh, I want I want to be doing like outrageous you know, fighting stuff and then all been closeover bros.
Yeah, I wish we had all been there, and especially just being I was giggling even little things. You know, our sound mixer. It's this big action sequence and we're we're fighting these people in the store, and Quinn's like, there's zombies and then all the sound drops out and you just are on the of the extras and then we're back in and it's like everybody was so game to have a good time with this.
Yeah. It was funny too because it was at a time when, uh, the vampires were super super popular. That was, the Vampire Diaries had come out, and Twilight was really at its height of popularity, and there was a whole debate about what was next, like what the monster, the next monster popular thing was going to be, and uh, I guess zombies. Zombies took the cake.
They sure did.
Walking Dead was like hold my brain, how how long have.
You have you been waiting to drop that joke on us?
I wrote it down last night in the middle of the night, and then I couldn't go back to sleep because I was so excited about it.
I love it.
Oh, so many good things in this episode to get into.
Can we just start with when we get back to real life and we're at the Halloween party, Mike, my first notes are, oh, my god, Lee looks so good. Like the slicked hair, and he's in the tank top. He's giving like grease lightning, and it's a.
Vibe so fun.
Yes, And in eight oh five he's giving serious Wall Street vibes because he's got his hair slicked back and he's wearing a suit, and uh yeah. It kind of made me realize there was there was there was a lot more that we could we could be doing with Lee. Oh yes, than we were. But it was fun to see him. Yeah, the slip back hair and the earrings and the tank top, Yeah, fake abs, the tan fun reveal, the.
Yeah Lisa and the Lady Gaga costume. I died. There's just so many I forgot that I was a pregnant cheerleader hilarious. I totally forgot that. That's what I showed up, Bess. Yeah, James as or Nathan as Don Draper his dream role anyway, you know, he was obsessed with mad Men at the time.
I love that Quinn missed the mark and was just super Quinn. That was great. I think she when she says it and Clay has the lineries like, I don't think that reads. Yeah, and then of course Clay is Edward Colin.
That's why I said, what did read is Clay as Robert Pattinson. I mean, that was so perfect. It really it could not have been a better pick.
So here's a question. I had peek behind the curtain when I lived in Wilmington, definitely season seven and maybe season eight. I at my apartment, I had a giant can bowl that I stalked. I don't know if you guys remember this. I stocked with like every kind of candy I could find its stores, and then when anyone came over, I was like, help yourself to candy, and if I didn't have what they liked, like, I'd go out and find it. That was sort of like my thing I was very proud of. So when I saw it, I just thought was fun. I should say.
So.
When I saw that Clay had a giant bowl of candy and then was going on about the benefits and the efficiency of a giant bowl candy, I found myself going, is this one of those moments where they're poaching from real life? It felt like it, right.
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, so yeah, I felt.
A few of those things. I mean, your your candy bowl. Also, they had you take that dig at Halloween and call it like a creepy witch something or other.
What was that?
Well, it's like so clearly a snarky little dig at Hillary because by now she's left and she was our queen of Halloween, and so if you guys caught it, and I and I cherished that. Chantelle was so game to do this with me. When Quinn runs in pre everyone being in their actual costumes and she's just in like the jeans and T shirt and baseball cap. We put her in a red bedroom records hat.
I remember that.
Carol and I were like, we have a way to respond to that joke that we're not, you know, allowed to cut. And also, Rob, you delivered the joke so well because you're such a good comedic actor, and it was really fun because we were like, oh, yeah, we'll do the things on the page, but the girlies are going to like send little love notes to the girlies too, And we all kind of were like, huh, that was.
So cute, all the little callbacks, as many things as we can do to do those callbacks too to the show that you know, people fell in love with originally, the narration at the beginning, that the fact that they're still bringing like Lucas's name in. Yeah, it just it feels so good to too, to know that there's an intentionality on all sides of the camera, in front and behind to really keep that keep that nostalgia running. I love it. Mm hmmm.
I thought this week's theme song was great.
Yeah. Laura is a boor who plays Aaron, who is the piano player in the at the end at Trick and singer fabulous singer. Yeah, I was. This was the first theme song that I really uh that was not Gavin's that I think I actually really liked.
Also, Joy, every single time there's a it's a it's a woman singing the theme song, I spend the first two seconds going, is this Joy? I'm just waiting for the week where you're doing it so every week. That's how it starts for me. But stop waiting for a small town. Tree Hill has a lot of talented musicians, because not only is Laura is aaron, Laura is a borg obviously incredible. The guy before her on a guitar. I don't know if you've clocked it, Yeah.
Yeah, I wonder who that was. Maybe a local guy, I don't remember.
I don't remember.
You know what it is. It's since tree Hill only has one, now two bartenders. What they lack in bartenders they make up for in musicians.
Yeah, well they've got a they've got our local record label. I mean they are cranking them out. And Amy tipped in as the pageant queen was chef's kiss. I was obsessed.
With that, okay, so that she looked so familiar to me, can you.
Yeah, Amy worked in our crew and she bounced around a few different departments. I can't remember where she landed, but she was a staple, like just one of those friendly faces you would see every single day when you came to work. And I loved seeing her all that. I mean, that was her as a pageant queen, singing whatever, Dolly or Martina McBride song she was launching into was pretty epic.
Of the two surprise cameos we had this episode, she was my favorite.
Yeah min to Speaking of not necessarily a cameo, but a new introduction, we finally have Sharon Lawrence.
Oh I love me some Sharon Lawrence.
She is so amazing.
The look on your face when she says, is my son here, and you go, oh god, please. Now I loved it. Oh my gosh.
Did you all choose that hairstyle for her?
No? No, I think that was just popular. It's like a shag cut. It was very popular at the time.
She showed up with this fabulous cut, and I think we all were just so enamored and sort of taken aback, Like she really took everyone's breath away. She's so elegant. She was so fabulous. She's so funny. I didn't know how they were going to find essentially another Daphne, and they did. They're so different, but they're matched in every way, and to have them be the two mother in laws essentially, I just it's like some of the best casting our show ever did.
Sharon Lawrence is for those of you who aren't super familiar with her work. I mean, she's been she did a lot of Broadway in theaters, musical theater actress. NYPD Blue was really the thing I think that put her on the map as Sipowitz's wife and had big storylines.
Era.
It was her gorgeous rear end that was on television nude for the first time on broadcast TV, not cable, and it went wildfire around the world in the news in ninety nine ninety seven maybe I can't remember where the year was, but she walked out of the shower totally knew it was a ten o'clock at night show, and the standards and practices, thank you Standard Practices, S and B, they went bananas. It was a whole thing that the network got fined, the show got fined. It was a big deal. But anyway, it was Sharon's fabulous ass. And I tell you she is such a I mean, that's just one small piece about that's funny about how her fame and her notoriety, but her talent is so broad and I've never seen that woman walk. She floats through every room that she's in, and she's so elegant, so gracious, knows how to communicate her own boundaries and ideas in ways that always makes you feel good. She's just somebody that every time I'm around, I want to be quiet and listen and watch because I learned so much from her. We're so lucky that we got her.
We are so lucky. And it was really interesting. I remember, you know, as a director you're really watching all of your fellow actors in ways that you don't when you're simply acting with people, because the whole point when action is called is to just be in the scene. You're in the moment, and as a director you really have to observe exactly what everyone's doing to make sure things are being communicated, et cetera. And it's very cool to me to go back and watch, you know, our show in general. Obviously it's why we do a podcast, because we're all like, wait, this is fun, but to go back and watch it and also kind of remember what it was like to direct. I remember watching Austin and Sharon work together and thinking, God, they're such good sparring partners, you know, they both they're both just so good. And as we've been observing this sort OF's call it interesting direction that the writers want to take Julian's character.
We'll get there, We'll get there.
He is so he has no ego about being so self deprecating. And there's something about the choices these two are making together that elevates all of this material. And I loved watching them, the humor that they found, the choices that they made, Like.
I bought it Mother and Son immediately, right immediately.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What was it like directing this legend? I mean, so that's was that intimidating?
No, because Sharon is so wonderful. You know, she is not a person who flexes her might. She just shows up to elevate everyone around her. And so I think I was just so enamored with her, and you know, I'd walk over and have a thought and she'd kind of lean in and in her very musical way, like you said, she were.
Like, wait, can I just smell you for a second?
Wiley Exactly. She sort of leans in and is like, oh I like that, And You're like you do you like me? What did you? What did you say? You know? It was just so much fun for me, and I really cherish I mean I cherish her in general, but especially the way she showed up, you know, for a young kid directing her. It was really generous.
Yeah, she I've had the good fortune of playing her son on a couple of movies and she use her daughter wants to Oh yeah, but you're exactly right, like she was always game to try things and always had fun ideas. She just was always always up for anything and great sense of human just like all the things. You know, if someone starts singing, she can break out in a beautiful song. She can dance, you know, she can do it. We love you, Sharon, Lauren.
Youet to find a flaw.
Sharon.
It's getting annoying.
When she offers, though, to pay for the wedding. I mean, did you both have the same reaction I did, where you're just like, this is going to come with strings.
Yes, no, don't believe it.
And it did. It came with so serious strings. I thought it was so sweet of Brook though, that she brought the binder and wanted to invite her new mother in law in and say like, hey, here's what I was thinking. Would you like to be a part of this with me? I thought, classy move.
But I did like seeing Brooke and Julian working together again. It's just I'm happy to see some happiness in her life and the way the shows up for her and Julian exploring this part of his creativity and figuring out what he's going to do. I mean, the attempted let's get into it. The attempted emasculation of Austin Nichols continues and continues to backfire.
Yes, failed attempt to a mask late.
The dog costume, the high five the maners.
It only makes him.
More three dimensional, more quirky, more interesting and interesting equals attractive. Like it's it's such easy math to me. Uh, I'm it's hilarious to watch this attempt just continue to fall in its face.
It's like the little kid thing of like I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. It never makes him look bad. If anything, it kind of weakens the character opposite him, Like when Nathan's going like noise purse if anything, that makes Nathan just seem kind of juvenile yep, and him just being really comfortable and settled in himself.
Yeah, like, what are you an idiot? I've got it bag? What are you talking about?
When Julie and his mom have the matching costumes. Did either of you have the arrested development moment of remembering when Buster and Lucille dress up and matching costumes for Mother Boy. Now a mother Boy? Oh my god, it's so long.
That's genius. Yes.
For the small portion of our audience who actually has watched the rest of development, that's a terrific callback. You should check it out because it is strong. Mother Boy vibes with Juliana's Mom.
I remember knowing how well that scene was working. You know, the way that we sort of designed the shots coming around the staircase, seeing him come out of the bathroom, going up the stairs to Sharon who's floating down the stairs and using the coat. You know, like so musically, the shock on everyone's faces and immediately you understand a dynamic and you go, oh, I know what I'm in for. And it still pleases me.
It also really works for Julian's character because we know he's got this sort of hero complex or he's working through it where he needs to show up and be the guy that like makes accommodations for everyone else, makes things easy, can sort of save the day Mom comes into town. I don't want her to feel she wants to be included in Halloween. I don't want her to just have a costume by herself. That's going to be so lonely. Yeah, I'll play along like Okay, it's annoying, but the also the confidence in who he is to just be able to show up and be like, Okay, this is what's going to be helpful for my mom. It's annoying, but whatever.
Okays refresh my memory.
It was either in season seven or season six. He gives some backstory on her, right, and didn't she struggle big time? And he felt he couldn't save her? Is that right? Is that where the root is? But I feel like the woman he was talking about maybe didn't make it or wait a second, no, it was his mom. But it was just odd because this character comes in so full of life, such energy and press and that I found myself going, is this the woman he was trying to save because she seems good?
Yeah?
Wait, we're getting a note from our producer. Yes, that it was about his mother.
What is that?
What did he say like I couldn't save her? Did he did?
She?
We thought she died.
I thought it was depression, like that her light went out and she couldn't see it in herself or something to that effect.
Oh gosh, I wish I remembered to any who.
That's why I was just surprised when she came on the scene. I thought, oh, it's interesting. The only thing I know about her was that he like she was not okay and he couldn't save her. And there's no there's no mention, like, there's no catching up story wiser exposition to explain it.
But yeah, you know, it's interesting. I feel like that's one of those things that they think is so great for the story when explaining the dynamic between Julianne and his dad. And then you know, two years later they find out she Aaron Lawrence is available and they're like, scrip that she's going to be amazing.
That is such soap opera action behind the scenes to do that just be like, never mind, we'll just completely we'll just move it along.
There was something that I thought was so sweet. I made a note of it, and I realized it's something we see, you know, a couple of episodes ago when you're still in the hospital and there's this really lovely dynamic of Nathan just coming to sit with you all the time. Yeah, and now that you're out and he's beginning to figure out, like he referenced, what comes next, Brook's figuring out what comes next?
You know?
Who am I? What is my identity without this big career that I've had? And I sort of love the callback to high school when Brooke and Nathan finally said like, oh, we've been through a lot of the same things.
I loved that.
I like though that now in this adult moment, you're seeing these experiences mirrored, and they're both leaning on people. She's leaning on Julian, he's leaning on Clay. And it sort of hit me watching the two of you and your dynamic. You and James are so good together. And I made a note that's it's kind of it feels to me like one of the first times we're really seeing two of the men on our show have this sort of love story friendship the way we get to as the girls on the show, you know, like Brooke and Haley's dynamic, or our dynamic with Peyton, Like the female friendships have been these big roots. And I guess maybe because in the high school years, the journey for Nathan and Lucas is so hateful. In the beginning and then they wind up being these great brothers. But there's something about this, I don't know. There's something about the way the relationship has developed between you two as these adult men that's giving me nostalgia in a really cool way. And I don't know, do you remember do you remember like hitting Astride and knowing that your on screen chemistry was so good or did it just sort of feel so natural that you didn't track it at the time.
Well, I will say as a viewer watching this right now, I find myself going like, oh, I'm witnessing Nathan grow up, Like I'm witnessing him really mature, Like as a father is where I see it the most. Yeah, like the joy he's finding and just being a dad and sort of coming to terms with you know, he's going to be a father as opposed to a basketball player and chase that dream. And so I feel him maturing a lot. And so the relationship with Clay feels seamless and effortless to me that as he is evolving, he is able to have this kind of relationship with another man where they're vulnerable and they're present, you know.
Yeah, he did not have that with Dan. That was non modeled for him to be able to be in a place in his life now where his relationship with women has become really healthy, and now his son is learning how to have healthy relationships with men. It's a beautiful thing.
While we were doing it, I liked James immediately. He was the first when I met. And James also, you know, there are a few people that when I'm around them, it's like catnip. I just can't help but like it makes me exponentially more playful and silly, and I just want to kind of like make them laugh. And James is one of those people. So I just loved doing things with him. So I think there was a pretty quick ease to our dynamic. And he's just so likable, you know that it wasn't hard to play a character who loved this guy, you know, because James is just he's kind of so easy to love. So it felt it felt easy at the time. You know, I'm glad that it translated.
It is interesting, even just the small act of going around asking you know, he gets this note from his son that you avoid things and taking the initiative to reach out to a few friends, you know, in moments be like Hey, is this true about me? Am? I? You know, man, something we could all take a lesson from, Like, I need to do that more. And I loved just seeing that modeled. It's so great, and I think probably a lot of men don't do that. I'm not a man. I don't know. Do you feel like that's something maybe at our age now? But what are we supposed to be twenty eight on the show at this point?
I think, listen, it's definitely something that a lot of men do. But I feel like it's just something that a lot of people do. I think a lot of people aren't terribly self aware, and I think a lot of people don't care to be terribly self aware. I think therapy and looking at yourself can be uncomfortable and just it's labor intensive sometimes, and I think there's a lot of people who just go, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. I'm not open to feedback. I'm not looking to work on that, you know, and which is fine, that's a choice. But it is cool to Ethan going, oh is that right? Okay, maybe this is a blind spot, let me ask around.
Yeah, it's really it was really neat.
I love that Jamie's such the wise owl. You know. I love that he says that, and that became became a through line. Another through line, which was so weird and funny for me, was the whole bit with Chuck's dad in the mask. Yeah what, it's this weird throwaway line that won't go away, and I.
Just Hailey's far clowns. This was really well written, though, because we have a we have I don't want to say a lot, but there have been episodes that we've watched where everything feels very explained, very cut and dry. This is what the scene is, and it's the only thing that's happening in the scene, when you know that's not real life. In real life, there are all sorts of things going on at the same time. And I love that we're taking just some random little thing that Haley's afraid of clowns, and we've worked it in and it's it's insignificant. It's not something that's like a meaningful storyline, but it just gives you this flavor of life going on around you. It keeps things alive and not feeling scripted.
And the perfect character to have be the vessel for that bit. Chuck is a nightmare, so you can only imagine what his home life. Sorry, I know that's harsh to judge a kid, but truthfully, that kid's a mess, right, and so it's perfect that you're gonna make one of his role models have this really weird thing. We don't explain.
Strange relationship to this. I love Harry clown mask.
Yeah, so good.
The Harry Potter of it all was so good. I mean so I totally forgot that Jamie dressed up as Harry Potter and that all of his friends did. That was just so so cute, perfect trio.
Oh, it was so sweet.
How much fun did you have out there with them?
Oh?
My god, it was the best. Getting to direct all those kids was just so much fun because they were so excited about it, and you know, we were in that amazing kind of beautiful historic neighborhood, you know, just two blocks off Market Street. And being able to dress a neighborhood as well. You know, Halloween is such a fun thing to shoot because everything has a costume, you know, the houses, like getting getting the fog machines out and finding the creepy place and all of it. It's like it's just so enjoyable and being able to not only do that, you know, design that world to then get to drop three adorable kids in it who were so amped, you know, to be out there in costume, to be housing candy, all of it was just it was so much fun. And by now, obviously, you know, James and Jackson have such a great rapport and so it was very sweet to watch James essentially be like dad for a day with all these kids because he had to them, you know, help me keep them in line, because yeah, they're great little actors and they're wonderfully professional, but they're also children. We're having a great time running around slamming candy bars, and it was it was just like a wildly fun time.
You did. There was another small thing that was in this episode that I don't know if it was just us on the day or if it was scripted, but when we're back at the beach house and Clay's handing out candy, you know, he's obviously very proud of this big, this big bowl of candy, and when the first kids come up. I loved the choice to have him actually explain how great the big bull is, because you see, you have your choice of the candies. I'm not just giving you something. Yeah. And then in a later bit, Quinn goes to hand them candy and Clay runs up and like shoes her way and goes no, no, no, no no. That the whole point is that they get to choose. They get to choose, and she's like, oh, okay, sorry, but it was such an organic way to show like this little quirk of ways.
Yeah, I love that you did that well.
And to your point, it's those things that deepen all of these characters, hailey'sphere of clowns, your obsession with candy, like, it's the little details that make people feel specific.
Yeah, and it makes the show feel alive rather than everybody just sitting there being talking heads in perfect looking sets that can get more real fast.
Yeah, it's like okay, another thing, another day and this it just mixed it up in a way that felt really fun and it was it was exciting and engaging to me as a director, and I saw how engaging it was for every single cast member.
Speaking of the beach House, did.
You say nothing, don't.
It's so strange that when you were talking to Quinn about is it the beach House, Because if it's the beach House, we don't have to live at the beach house like you kept saying it. But why isn't it just like is it the house?
Yeah?
Why does the line always about the beach house? Do you have some other house somewhere?
Like?
Why is it always referred to as the beach house? I mean, I just say my house.
It feels to me the same as when they go I love you, Hayley Scott, I love you Quinn James. Why do we need the last name?
You know what else? They do always uh, my girl and my man, Like every couple says, is my girl hungry.
Whatever?
Blah blah blah my man. Have you noticed that every couple. It's so irritating. It's clearly something that our creator like thought was cute. And it's like me and girls like you're never going to make fetch happen. This is the same thing to me, We are never going to make this happen. Where every single couple has the same little nickname for each other. How's my girl today?
The only thing I still bristle on to this day is if I'm doing a job, there's a line where the character repeats the person's full name because I got just this. We did it so much. I mean truly, it was always I love you, Quinn James. It was never yeah, I love you Quinn. I mean at least that's how it felt to me.
Yeah, Like, does Jenny ever do that like I love you Robert Buckley?
No? And if she did, I'd be like, are you is there head trauma? What happened? Why are you doing that?
No?
I love you Jenny and Buckley like, what's your problem?
Yeah, it really was such a thing on our show. I don't know, it's such a thing.
We could make it a drinking game like it is in every episode and probably multiple times in every episode. I feel like.
One thing that I really liked was how organic Nathan joining Clay's new agency. Yes has been None of it felt forced. It all makes complete sense, and it's so smart because, like Clay says, you go you have. First of all, I love that we got the actor who plays Troy back. Yes, great, I wish he had recurred too, But I love that Clay says, like, you, dude, you have a perspective that very very few people do. Like you can offer him something that none of these agents or I can't. So get in there and I bought it. I loved it, but it was great because it wasn't like this clunky thing like a ghost will be an agent. It just sort of him showing up for a friend to help out. It made sense. Now, I'm like, this is perfect.
And the little detail the thread of Jamie asking Haley, I'm like, I'm worried that dad's gonna be in trouble again or I don't know if you said start drinking, or that it's just going to be bad because of what happened last time he quit basketball, and Haley explaining to him the difference that last time basketball left your dad, this time he's leaving basketball. But every little chance they had that Johnny our writer had to just tie in all the little threads. It really does make such a difference. And I love seeing Nathan embrace this new side, this new thing. It's so cool.
I loved seeing a different color on Chase. The way he was being very cold towards Mia is not something that we've seen him do much of at all on the show. Yeah, and he was just their whole thing was great and arguably my favorite moment of the episode is the moment when Julian and Sylvia hit the bar at trick, and Chase is like, how about I make you a drink? And Julian tries his best to convince his mom that it's a bad idea, and she's like very insistent, no, no, no nonsense, I'll try it. She takes one sip and she says, oh god, that is bad. That is a bad drink. That is just terrible and walks off.
So good, bad drink, Sure, so good, so so elegant still and subtle and just not going to engage that anymore.
Wow, And if we're going to be a trick, we might as well dive into high five gait as in the Fasoka. That is the attempted yet failed emasculation of one Julian.
I loved it.
I just loved it. Every time Julian is authentically him, just unashamed, awkward, himself, weird artist Julian. I love him more and more and more and find him more interesting. I want more of him on screen. I just it's it's great, be a weird high fiber go for it. Why not?
Yeah?
Also, that wasn't weird, if anything, it was enthusiastic. But I mean, dude, you're dressed up in a giant dog costume. No one's taking themselves seriously right now, And so the fact it just made all of the dudes look really petty and immature, that like, did.
You see the way high five?
To me? Just look like a guy who was going like, oh yeah, dude, super high up top high five. It's so dumb.
Do you remember ever having a conversation with Austin about this, either of you? Were you where he explained like, I know what they're trying to do and I know exactly how to counteract it, or that he like his intentionality around his character with all of this stuff that they were writing for him. Did he ever talk about it?
Do you remember he was really unfazed. Yeah, because he understood the the politics of it and knowing that we were leading up to Brooke and Julian getting married and that very specifically Voldemort did not want Julian to have any friends. Yeah, because he didn't want to cast a bunch of like cool filmmaker guys. He didn't want to bring you know, anymore good looking duds onto.
Our so boring, what a boring personality?
This is a fact. I know this. I was like so weird that you feel like you're competing with any of these people when you're not and never were, Sir, bored, I'm boring and embarrassing. It's like so embarrassing.
Be like if I was threatened by the guys on my fantasy football team and I felt like I was competing with them.
Yeah, like you're not in the NFL, honey. It's like so bizarre to me.
The level of insecurity is unbearably boring.
Do you think this is crazy? I've never thought this until right now. But you notice that we were talking the other episode, like Lee got himself into great shape. Le, He's looking super handsome. I know what is coming up for Lee's character? Is there a world in which that, as a result of maybe him having a goal up getting some positive attention.
Of course, because.
That storyline, let's spoil everyone's seen the show. He just gains and it becomes a runner that he has just gained a lot of weight and he's wearing like a legitimate like that's meat.
What I have ye zero recollection of this.
Oh yeah, remember when they put mouth in a full fat suit and facial prosthetic.
Yeah, No, storyline is just that he has gained a lot of weight. But it's funny because now that I'm thinking about it together, it's I know, I'm late to the party, but this is the best shape I've ever seen lean like, he looks awesome.
Oh yeah, watching this episode last night, all the girls were here and Sammy goes, oh my god, Lee's jacked.
Ye so cute. He looks hand and his hair, Oh yeah, eyes into it.
It's also I was going to say a thing, and then I was like, maybe that's on, you know, a little too far. But let's just call it what it is. It's such a weird thing that our boss, who wanted to be our friend but was sort of old enough almost to be our parent, didn't want competition around so wanted to like emasculate all the boys at every step that he could. And part of me is like, I remember when, you know, our wonderful writers started kind of cluing us in on all the things that were going on and what they would be told, like, oh, well, I don't want to cast a bunch of hot guys to be Julian's friends. I'm not importing you know, Xyz to Wilmington. Blah blah. I'm like, first of all, it's so creepy. Second of all, none of us were interested in you, and third of all, you were married for so long, Like just what a disrespectful Honestly, it's so it's so wild to me that in the midst of things that were so great, like this is such a great episode. All the actors are so great, the kids are so great. It's charming, it's sweet. It's like a lot of it's so innocent that there was this other side to the pendulum, Like as great as some things were, there was just this other dynamic that was so basic and boring and embarrassing, embarrassing.
That's like saying, this is one of my favorite Hillary tricks that we learned about motherhood when she talked about how she would say to her kids when they're throwing a fit in public, you're really embarrassing yourself. I use that all what I use it. I used it all the time. When the first time she said it, I was like, wow, it's so good. It's so good. But I tell you so smart. I've told so many parents that and friends of mine. It's so smart. But this is this is the case. It's a child really embarrassing themselves, and it's it's so.
It's so silly and short sighted, right, because it really truly that insecurity could have come at the detriment of our show.
Yeah.
The only reason it didn't is because you had someone as charming and talented as Austin. Because had you properly emasculated him and he didn't know how to play it, you would have really impacted negatively one of your lead men.
Yeah, and leading ladies, because what does that say about Brooke exactly?
It's yeah, it's bad. Let's talk about things that weren't bad. I this is my favorite transition. I don't know if I'm sure this was intentional because you put so much thought into it. There was a great moment towards the end where Clay and Quinn I believe we're in we're in bed and you you you fade into a shot of Jamie passed out on the floor from Candy, But it looks eerily reminiscent of the way we just found Clay and Quinn a couple episodes prior. Was that was that intentional?
I think it was.
It was less like, oh I want to I want to call that out and more for me, there's been so much that's been heavy and Clay and Quinn are safe in bed and Jamie's safe at home, and like, what's sweeter than a little kid, you know, passed out on the floor. And what felt important to me was communicating like the ease and the safety everyone was feeling, particularly for your characters, because this is when you discover that now you know Quinn is hiding a gun and she's really struggling, her anxiety is getting the best of her, and maybe she's not really dealing with this post traumatic stress at the forefront of your communication as a couple. And so rather than I don't think it was like, oh, I can kind of make it look like that, it was more how do I communicate safety without having to have people talk about it? And the candy pass out for the kid feels very much like the Halloween version of Christmas Morning in a way to me, like you fall asleep on Hallowey night and you wake up on Christmas Morning. And one thing I caught, and I don't know if you guys did that I loved because the deepening of this moment for Nathan figuring out his identity, Haley coming in seeing him watching that game that she thought was in the vault and them talking about this sort of new chapter, their beginning, you know, to leave you two at ease together and see the little boy on the ground. It's such a sweet vignette of a family. And did you catch Jackson was trying so hard to keep his eyes closed at his little feet were going like this, like it's total wiggling, you know, because he's laying there kind of like I wonder what's happening?
What are they gonna say?
Cut?
Yeah, And it made me laugh catching that.
I appreciate though, what you're saying, Rob about that, uh, the callback, because even if it wasn't intentional, I mean, that's just a great example of letting the material speak for itself because when you just lean into the safety, the truth is that there we don't feel totally safe because there's still some we all know Katie's still out there, So it inevitably, as a byproduct, is going to feel like there's a sense of foreboding somewhere because it can't possibly be all this safe. So it really worked, right, was.
That colon on the couch that the dunk was there? A different scene with Junk that got cut because I just thought it was odd that Adams was there, Junk Is on the couch passed out. I just thought, like, we didn't know he was a part of Thisted.
The Crisis Center a couple episodes ago, so they maybe like peppering him in just to remind the audience, like, oh, he's here, he's here, He's still around, because doesn't he I would assume he'd jump in on mouth storyline that I don't remember. I don't know, so if was he in more.
And having him babysit the kids while we're all at trick is a callback. I can't remember if it's a it must be a well, I don't know if it's a season six or a season seven moment. But remember when Junk and Fergie are supposed to be watching Jamie, so so we have this recurring thing that they will watch the kids.
Yeah, I forgot that. You that we all were at trick. My brain saw the kids in their costumes and just thought, wasn't wasn't Nathan just with them? But you're right, all the adults were at trick, and yes, we have established that that he babysits.
And that's part of the reason that we that we didn't have Nathan dressed up taking the kids trick or treating to very clearly delineate, like he went and did the dad thing with the kids and then brought them home, got changed and went on a date with Haley to open my hair.
You had your hands full in this episode. So there's a lot of moving pieces, a ton of characters, a ton of locations, so many storylines to keep track of.
Golf club did yes, big big golf collaps. Did you guys notice my hair looked orange? No?
Yeah, everything starts to get that kind of copper tint to the color. Timing on our show really goes warrange and yell.
Oh yeah, I had full stripes. I mean that was a that was a rough look for my Every time we were over my shoulder, I was like, who highlights were really struggling. Yeah, each stripe fighting their way through that year.
Coming into season eight, it was like that summer that the ombre hair was such a big thing, and you really see it with my hair straightened like that, you know, flat ironed, pin straight, I'm like, oh wow, look at those really light ends. They work a little better in a curl than they do. H That was a moment.
All the little things we notice. Yeah, but think about how many girls out there did that with their hair because they loved it, because you were wearing it that way, doesn't it doesn't even matter.
Before there was the Rachel, there was the Brook.
That's right, No she can't.
First she did technically.
But that last vignette though, with Nathan and Hailey and Jamie, I thought was great. I loved moment of vulnerability where Nathan is saying, will I ever be great at anything again?
Yeah?
Now that his basketball chapter is over? I loved that, and I love the way Haley reassured him. It was yet another moment of just a really good teammate and just a good partnership. And then the way you went out on it was so beautiful, where it's this slow panout shot of the three, and that's the announcer from the basketball game, you know, talking about the game itself, but obviously it works for this. But he says, Nathan Scott is having one of those knights is going to remember for the rest of his life. Yeah, It's like, yeah, perfect, perfect.
It was great that the previous episode was really so much about healing in all these different areas, and this was just a great transition point, we got a bit of all the new things that are breaking forth, a little tie up of some things, new stuff with Chasen Alex and the relationship now turning into a new zone. Where will they won't they? She's going to take off and go do a movie. He feels a little bit used, He feels a little and sure. So it's I'm really excited to see what the next episode's going to be because we did put a bow on so many things in the previous and this episode.
Honorable mentions, I mean mine really go to crew like Carol, Carl Cusht and Rocky and the makeup. I mean, everyone is so good in this episode, and and the way people really showed up and committed to this material. It's like, I want to give it as a blanket to everybody. But they created like it's like they brought extra characters to set for us, and I'm just amazed by what they do.
They were having so much much fun. I mean, you can tell it was just because it was out of the ordinary. It wasn't what we usually do, so everybody was excited to show up and work and do something different than they've been doing for the last ten months or two years.
It was great.
So what's yours Joy crew as well?
Yeah, same same, Carol and Tim and Rocky and I mean just the whole. It was Jane and Warder at that time, I can't remember, but there's the whole, the whole Jane, Jane Bug, that whole crew was outstanding. I guess Sophia you can get my honorable mention though, for being the director behind the scenes, taking care of it all, guiding the ship.
Yeah, that's where I was going to go as well. So if you directed the heck out of this episode, you should be very proud of it because it's awesome. But if I got to give a specific moment from the episode, I thought the reveal of Aaron was incredible because she does not sing in an Irish accent, so I was in no way expect it. So then when Haley goes, hey, you're great, and she says like whatever, thank you very much with that thick accent, I was like, no, holy smokes, it's it's Aaron from the helpline.
Yeah, it's so fun. It was. It was great to get her and yeah, that that thing really gave the reveal an extra punch. I think you're right, all.
Right, we got a question here. Bean asks as an actor, what has been your hardest scene to act out emotionally? For example, like when Brooke finds out she can't have kids, or when Hailey lost her mom. Also, of those heavy scenes which have been your favorite, I would say the funeral scene, Sarah's funeral scene was probably the hardest one I did on this show, just because again it was the heaviest scene I'd ever done in my career to that point. It was something I had absolutely no experience with, and I just put so much pressure on myself. So that would say that was my most challenging. Happy with how it turned out, but yeah, it was stressful at the time.
Yeah, Hailey thinks Nathan has died, just to go to the morgue to like look at the body.
Oh my gosh.
Really yeah, I think it's coming up if we haven't had it already. But oh yeah, because that's my short haircut so it's the last season. Oh, that was just really hard because I can cry so much better if there's another person in the scene. Yeah, Like, I'm so connected to energy of people that like, if I'm looking at you, I can I sense what your energy is and it's great as an actor unless you're working with somebody who's super robotic, and then that's hard. But it's to just have to conjure all that on my own. I remember it feeling really difficult, and like they were great, they tried. I mean, I played some music over the loudspeaker on set and everybody was quiet and I was, but then I felt self conscious about having to take over the stage with my music and my process and was like, oh, this is feels so like everybody's looking at me.
And yeah, yeah.
It was just hard to get out of my head and really be there. And I think also because I was actually pregnant at the time, and I didn't I was already so stressed out in my real life and worried about the stress on the baby that then to go to work and have to do something enormously stressful and worry that that was muscle memory that was going to be, you know, those hormones moving into my baby, Like, oh, I don't know, it was. I really did not like shooting that. That was the hardest.
I was having a very similar thought, and it's interesting to me that that were both for each of our characters, having a similar experience. The storyline of Brook finding out she couldn't have kids. It was so sad and tragic, and everybody cried on set that damnian. Maddie was crying behind the camera Austin like we but I got to do that with Austin and talk through it, say what was happening. The thing that was the hardest for me, much like what you're saying, was when I was just scripted to finally break down at Quentin's funeral because there was no talking, nothing was happening. We were just standing and I'm looking at this casket and they're like, okay, sob now. And that, to me, is so much harder than actually having an emotional experience with another person and letting that emotion come out to just be you know, like you had to in the Morgue, to just be like okay, and we're gonna pan and then come up to your face and if that's when you could start bawling, that would be great. And you're like, okay, yeah, it's weird.
And now that you say that, all I had was just an empty casket. There was no one on set with me that day. Interesting, You're right, it is so much easier when you have another person to feed off of.
Yeah, because because you get to find it and you can say, like give me a second, and like will you repeat that? You know, if you need it, you can. You can have a journey.
Let's spin a wheel. Most likely, Uh oh, I feel attacked? Most likely? Actually so if I feel attacked too. Most likely to keep Christmas decorations up all year is that you were ash that would feel attacked? Actually probably, I.
Mean she just loves Christmas decretition. I love to decorate for all the things. Yeah, yeah, probably maybe her the most. But there is there is current only one tree still left up. Thank you, I'm getting here. Wow, only one.
That's impressive. I dragged my feet until Jenny finally said, enough is enough. You need to take it on the Christmas lights, so I would say, I'm on the short list.
I leave those lights on all year round. You kidding me? Such a pain? They asked to put them up. Just leave them.
I do not disagree.
You leave them on the house and then just don't turn them on.
Yeah, I mean they're white. They go along the edge of the gutter. It's not like you see them. Yeah, why now, why not? I do still have some some decorations that need to go in a box. Though they're all in one at least they're all in one area, but the boxes are out, they still need to go up into the attic.
I have this sort of fantasy, you know, when you do the thing you're driving with you know, your friends or your partner or whatever, and you see the like, oh and the power ball is seven hundred and seventy six million dollars this week, you know, and you do the like what would you do if you if like if you won the lottery? What would you do? And you know, there's the meme that goes around that's like you wouldn't know, but there would be signs. I'm like, if I think about it, and one of the top things on my list, you know when you go to like a botanical garden and they have the lights that wrap all the trees. Oh yeah, like they're I think they're in clear tubes and they go around like all the way up the palm trees and they do the full oak trees and they just look they magical. And I'm like, if I won the power ball, I would have someone come and wrap every tree that I can see in my yard. I would ask my neighbors. I'd be like, I'll pay for it. Can I just the whole neighborhood like that? That would be the sign probably for me.
I love that.
And then they'd be up all year and we would just be in like wonder Wonderland, Yeah, all the time.
Next episode, Season eight, Episode seven, Luck be a lady. Okay, it's been fun, it's been Thanks everybody, see us, Hey, thanks for listening.
Don't forget to leave us a review. You can also follow us on Instagram at Drama Queens O t.
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