PSYCH: James Roday and Dule Hill Talk Parodies, Guest Stars, and Shawn and Gus Growing Up

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call with Psych stars James Roday and Dule’ Hill, in anticipation of the February 29, 2012 winter season premiere, “Indiana Shawn and the Temple of Kinda Crappy Rusty Old Sword.” They give us a little taste of what we have to look forward to over these final seven episodes of season six.

There’ve been a lot of parodies and tributes done on Psych so far. Are there any other ones coming up in the future?

Dule: “Well, James Roday has directed one, I think airing second. Maybe you might want to fill them in on what that is, there, James.”

James: “Thanks for bringing that up, man. You know what? We’ve got an episode called “Here’s Lassie” up second, which is our tribute to The Shining. Not so much the book, more the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation of the book, and that turned out pretty well. I think the highlight is easily Dule Hill’s impression of Shelley Duvall. Everyone can look forward to that.”

Dule: “Yes, I see the opening too, I guess, as a homage to the Indiana Jones series.”

James: “Yes, that’s true. That’s absolutely true. And then we also send up The Bachelor. That comes later in the season. So we do our version of the reality looking for love thing. And then we close down the season with a little nod to Chinatown, which we call Santa Barbara town.”

Dule: “Santa Barbara town. See the play on words there, Chinatown, Santa Barbara town? See how we do it?”

Can you both talk about filming Here‘s Lassie, and what horror film element that was brought into the episode scared you the most?

James: “I can tell you that we got pretty lucky with the set of twins that we found. I think initially we were going to go with sort of more traditionally and closer to what you have in the original movie. And then they had come in and auditioned for a different episode, and I think it was Steve’s episode and he remembered them. And he was like you have to watch this.”

“And we watched the audition, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to do this instead,’ which was better because it allowed us to sort of put our own little spin on it. But they were, I thought, pretty effectively creepy. They were lovely ladies, and a hoot to have around, but I thought it was just as creepy as the little girls in the movie quite frankly.”

Dule: “And the little boy too. The little boy breaking his little pinky, that little finger – that was pretty spooky for me, especially when we’re down there in the laundry room and he comes by the window. It’s like – that was pretty spooky.”

James: “Little kids and twins, man. You can’t go wrong with those, you know what I mean?”

Dule: “Two of the scariest things in the world.”

How much fun was it to get to work with Cary Elwes again?

Dule: “It’s always fun working with Cary Elwes. He’s such a delight to work with. He’s a great guy, brings so much fun energy to the set. And being that he came back around for the third time, you start to really be familiar with people. But we had a blast. I mean, it was a wonderful experience, and if we have a chance to work with him again, we’ll look forward to that too.”

James: “Yes, Cary’s the real deal. I would actually that’s probably my favorite of the Despereaux episodes. It was really a good time.”

Was it intimidating for you guys at all, working with John Rhys Davies?

James: “You know, that guy is bigger than life. There wasn’t even a moment to be intimidated.” “It was like working with Santa Claus or something almost.” “And I got the added bonus of working with Madchen Amick in that episode too, who was like my original TV crush. It was just lots of good stuff going on.”

Any other big name stars that we can tell people to look for? I know you’ve got Jaleel White coming back.

Dule: “Jaleel White, Mekhi Pfifer, Lou Gossett Jr., Wayne Brady, Greg Grunberg…”

James: “Anthony Anderson.” “Oh, yes. And Bill pops in again. The Shat comes back for a little something something.”

In the episode coming up, Shawn has to deal with mortality. So my question is, what do you imagine would be the most likely way that Shawn and Gus kick the bucket?

James: “Shawn has joked on several occasions that Gus will somehow inadvertently be the cause of his own death. I think Steve’s thrown that joke in like two or three times over the years, like Gus is going to accidentally walk into traffic or something and have no one to blame but himself.” “I don’t know if these guys have given a lot of thought to mortality. They’re kind of stuck in the past…”

Dule: “In denial. In the past, and in denial.”

James: “…and clinging to the idea of not growing up, so I think Shawn is probably convinced that he’ll never die, and I think, you know, Gus probably just doesn’t like thinking about it.”

There are some more serious moments, like mortality, in the Indiana Jones episode. How would you characterize what’s going on with these two at this point in their lives? And are we going to see more of these sort of realizations come upon them?

Dule: “I think you have to. I mean, we’ve been on the air for six years, going into our seventh. And it would be false for us not to. I mean, the fact is they are trying to hold onto the past and to be never growing up, but the fact is they are growing up.”

“And as you see, with Shawn getting more serious with Juliet, and even Gus trying to find his own significant other and things like that, I think that’s the general, or – that’s going to be the arc of the characters. Otherwise I think it’d just be getting boring if we kept doing the same exact thing as season one.”

Sometimes the banter between Shawn and Gus seems so natural. Is any of that improvised?

James: “Yes, yes, we’ve sort of – we’ve got a nice balance of scripted stuff and improvisation since the very beginning. I think it’s part of what sparks the show and keeps things lively for Dule and I, and luckily we’ve been doing it long enough that we can generally make it sound like it belongs in the scene.”

What kind of crossover do you want to see with Psych and any other show? It doesn’t have to be a USA show.

Dule: “Well, I’m still on the whole Monk train. I would love to have Tony Shalhoub come and do an episode of Psych. Really, that’s my big – I wouldn’t mind that, and I wouldn’t mind either Zachary Levi. That would be cool. You know, he’s a cool dude, and I really could have fun hanging around. And I think big Chuck fans would enjoy seeing – the Chuck and the Psych fans would enjoy seeing Zac come and do an episode of Psych. So those are my two.”

James: “I think the one thing that we’re not allowed to do on Psych in terms of like a mandate creatively that probably will never change is anything that’s truly supernatural. Like, stuff can appear to be supernatural, but then there always ends up being an explanation. So I think it would be fun to get dropped into like The Walking Dead or True Blood or something and have Shawn and Gus have to deal with something that truly can’t be explained.”

You both have very strong backgrounds in theater and both in TV and film. What do you consider your favorite and why as far as the genres?

Dule: “For me, by far it’s theater. I feel like when I’m on stage I learn more. During a play every night, I learn more as an actor and I grow as an actor much faster I feel and more dynamically than I do in any other medium. But I do enjoy doing television and film.”

“So my ideal situation really would be to do a cable show for four months, be able to go do a film, then go do a play for another three months, and keep doing that cycle, every three years or something like that. I think I could do one medium – just one medium too long, you can very easily get stale and boring. If I had to choose, I would choose theater, as long as I can get my TV paycheck.”

James: “So eloquently laid out for you. I don’t even know how to follow that. But I would definitely agree. I mean, theater is the actor’s medium for sure. And you know, it’s sort of where you get to flex your muscles the most. It generally presents the most challenges. It’s the most dangerous. It’s the most fulfilling, and I think more than anything it just makes you a better actor on camera. So you know, if I could only do one, I guess it’s back to bartending and theater for me.”

Dule: “If you could see the difference between me and Roday, he said it’s back to bartending and theater. I said as long as I can get my TV paycheck. That’s the difference between James and Dule.”

PSYCH airs Wednesday’s at 10/9c on USA