TAGGED AS: Set visit
It’s a mid-November afternoon in New York City and the temperature has dropped to a frigid 25 degrees. Lucy DeVito — the daughter of actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman — is standing on a downtown Manhattan street corner wailing her arms up and down trying to keep warm. She then begins to do jumping jacks and hits the concrete pavement for some push-ups while she waits for the production crew to finish setting up for the next scene. “I like to jump around like a maniac and talk gibberish in order to keep the blood moving,” she said. “It’s something you will only see behind-the-scenes.”
Rotten Tomatoes caught up with DeVito while visiting the set of Deadbeat, Hulu’s quirky, supernatural comedy series starring Tyler Labine (Reaper), Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance), Brandon T. Jackson, and DeVito. In the Hulu original series, a bumbling stoner (Labine) communicates with dead people and they won’t leave him alone until he helps them finish their unfinished business. Here’s what you need to know about the show before binge-watching the 10-episode second season on April 20.
Four years ago, creators and head writers Cody Heller and Brett Konner — who both also wrote for the FX series Wilfred — were watching supernatural dramas on TV such as Medium and Ghost Whisperer. One day they thought, what if the kid from The Sixth Sense grew up to become a stoner ghost whisperer? Voilà! The idea for Deadbeat was born. Heller said she wanted the tone of the story to be similar to Tim Burton’s 1988 film Beetlejuice. “We love blending genres and we wanted the show to be funny and dark like Beetlejuice,” she said. “Another goal was to tell Seinfeld-ian ghost stories. In the first season, a man died a virgin and still hoped to somehow hook up with his girlfriend. That’s the fun stories we are setting out to tell.”
He may have the ability to communicate with the dead on the show, but in real life Labine, 37, says he “believes in ghosts because I’ve had an experience with one that has been etched in my brain forever.” About eight years ago, the actor was in Vancouver, B.C., for the summer, visiting a friend who had rented a house that used to be the home of a cemetery caretaker. While sleeping on the couch one night, Labine recalled waking up due to the sudden cold temperature and readjusted his blanket over his body. He kept waking up and found the sheets in a different position. “I cocooned myself with my sheet and tucked it in the couch and within 10 minutes I woke up again and the sheets were down all the way under my chest. I went to pull it and the sheets got pulled back really hard. And I yanked it back and had this tussle with the sheet.” Labine thought it was a dog pulling on the blanket, but there was no pets inside the house. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I believe it was a ghost. I remember it vividly.”
In the new season, Paul Molnar, the makeup department head on Deadbeat, said there are three times more effects than the previous season. Ghosts will have their necks ripped open, limbs torn off, and skulls crushed. “We work so hard to make things look believable,” said Molnar, who also has done the makeup for multiple television shows including Boardwalk Empire and Elementary and feature films such as Men in Black III and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. He refers to medical books and asks his family who are in the medical field, for their views. “I always ask for their opinion of how it would possibly look in reality. After I find a look, I pass it along to the production and tell them what I want. They have never said, ‘That’s disgusting. We can’t do that.’ That’s why I love this show. They are like, ‘Let’s do it!'”
In season one, a creature gruesomely attacked and killed DeVito’s character. Teeth marks ripped through her neck down to her chest. To make her injuries look real, special makeup called transfers were used. “It’s like the tattoos found in a Cracker Jack box where you lick it, stick on your hand, pull it over and, boom, you have a tattoo,” said Molnar. “It transfers exactly like that, but the transfers are thicker and more 3D like.” Since her injuries don’t change, Molnar applies those same cuts over and over again and blends the edges to melt into the skin, which takes an hour to do. “I love to wear the gooey strips,” said DeVito. “Whenever I peel it off, I give it to people.”
For DeVito, who plays Cat Deeley’s former, timid assistant named Sue, getting slaughtered on the show advanced her career. “I didn’t know that I was going to die,” she said. “If someone dies on a show, it usually means they are fired. I’m so happy they kept me. This storyline allows me to grow and do more things.” Luckily her supporting role has grown to become the lead female character. Since she was a little girl, DeVito, 32, knew she wanted to be an actress and follow her famous parents footsteps. “I grew up on sets so I’ve always felt like that I wanted to be a part of the acting world,” she said. “There was nothing else I want to do. I was a shy kid and acting did bring me out of my shell during high school. I’ve felt very comfortable on stage and love making people laugh. It’s that kind of addictive thing where you get a laugh and you just want more.”
To come across as a translucent ghost, DeVito must always stand in front of a green screen. Once the scenes are filmed, she will act out the same scene, but will read her lines off camera. Later in post-production, DeVito is superimposed to make her look like she is clear and glowing. “Acting with a green screen has been physically challenging,” said DeVito. “I look at the green screen and then I’ll look somewhere else and everything looks red. It’s a bizarre thing where green has an effect on my vision, but it’s fun. Green is now my best friend.”
“I wear a lot of blouses and ladies sweaters and t-shirts,” Labine said proudly, who was sporting ladies slacks made out of velour while speaking to us on set. “But we buried them under other pieces of clothing so I’m peppered with ladies athletic wear. When we initially started to do the wardrobe tests, I asked for lots of ladies pants because my character gets paid in junk. He gets paid in trade all the time. I felt a lot of people would be like, ‘Hey, I have this old box of yoga pants or small ladies t-shirts for you instead of money.’ It seems funnier that way. I just feel that he gets paid in barter a lot so he just wears whatever he gets paid in and doesn’t make any qualms in what it is.”
DeVito teased that her father, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Danny DeVito may have a guest appearance on the series as a supernatural. “It’s possible, something like that may happen,” she coyly said. “You’ll just have to watch. Keep your eyes open.” One official guest is Labine’s wife of seven years, actress Carrie Ruscheinsky. She makes a cameo in an episode.
Before pursuing an acting career, Labine worked as a recycling swamper, in which he would ride along in the back of a garbage truck and pick up people’s recycled goods and sort them out at the depot. “I remember picking out lots of dirty diapers,” he said. “People are idiots. You can’t recycle diapers!” He also worked as a Domino’s pizza delivery guy in his hometown of Ontario, Canada and recalled a horrific encounter with some Hells Angels. “One night I showed up with a pizza, knocked on the door and the door opens and one guy is standing there, grabs the pizza and another guy comes over his shoulder and flicks a nickel at my face. It hit me in the bridge of my nose,” he explained. “The other guy took the pizza and slammed the door and left me on the stoop with blood squirting out of my nose. I had a hairline fracture right across the bridge of my nose. The pain of the embarrassment was more than anything than the actual pain of the break. I’m thankful that I don’t have to do those jobs anymore. I’m lucky to be an actor and working on Deadbeat. But now I’m dealing with real ghosts!”
Season two of Deadbeat starts on Monday, Apr. 20, on Hulu. Will you be watching?
