DJ Qualls – Creepshow – SDCC 2019

By: Matthew Pepe

Q) Creepshow, how did you get involved in the series?

DJ: So, both of my long-term long running shows had ended at the same time last year. And so I decided I didn’t want to work a lot I had been busy for nine years and I was traveling and doing shit. So, I planned to go to New York because all my buddies were there, and this always happens. Like tumbleweeds are blowing across my life and career and in that moment you plan a trip you get four job offers. It was like this was a Monday, I was approached to lead on Wednesday. Like then the two things I get, I get sent this script and I’m looking at it and I’m like…My first thought was this must be terrible because it shoots on Friday and they’ve been passing this around for probably a long time and nobody wants to do it. And so I was like, “Hey, just tell me how many people turned this down…find out.” But no, no, no. The producer…The director is also the show runner who’s also doing special effects and all of that. And so this shoots Friday. So, I’m reading it and I don’t know if you knew about my segment, but I’m the only actor, the second episode, nine pages of solo dialogue a little bit mostly to camera. And that’s a lot of dialogue to remember in a very short period of time. So, I was scared. I was like, “Maybe I won’t do this because Hollywood is so c**ty because there’s this sort of glee when things failed.” Like so and so’s show gets canceled and there’s this weird sort of like nobody would ever admit it. They feel it. And I feel the opposite. Like when somebody gets painful, if somebody doesn’t do well, I feel really sad because it was years of somebody life in the belt. Think about every crew member around, they want to look at something like, “What are you working on?” They were the caterer, but you can point to it and be proud of it. And it’s a lot what’s picked up in what we the actors, what we do on camera. Their job is reflected by how well we do. So, I’m aware of that. So it scared me to show up and not be able to pull this off and so I was like, “Look, send me the one line or the schedule of what shoots when and if I can memorize the first twelve pages before I go to bed tonight I’ll say yes,” and I was able to do it and I was like, “I’m going to do this fucking thing.” I flew down to Atlanta and I was totally fine until the last day at the four-page monologue delivered directly to camera in there, some real emotional stuff. Like I’m here in one minute, there one minute and I had it down. I would lose time myself. I mean, our whole thing and what we offer you…My only skill in life, you think that is a cup of coffee [makes a cup with his hands]. Like, that’s all I offer to the universe. So, if I can’t successfully make you think I’m laughing and crying and doing this then I failed everybody. And so I had it down. But in my mind my character was sitting on a chair and it got there and I was sitting on the floor and I was like, “I can’t fucking do this.” So, I started off and at that point where I was supposed to stand up making a transition from a floor to standing up. Thank God for Rick. Good directors are also therapists. And so I feel like we just did a real quick question. I turned to camera on this, I could do it. That little thing, it reminded me when I was on “Fargo.” My character had jumped off the side of a bus. The director told me I was hard to double and after I jumped off that fucking bus I stepped over a stunt man wearing a mask. You look just like me, but I had to jump off an overturned bus and it’s like, that’s like a 10-foot jump. And I was had to land on my feet, so I’m from my feet to my feet, 10-feet and it’s slick outside it’s wintertime in Calgary. So, I was scared, but that was like my brain was like if you had on gloves you could do this and no it makes no sense in the world. So, you could see me I’m on top of the bus, I’m wearing a pig mask. I take my pig mask off. I don’t have on gloves. I jump, I have on gloves, I land on the ground no gloves and for some reason the chair was my crutch in that scene and when it was taken away, I was really scared. But then when your crutches are taken and you do it anyway, I just saw it and I got to say this is really good dude. I’m really proud of what I did. And it’s that shows you should come from place of yes because my brain, as you get older, like I think that sadly you become more beautiful. When I first moved to LA I was super lucky. I got cast on location and my first movie put me on “The Tonight Show” like it was like really fast and I was like, “Well, I work in a personal injury law firm.” Like you advertise like you would get into an accident. I would try to send you to a chiropractor and all that shit. That’s what I was doing. So suddenly I’m on “The Tonight Show” and I did like 12 movies in four years and I remember calling home like, “Y’all should move out here. They are given away money.” It wasn’t hard until I realized that it was more than that and that this was really sort of therapeutic for me as I was here to do it. And when you say yes, you have no choice. That’s like to be there for yourself and you show up and do the best you can. And I did encounter that.

Q) Is that why you did it? Was it the challenge of 39 pages by yourself?

DJ: I honestly think this is the hardest thing I’ve done in like five years. In “Man in the High Castle” it gets a little autopilot. The more something costs, the more corporate-y it is and the less risk they are willing to take. I mean, to their credit they did some cool stuff. So, kind of like my storyline was like kind of saccharine-y and to sort of try to balance that out at the end. But I wasn’t happy toward the end because when I cross into my forties the next twenty years are kind of profound. Like, I’m gonna get shit done to my face until I die. My goal is to die at ninty-five and there’s like that little boy just died. So, I’m gonna go down swinging as far as how I look. But, seriously, your body has the most I think profound changes between 40 and 60 that’s is since puberty and so I’m aware of that. So, I only want to do things that I really liked. But the thing is, you find this is not a challenge yourself and you don’t want to be cold and you don’t want to be uncomfortable and that’s not enough money and I don’t want to do that. And this was the right time when I was at home feeling really secure and comfortable.

Q) So you got out of your comfort zone…

DJ: And I got out of my comfort zone and I went and did stuff and I didn’t snap on anybody. Like sometimes like it’s like chihuahuas when they have been on the floor for a long time and they’ve died all day fucking long. And at the end of the day they’re just fucking snap at ya. I can do that and I’m aware of that. And I didn’t snap…. As I’m getting older, like I’m aware that I’m becoming fearful and I definitely don’t want to do that. And this was kind of great. And that’s the other thing. Some asshole will occasionally come up to me in a bar and like, “What’s the name of that terrible movie you did?” And I’m like, “Brother, you are going to have to nail that down…. because most of the jobs you do for one or two reasons is money or because you think it will be cool or it’s a location or something like that.” But when you take a job that’s not for money and it doesn’t turn out well it hurts you a little bit, but you have no control over that. Like when actors get acting awards, I look at them and I’m like, “You didn’t edit that. You didn’t write it. You didn’t color correct it. The writer is the alpha and the omega of our experience and the fact that they’re not invited place – the fact that they are paid the least of the people above the line is fucking astonishing.” So because of that, when I read something really great and my impetus is to throw it away and it’s really good I have to question why I did that and this was that for me and it was really cool. And actually the writer, David Schow, was in my local bar last night. Lke I said, my best friend lives around the corner, so I come down here like once every six, eight weeks. We get invited and I have the whole community of friends here. My brother’s out here, so he wound up at my local bar last night. The guy who wrote this and all the places I was like, “Brother, take time.”