James Roday Rodriguez – Psych 2: Lassie Come Home

By starrymag | August 11, 2020

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) Please tell us the premise for Psych: 2 Lassie Come Home.

 

A) It catches up with the whole gang in real time. So, however long has passed from the first movie to the second movie is how long has passed. And, unfortunately and sadly and tragically, Chief Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) has been shot I think six times in the line of duty then while he was on the operating table and in the ER he had a stroke. So, he is in a recovery facility, trying to fight back from this terrible thing that happened to him. And in true “Psych: fashion starts seeing things around this facility that don’t seem right, and don’t seem possible. And so that is plenty reason for the rest of our gang to come together, support one of their own and try to figure out if he’s just really high on drugs or if maybe there’s something nefarious happening around him. And, of course, he’s in Santa Barbara where the show took place and most of the rest of the gang are now in San Francisco. So, it gives everybody an excuse to come back home as well. Most of the movie takes place in Santa Barbara around the old stomping grounds.

 

Q) What continues to bring you back to this so beloved franchise?

 

A) Well like you know the answer’s always been the fans, but this time it was the fans plus Tim. Tim suffered a stroke in real life right before we went into production on the first movie. And he was only able to appear briefly in like a FaceTime call in that movie and from the moment we started shooting the first “Psych” movie we knew that he kept fighting and he was the warrior that we knew he was going to be. He was going to be ready to do more and we were going to make another movie so that he could be in it properly and give the Psychos a healthy dose of Lassie. The first, the first movie was fun to get back to together, but it definitely felt like something was missing – that the energy was not exactly the same. It sort of felt like trying to get by with one of your favorite recipes even though you don’t have all the ingredients. And so we knew we needed to do at least one more so that we can have our whole family together. And that was certainly the driving force behind the second movie.

 

Q) What do you think it is about Shawn and Gus’s friendship that keeps them so bonded even after all these years?

 

A) It’s been a wish fulfillment for those two. They’ve known each other their whole lives, which obviously helps because those I think are the rarest of best friendships – when you connect, when you have memories that date you know all the way back to grade school. You’ve gone through so much, so much has changed as far as themselves and around them that it’s essentially an unbreakable lifetime bond. And then on top of that, you know they kind of tripped and fell into this silly gig fifteen years ago maybe and I think they want to get every ounce of juice out of that squeezed that they possibly can because they know that it can’t go on forever. So, even though Gus might bang a drum and say, “We need to settle down” or “We need security,” and pretend like at some point they have to give it up I don’t think they’re … either of them are actually ready to do that. So, anytime they have an excuse to behave like children, I think they’re still in a place where they’re probably going to take it.

 

Q) How involved are you then when it comes to casting the guest stars because we’ve seen so many of personal friends appear?

 

A) I mean, it got to a point where pretty much every guest star was someone that was on one of our friend lists that we could call up on our own because we were lucky enough to run for long enough that we were just working with our friends and goofing off. It was the greatest thing ever. And then it was like a two sided coin – it was like let’s get all our friends up here and then also let’s get everybody that had any kind of impact on any of us when we were growing up and watching television in the ’80s and ’90s, let’s get all of those people up here too. So, it was great to make just a master list like a dream list of everybody that we grew up admiring or that influenced us in any way, plus our friends.

 

Q) Shawn is known for his nicknames for Gus. Uh, I don’t know if you can tease maybe some that didn’t make the cut this time for the movie?

 

A) Yeah, we have a bunch of … The nicknames were pretty strong in the movie. I have a feeling that it was mostly what you saw was what was there versus like on an old episode where there would only be one nickname and so I would give them ten or twelve options and they would pick the one they liked the best and save the others for later. In this, the movie, I think you have maybe six, seven or eight of them in there. So, those were well crafted in the mind of Steve Franks.

 

Q) We loved the tickle scene and I bet it had everyone in tears. Who seems to have the most trouble keeping it together during these scenes?

 

A) You know what’s interesting about the tickle scene is that it was definitely the hardest. We were laughing while shooting that movie, no question. Dulé and I had to keep a straight face through the whole thing and to his credit he did a pretty great job. But it was also one of those scenes where even while we were shooting it, we were like, “Is this going to be funny to anyone else?” We were not entirely sure that like it was a slam dunk. We just knew we were going to go for it and if it hit, and if it didn’t, you can’t win them all. There have been scenes like that throughout Psych where we’re just tickling ourselves silly and then the episode airs and people don’t get that scene at all. And we thought, “Yeah, this could be one of those,” but from most of what I’ve heard, it was the tickle scene landed. But you just never know. You never know when you embark on a scene that involves giving another man a foot job if that’s going to hit the target!

 

Q) Talk about then filming the hallucination scene with Jimmi Simpson as Mary as the baby.

 

A) That was definitely the most real day on set. And we’ve really painted ourselves into a challenging of the very front corner with Mary Lightly because he’s been dead since Season Four. And we loved him so much that we always want him back with us, but it gets increasingly challenging with each outing to come up with a way that it kind of makes sense to have him around. And this was certainly the most obtuse, wild pitch that we’ve thrown with Mary. We didn’t have like an outrageous budget for this, for the second one. It was actually considerably smaller than we had the first time around so we knew we probably couldn’t afford too many effects all of that stuff and have it look decent, which is what you would usually do when you’re turning a grown man into a baby. So, we did it the old-fashioned way. We built set pieces that were like sized for a giant, so that when Jimmi got in they made it seem very small. And we built a set piece to get it that way, manipulated the perspective of that hallway with big, big, big, big, tall plants and a giant-sized window so that when he was in front of it in his little bouncer he looked like a baby. And that was fun because this is how they made movies in the Golden Age, right? Before everything could be digitally enhanced like it was all slight of hand and it was all camera tricks. And I really appreciated that end of it. Again, another one of those sequences where we were having a lot of fun and we were really tickling ourselves all the while thinking, “Is this going to be too weird? Like is this where we finally jump the shark?” Fingers crossed, let’s hope not.

 

Q) We loved seeing Shawn holding Lassie’s hand at the rehab. It shows the growth of their relationship. Was that kind of a conscious choice you made or part of the script?

 

A) That moment was…it definitely just happened in the moment there because my hand was already pretty close because of the way that Tim was laying anyway and it just seemed like the right thing to do. I’d sort of grabbed onto his hand between a take and then he squeezed it and I was like, “All right pal, I’m not letting go now.” I’m glad they kept that in there.

 

Q) We loved seeing that so much. It just meant so much to the fandom because of their constant hatred in the beginning and now evolving to you guys becoming family at this point.

 

A) Yeah, that’s exactly right. And it’s like the rule of any family – you can go at it with your own family and you can talk shit about your own family but nobody else can. And you’re going to protect them from outside forces and from other people inside the family and that’s I think certainly where these guys have landed at this point.

 

Q) It was also amazing seeing Shawn and his dad fatherly advice and what it means to be a dad. How much does that signify between that two of them as well?

 

A) That’s another relationship that kind of started about as, as polarized as you can, that has really come quite a-ways. That’s one of the many benefits of being on a long running how is that you have the luxury of nuance, starting the cue characters completely at odds and then slowly, organically, having them find their way towards the middle. And when you have eight seasons and two movies to do that, it’s usually a lot better than when you try to rush it, just do it in one or two. And so Shawn and Henry (Corbin Bernsen) have very much been that relationship on “Psych” because they’re both so stubborn and they’re more alike than I think I ever would volunteer to admit, and yet, you’d never doubt for one second that there is love there and that’s ultimately why they’re still in each other’s lives. So, watching that growth, tracking it and having it culminate in that scene, which as we know had been premature, but just based on the knowledge that Henry thinks Shawn is going to be a dad soon he kind of drops all pretense and goes in there and bears his soul. But that’s certainly not something that would have happened in the early seasons, so kudos to Steve and the rest of the writing staff for slowly bringing their relationship along.

 

Q) Well the “Shules” relationship is very strong and the fandom obviously appreciates that as well. Where do you think they go next?

 

A) I think in some ways “Shules” has been the closest thing to an arche typical TV relationship that we’ve had on our show because we did the will they or won’t they for so long. And we stretched it as far as we could stretch it and then it’s a reliable device, but you’ve certainly seen it plenty of times on TV. I think now that they’re financial committed fully in a marriage, that it’s an opportunity to buck the trend and say, “Hey, we kind of got here in a way that felt familiar, but now bets are off,” and we can make this relationship feel as authentic and true to these two characters as we want. So, at the end of the movie there when you kind of see them each admit to one another how relieved they were that they’re not having a child I hope that that’s somewhat refreshing and a testament to where we may be going that these two are not going to do that until they’re absolutely ready. And that might not be for a while.

 

Q) What makes now the right time, excuse me, what makes now the right time to return to “Psych?”

 

A) Well, the why now is always a fair question, but I feel like just about anything that’s happening in our world, at least in my lifetime, that question pretty much answers itself. I mean, these are unprecedented times that we’re living in. I hope that we’ll never go through something like this as a country again, but we’re in it and I think a huge part of getting through this, and coming out the other side, is remembering to take care of ourselves, to rest our brains, to turn off the white noise and laugh. And it’s not just “Psych,” it’s anything that can help us do that and not even television necessarily. But we’re all going through our own journeys and we’ve all been activated in our own ways and it takes a lot of time and it takes up a lot of energy, it takes a lot of emotional real estate. So, remembering, stop and breathe. And turn your brain off, turn your phone off. Turn the social media and the news or whatever it is that keeps us on tilt off for long enough. To reboot is really, really important. And one thing “Psych” has always been good for is turning your brain off.

 

Q) Well we’d love to get your personal favorite recipe for Quatro Queso Dos Fritos if you have the time?

 

A) I’m a vegan, so my guess is that mine is not nearly as good as the real version with all the great juicy real cheese and real meat that you would, you would want to feel as guilty as humanly possible about eating them. But I would get a fresh homemade corn chip probably from like a Mexican restaurant that holds down the fort and makes their own tortillas and chips. I would use a nut cheese, probably like a spicy cashew cheddar that melts well. I would add some impossible chili, which is a meat substitute that tastes pretty good especially if you whip it up the same way you would a ground beef or ground turkey. I would add some black beans. Uh, like a vegan black bean. Maybe some jalapeños with some baked tomatoes on top and Bob’s your uncle.

 

Q) What are you hoping viewers have taken away from their time watching “Psych,” whether it be throughout the series itself or the films?

 

A) I hope it’s just proof that entertainment still exists. That you can watch with your whole family. That it’s still possible to bring people from different generations together to appreciate company because when I was a kid, I could watch European Vacation or Blazing Saddles with my parents and watch them just laughing hysterically at something that I didn’t necessarily understand and then they would watch me laughing hysterically mostly anytime someone farted and I feel like we’ve maybe we’ve gotten a little bit away from. And my hope for as long as “Psych” lasts, it can be that thing that brings people together more than ever. Families or friends who are apart because they can’t be together or are isolated or quarantining in different spots. Luckily, we have technology that people can turn on their computers and watch something together and see each other’s faces while they’re doing it. So, that’s the good news.