Interview with Chris in Los Angeles
Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, CA – Oct 06, 2008
In October 2008, Anne (DomesticElephant), Deb (Sisterdebmac) and Tina (TeeJay) went to LA together and met up with Chris for an afternoon. We first went out to lunch and later sat down to interview him for the website, which we also audio-recorded. Below you can read the transcription of the interview. The audio files can be found in the Media Interviews section of the site (MP3 format).
….. PART 1 ….. PART 2 ….. PART 3
Deb: We kinda talked about some of the things you’ll be working on next. Can you talk about the Todd Solondz movie?
Chris: Yeah, that’ll be… I go to Puerto Rico, and I film for two days, and it’s basically just, um, the whole movie is a lot of different characters from all of his other movies, ten years later. And I play Billy, who’s the kid in Happiness whose father is Dylan Baker, who’s the pedophile, molester. And it’s basically, you know, those characters ten years later, reconnecting with each other, the father and the son. And it’s just literally like two scenes, but if you’ve seen any of his other movies it’s all… the scenes are just really long. You know, they’re about 10 minutes long, each scene, so that’s pretty much all it is, just one really long scene, and it’s really emotional.
Deb: You and Dylan Baker?
Chris: I don’t know who’s playing the father. When they were originally doing this about a year and a half ago, it was Will Farrell, actually. And yeah, he was gonna play. But I don’t know if he’s doing it now. A lot of the cast has changed a bunch. But I do know that for sure it’s gonna be Paul Reubens, who’s was Pee Wee Herman, who’s one of my favorite actors, actually, uh…
Deb: He’s a great serious actor.
Chris: Oh, I know. And, uh, Demi Moore, and Hope Davis, and um… Faye Dunaway.
Deb: Wow.
Chris: There’s like six or seven other people, and I can’t remember who it is now, honestly. But those people are definitely involved.
Deb: Have you ever been to Puerto Rico before?
Chris: I haven’t, no.
Deb: That’ll be fun.
Chris: I know, I’m excited. I think I’m gonna try to go Cuba, I told you guys, afterwards.
Deb: I hope you make that.
Chris: Me too.
Deb: It’d just be so cool.
Chris: Yeah, I think so.
Deb: Bring me back a t-shirt.
(Laughter)
Chris: I will.
Deb: OK, obligatory annual Fanboys question…
Chris: Mmm-hmm.
Deb: If you were put in Linus’s situation, what would be the last thing you’d wanna do?
Chris: Whoa… Crazy… That’s a big question… Um… Go to Cuba. Uh… I don’t know. I just read this book by this guy named Hubert Selby, Jr, who wrote Requiem For A Dream. And uh, and he… I was reading about him after I read his book. He was this guy who… I don’t even know what he did for a living, but nothing too exciting, you know. He just had like a very normal job, and was never really satisfied with it. And he got this really crazy disease, like in his spinal cord and they kept saying, the doctors kept saying, “You’ve only got a few months to live, you know, or you have just a year to live.” They kept putting him on his deathbed, and he lived like ten years. And then all of a sudden—I mean he always said he knew he was gonna die, but then one day he was laying in a hospital bed, and he couldn’t work anymore. He couldn’t do anything, so he just stayed at home and raised his kid while his wife worked and he was always expecting to die. And then one day, he was sitting in a hospital bed and he actually all of a sudden realized that he was. He was gonna die. That like, he was gonna die and everything was gonna keep going, and that’s the way it goes. And all of a sudden he realized that like, his last few thoughts were that he never did anything in his life. And he never accomplished anything, and he was not gonna be remembered for anything, and he freaked out. And he was like, “That’s the most depressing thought I’ve ever had in my life.” So he was like, “You know what? I’m gonna write a book.” He was like, “Screw it. I’m just gonna write a book.” So he just wrote a book, and then wrote another book, and he wrote a bunch. I just read the first one I’ve read of his. And I’ll read all of them ’cause I think he’s like this really incredible writer. And this man who’d never written a page of anything wrote these incredible books. And then, you know, eventually he passed away and uh, he wrote these things. And what it kinda made me realize is like… I don’t know if you would ever be able to tell what you would want to do with your life if you were in that position… until you’re in that position.
Deb: That makes sense.
Chris: Yeah, so like, that guy, if he worked inside a cubicle his entire life and then was bedridden for ten years, and then all of a sudden realized that he really was gonna die, you know, his entire life up to that point, I don’t think he would know that he’d wanna be a novelist, you know? So I don’t know, you know? I think I’ve got a lot of stuff I wanna do in my life, that I’d like to do before I die.
(Laughter)
Chris: But I don’t know if there’s one specific, uh, I don’t know if I’d wanna go across the country and steal a Star Wars movie.
(Laughter)
Chris: Maybe. You know?
Deb: Yeah.
Chris: I’d wanna do something as exciting as that, I think, so…
Deb: Have you seen the final cut yet?
Chris: I haven’t, no. The last cut I saw was a long time ago, and I saw some new stuff when I went in to loop and did some ADR, but I haven’t seen the final cut yet.
Tina: You didn’t see the Brill cut, did you?
Chris: No, I didn’t see the Brill cut either. I’d seen pieces of it when I had to do some ADR.
Deb: Some of those things made it in and they’re actually pretty decent.
Chris: Yeah, so I heard. I heard some of the stuff’s really funny. And they added a lot of those funny guys, yeah, Danny McBride, and uh… he was really fun to work with.
Deb: Why did they change that scene, the scene with the security? Because I was looking forward to seeing William Katt.
Chris: Yeah, me too, and he was really good in it too. He was great, and it was really funny and it was really good jokes. I think just, um… I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know why they changed that movie. Um, and I don’t know why they’re gonna continue to change it, or did continue to change it, I don’t know, really. You’d have to ask Harvey Weinstein.
(Laughter)
Deb: Yeah, that’s a conversation I really don’t wanna have.
Chris: Yeah, yeah.
(Laughter)
Tina: Did you follow the whole controversy online?
Chris: Um, yeah. I sorta… Kyle Newman would e-mail me all the different things. But, uh, I sort of got in a little trouble for speaking up when they started changing the movie and I started voicing my opinion, telling ’em I didn’t like it. And I got in a little trouble, um, so I just had to shut my mouth and stuff. So I just didn’t wanna pay attention to it.
Tina: We were on the front lines.
(Laughter)
Chris: OK.
Deb: Kyle was a really class act all the way through the whole thing. You know, we communicated with him a lot through it and we tried to respect his wishes about what we could say and not say, but we do kinda feel like we had a little bit of a part in getting it changed because the guys that did the protests, I don’t know if you heard about the costumed protests…
Chris: No.
Deb: And the constant online—it went worldwide, this protest.
Chris: No way!
Deb: And it kind of started with this little banner that TeeJay made.
Tina: Yeah…
Chris: No way, are you serious?
Deb: Yeah, it was a picture of you in your last scene in the film when you say, “I’m good right here,” and it kinda zooms in on your eyes and then it’s Eric’s eyes in the next shot.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: We took that picture and we put, LINUS MUST DIE! underneath it.
(Laughter)
Chris: That’s hilarious!
Deb: And it circulated worldwide, and the Stop Darth Weinstein guys told us that it was one of the inspirational things for them to start the campaign…
Chris: (awed) No way. Well, thank you so much!
Tina: Yeah, we hosted their site on our server.
Deb: Yeah.
Tina: At chris-marquette.com.
Chris: Well, thank you so much. Oh my God.
Deb: We did it for us, we didn’t do it for you.
(Laughter)
Chris: Oh, I’m glad. But I still have to thank you, are you kidding me?
Deb: We just wanted to see your… you know, it was your storyline, as far as we were concerned, that they were destroying…
Chris: Yeah, yeah, well that was my moral dilemma with that. I was like, this is why I did the movie to begin with. You know, I was also… I remember when I was doing Fanboys, and beforehand I’d decided that for a little while that I didn’t wanna do any comedy anymore. I was like, I don’t wanna do it. So this became sort of a good mix for me. I was like, well, you can be really funny and then you could actually do what you wanna do. You know, do some stuff that isn’t so broad, and uh, isn’t so kooky, which even though the movie is very broad and kooky at times. And so yeah, as soon as they took that out I was like, I would not have… if this was the original thing, I would’ve thought much differently than saying yes to doing this movie. And so yeah, I was really disappointed. But I’m glad it’s OK, I think it worked out exactly the way it should.
Tina: I mean, now that we’ve seen it, we were saying that they should’ve deepened, if anything, they should’ve deepened the emotional storyline.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, well, that’s my original thing, that was why I got in trouble, ’cause I was like, “Look, if you’re gonna change it…” I was like, “Make it more.” Because that was… while we were filming the movie that was my big struggle with it too. Was while we were filming, it was like, this really doesn’t sell the idea that this guy has cancer just because he’s putting two pills in his mouth. And um, you know after a while it was just sort of overlooked and we were just like, whatever. So it was a little thin, and I think that was their problem with it, is like you know it’s just not good enough, it’s too thin in the story, so let’s just take it out. I was like, “Well no, why don’t you just add more stuff to it.” So, it was whatever, you know?
Deb: It came out pretty well, though.
Chris: Yeah?
Deb: Yeah. Yeah, we liked it a lot and you know, there are things that could’ve made it a little deeper, but um, I think, on the whole, it’s very successful.
Chris: Cool.
Deb: ‘Cause it’s got some really touching moments in it still, and um, and it’s still very funny.
Chris: Good. Good.
Deb: I think they did a pretty good job with this compromise cut.
Chris: Cool.
Deb: I think it’s gonna do all right if we can ever get it out there.
Chris: Yeah, well, they’re saying I guess it tested really well when they started screening it and testing it and so now, yeah, they’re gonna do some big release at Thanksgiving, so…
Deb: And all of a sudden there was an announcement that the DVD was gonna come out in December which seems way too fast.
Chris: Whoa! Yeah, maybe if it’d come out on September 19th like they thought it originally was, maybe then the DVD would’ve been out by September [he meant December], but I don’t know.
Deb: That’s what Kyle said, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody that.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: So I had people online calling me a liar.
Chris: Oh really?
Deb: Yeah, but who cares?
Chris: Right.
(Laughter)
Deb: We’re gonna get to a few Joan questions and then we have a few general questions to go back to at the end.
Chris: Cool.
Deb: We’re putting together an article kind of catching up with the young cast of Joan Of Arcadia, so we’ve spoken to the other actors, and so we’ve got a few questions to ask you about the show too. And, uh, the first one we started out with was, what do you think Season Three would’ve been like? What do you see for Adam and Joan in that season?
Chris: I think that they were gonna break us up and… um, from what I remember, the biggest point of the show was when they brought that guy, Wentworth… uh, is it Wentworth Miller?
Deb: Mmm-hmm.
Chris: Yeah… it was gonna become, sorta the whole, uh, their actual real idea for Joan Of Arcadia was gonna start in Season Three. It was gonna be like this, um, like everything was a build-up to that. To Barbara’s original idea for the show, and so um, I think it was gonna be this sort of crazy, uh, you know, battle between Wentworth Miller and Joan. That’s what it seemed like it was gonna be, and that’s what we were kinda told. But I don’t know, I don’t know what woulda happened with Adam and Joan. I think, uh, they had said… You know, me and Amber were really upset when they were gonna break us up and they had him cheat on her. And I was just like, “No! You can have—” And I literally was… We totally voiced our opinions and went in and told the producers we don’t think this should happen. You know, because we really loved playing that relationship. But then, their point is, they said, “Well, you guys are starting to feel—” The studio guys said, “You’re starting to feel like you’re a married couple, like you’re an old married couple and you guys aren’t. You guys are in high school.” And it’s the way things go, so then I had to bite my tongue and cheat on her and I really was not excited about it. It was really awkward, I really was upset and so was Amber, and so we did it. And it was like, all right, after we were done, it was like, OK, it was, it was, that was OK. ‘Cause now we’ve got somewhere else to go, and let’s see what happens. So I don’t know really, I don’t know…
Deb: But you were gonna stick around?
Chris: Oh, yeah, yeah, I was definitely gonna be on. Yeah, yeah, I was definitely gonna be on the show, I just don’t know how long, or I mean, what was gonna happen…
Deb: Well, they would’ve had to do something with you at that point. They couldn’t just have you hanging around in the background, like a puppy dog.
Chris: That’s true.
(Laughter)
Chris: Like just in the classroom…
Tina: You think Joan would’ve told the others at some point?
Chris: Um, yeah, I imagine she would’ve told Becky’s character. She would’ve told Grace, but uh…
Deb: That’s what I was gonna ask. ‘Cause we had asked Becky that. The last shot with you guys, where you’re all sitting on the steps and Joan’s walking over to you. I guess she’d just talked to God, right? And, “You can go and tell everybody if you want to.” Building her army and all that. And of course the first thing I thought of was Scooby Gang.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: Like you guys were gonna be her Scooby Gang, you know?
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: So I asked Becky that and she said she wasn’t sure that was the direction they were going.
Chris: Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t think she would’ve told, I think that’s part of the magic of that TV show was just that, you know, it was her private battle, always dealing with it. And uh, if everybody knew that God was coming around talking to her, then you know, the painters and the mimes and the little girl, and Cute Boy God and like all these people, then, you know, I think it would’ve totally uh… I think it would’ve been ridiculous. If all of a sudden we’re like, “Oh, was that God talking? Tell God I say hello. Hey, God, do you want a soda pop?”
(Laughter)
Chris: It would’ve become ridiculous, so uh, you know, I don’t think she would’ve told anybody. Or maybe, I imagine, honestly, what they probably would’ve done is something cool and smart where, like, she tells somebody and then everybody… you know it’s the way that Lyme Disease came in where they, she thought she had Lyme Disease. Where it’s like, you know, she’s… she might tell somebody and the person just thinks she’s crazy, you know and then life keeps going on, so…
Deb: Did they, on purpose, make Adam notice God more than anybody else? Run in to God…
Chris: Did they really?
Deb: There’s a scene where, uh, it was the office attendant God, um, he was supposed to be gay. And you guys walk past each other in the hallway and literally rub elbows. Adam noticed God a few times.
Chris: Wow… I don’t know.
Deb: Throughout the whole series…
Chris: Maybe. Maybe that’s something I never noticed.
Deb: So, it wasn’t planned…
Chris: Yeah. I mean you gotta understand too, my character was not planned on that show either. You know, I was supposed to do one episode, literally. And then after the first day of filming the first scene, the producers called up my manager and asked if I would do like two more episodes. They were like, “We like the character. We’ve got some more ideas for it. Can you guys, can you do two more?” And we were like, sure. So I did two more and they were like, “OK, we wanna make it seven all together.” We were like, “OK, seven it is.” And then after like the fifth one, then they called and they were like, “Well, would you just be a series regular on the show?” We were like, “Yeah, sure, cool.” And so we did, and so like I don’t know how much was planned with my character initially because it was just supposed to be a guest star where she helps me out, and she kinda finds out that I’m… you know, everybody thinks I’m a pot head and I’m not. Everybody thinks I’m a loser and, you know, I’m pretty cool. And that’s it. And I don’t think it was ever planned to be a romance between her and Adam.
Deb: When did that come in? When did they first talk to you about that?
Chris: Um, I don’t remember. My job up that point was really just like showing up, and being like, “Cool, OK, well, yeah.” And they’d give me a script and I’d read the lines and then film it. So I never really… You know, it wasn’t until they asked me to be a series regular and then I sat down with Jim Hayman, Peter Schindler and Barbara and I was like… You know I just uh, I didn’t wanna be on a TV show, honestly. I was doing a lot of movies and I was like, I really… I was like, if I was gonna do this, I was like, a couple things. They were like, “What?” And I was like, “Well, one, I’d like to be able to you know not try to hold back from giving my own opinion on this character and these people.” Because they asked me like, “Why don’t you wanna do a show?” And I was like, “Well, I’m really scared I’m gonna have to play the same person for six years.” I was like, “That scares me because I don’t wanna play one character for six years. That’s not interesting to me.” But I was like, “But if I can have a say in what happens maybe, or you know, I can voice an opinion a little bit…” I was like, “That would make me more comfortable.” And, I was like, “You know I’d like it if I booked a movie that we can, if it works, we can move around the schedule a little bit and help me out to do those things.” Which is great ’cause I did like, you know, four movies while I was working on that show. So those are the two things. Other than that they just wrote what they wrote and I read what they wrote, so…
Deb: Do you remember any of those times when you had to fight for something that you wanted to do?
Chris: Oh yeah, yeah. American Gun was the first one, and that one… we were just about to go. It was like the week before we were about to start the second season and I went to Indiana to shoot SugarMountain with Aaron. And while I was there I got a call from the director of American Gun. He was like, “Hey, man.” I was like, “Oh…” I didn’t even know he had my phone number. I was like, “Oh, hey dude.” I didn’t hear anything. I auditioned for it and I didn’t hear anything. That’s all I knew is, I went in and they liked it and that’s all I heard. So he goes, “Hey, man, so why aren’t you gonna do the movie?” I was like, “What? I didn’t even know I— Thank you for giving me the movie.”
(Laughter)
Chris: “I would love to do the movie.” He was like, “Well, your agent said no.” I was like, “What?” And I guess while I was gone, my agent had called Jim Hayman and said, “Can we work out the schedule?” And he said, “No, we need him the first week. We’re already shooting. We’re already in pre-production. We know exactly what we’re gonna shoot.” So I just immediately called up Jim and my agents and everybody and I was like, “No.” I was like, “I signed on a few months ago specifically with the idea that we would work something out.” And I was like, “This isn’t a lead part in a movie, so I’m not gonna be working everyday. We could do something ’cause I really wanna do this and I don’t wanna lose out on this part. I really like this movie.” And uh, so I had to really fight for that one. But the other ones came pretty easy. After that, then they really did understand. I think they really weren’t sure how serious I was being, maybe. Then we had that conversation.
Deb: Thank heavens that one worked out ’cause it’s terrific.
Chris: Thank you.
Deb: It’s one of our favorite ones.
Chris: Thank you.
Deb: Was there anything that you personally wanted to see happen with the character or with Adam and Joan or anything? Or were you pretty much cool with whatever they decided?
Chris: Yeah, I was cool… Well, I wasn’t cool with everything they decided, but… yeah, um, they’re smart people, they’re really smart people. You know, the second season became, you know, personally a little disappointing for me because the studio started giving a lot of notes to all the writers and producers to change the show drastically from what it was the first season, um, because of ratings and because of the way they would test things. You know, I just have such a moral opposition to that, you know that whole formula of making TV shows like that. It was hard, you know, it was hard to like show up and they’re like, “OK, so next week Hilary Duff’s gonna be on the show.” It’s like, “Great, great.” You know, nothing against Hilary Duff. It was great working with her, and that was, you know, blah-blah. But it’s, you know, what it is, is it’s turning it into something that it wasn’t originally.
Deb: Teen soap.
Chris: Yeah, you know, that’s what they said. They were like, “We want younger viewers.” We were like, “Then, get us off Friday night when, like, everybody’s that’s young is out with their friends.” You know, you can’t… That was the thing, but they didn’t listen.
Deb: I always thought Sunday night, maybe at 9 would have been a good time.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: ‘Cause everybody, you know, it gives you something to look forward to before you gotta go back to work and school and all that.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Deb: And you know The X-Files did really well when they moved it to Sunday night.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: It coulda worked.
Tina: See, in Germany, they showed it on Saturday afternoon at three.
(Laughter)
Chris: That’s perfect, look at that. You’ve got your coffee and your croissant. And cry. Yeah.
(Laughter)
Tina: Yeah, they only ever showed the first season though.
Chris: Really?
Tina: Yeah.
Anne: And it was dubbed.
Tina: And it was dubbed of course.
Chris: Oh, really.
Deb: That’s a big drag.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: What was a character trait of Adam that you would say that you most enjoyed playing?
Chris: I like it when he gets real feisty about his art, you know? I liked when he would get upset. There was some episode where some guy was drawing on one of his posters.
Deb: Right.
Chris: And he got all pissed off about it. I just, personally, you know, think art is totally worth fighting for. So whenever there was that small opportunity of like, “That’s mine, man! Get your hands off of it!” That was great. I loved that.
Deb: There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you about, it’s not in the cards, um, Mary Steenburgen is one of my favorite people on the planet.
Chris: Me too, oh… me too.
Deb: And you guys had just the most amazing chemistry together. Every time you had a scene…
Chris: That’s because I was sort of in love with Mary Steenburgen.
(Laughter)
Chris: I didn’t even wanna like kiss her. I just wanted to just know that she was mine.
(Laughter)
Chris: I always wanted a wedding with Mary Steenburgen. I was gonna kidnap Ted Danson one weekend. Make him disappear and just uh, “Sorry Mary, I know, I know, it’s so hard to deal with. Ted is gone. He’s gone. Hey, come over, what are you doing? Let’s watch a movie.”
(Laughter)
Deb: First time I met her, I was just a teenager.
Chris: Yeah?
Deb: And she was so sweet.
Chris: Yeah, she’s really one of the coolest, nicest people.
Deb: She’s actually the reason I even gave the show a chance.
Chris: Really?
Deb: So she’s responsible for all of this, basically, when you get right down to it.
Chris: She’s so wonderful.
Deb: That’s cool. That’s cool. I’m so glad… Was there anything that was not at all like you about Adam that you found difficult to get into?
Chris: Um, yeah, you know, he was really… Adam could be very, very quiet. And uh, I personally find it very hard not to voice my own opinion on something. And not to, you know, I struggle with that, you know, not telling somebody to not do something. You know like, “Don’t do that, dude!” You know, like I have a problem with that. And uh, Adam seemed like a very passive person. He let things go very easily. And uh, I can be a very passive person, but most of the time I’m not, so…
Deb: There’s a nice little illustration of that actually toward the beginning of the second season. You guys are walking down the hall and you know, everybody’s always bustin’ on Friedman. And for, like, the first time, everybody, including Adam, turns around and gives him a shove.
Chris: Yeah. You know what, actually, I think I kinda remember that ’cause I wanted to shove Aaron, personally.
(Laughter)
Chris: I don’t think I was supposed to and I just did it. Yeah, eventually I started getting’ a little crazy. I remember Mike Welch got mad at me a few times because I would not—you know, I’d be waiting around, I’m not in the scene, but I don’t know if you guys ever noticed in the background all the props, the crazy props.
Deb: Yeah.
Chris: They always had this, you know, every episode they had a new truck with all these crazy props and I just loved diggin’ through ’em and finding whatever I could…
Tina: The plastic elephant…
Chris: Yeah, yeah, the giant pickle, they had.
(Laughter)
Chris: Literally, it was like a four and a half foot long pickle. And I was like, this is crazy!
(Laughter)
Chris: They would find this stuff and I was obsessed with it all. I was like, “Oh my g— This is the greatest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life.” But what I would do is like, you know, I remember that giant pickle in particular. It was like Michael was starting in a classroom and had to like walk out in the hallway and do the scene. But right before I would go, “Michael, think fast!” And he’d turn around and I’d just throw the giant pickle at his head.
(Laughter)
Chris: And so he had to come into the scene and he had the giant pickle literally. And one time I just rolled it to him across the floor at he had to step across it when he was filming. And eventually he just stopped the filming and he was like (yells), “Chris Marquette! Cut it out!”
(Laughter)
Chris: And I was like, “Oh, I’m sorry, Mike.” And he literally went to the director and he was like, “I can’t do this because he’s screwing with me. I can’t concentrate.” You know ’cause he had all that language that was like so difficult to memorize.
Tina: Yeah, yeah.
Chris: So I was really messing with his focus and he got upset with me, but um…
Deb: So you and Aaron were already friends before the show.
Chris: Yeah, and Michael Welch too, and Jason Ritter, and um, yeah I knew all these guys before. It was just coincidence. I didn’t even know they were, um, you know, what’s funny is Aaron had tried out for Adam Rove.
Deb: Really?
Chris: Yeah, and they liked him a lot as an actor, so they called him and said, “Look, we’re not gonna give you that part, but we wanna bring you back for the show, just for some other thing. So then he went in and auditioned for something else and didn’t get that, I think. And then, Friedman, they had him audition for and loved him, so. I had no idea, you know, Joan Of Arcadia, I was just a guest star, and I was, “All right, cool.” And I had no idea Jason Ritter or Michael Welch was on the show. And all of a sudden I show up for the table read the first day, and I remember being like, “What?!?”
(Laughter)
Chris: And I’d just finished working with Ritter on Freddy vs. Jason.
Deb: Right, yeah.
Chris: So, I hadn’t talked to him in a couple of months. So all of a sudden I show up and he’s in a wheelchair. And I just remember thinking, I literally, I was like, “Oh my God, Ritter got hurt.”
Deb: Awwww…
(Laughter)
Chris: And I didn’t know what to say, and I was just like sitting there and finally, he was like wheeling around in the wheelchair and he seemed so happy, and like so surprised and happy to see me. And I was just sitting there trying not—I was just like, “Oh my God, poor Ritter, I just saw him and he was walking and now he can’t walk anymore?” And then he was just like, “Hey, you want some Red Vines?” I was like, “Yeah sure.” And he got up.
(Laughter)
Chris: And I was like, “Jason! I was so scared. I thought you got paralyzed. I’m sorry, I’m glad you’re not.” So yeah…
Deb: This is just a bizarre question right off the top of my head, when you guys do the table read—’cause there’s one on the second season DVD…
Chris: Oh, there is?
Deb: Yeah, uh, do you have assigned seats or is it episode-specific, or how does that work?
Chris: Yeah, it’s assigned seats. They have little placards right in the front, you know, little pieces of paper that just say your name and they have a script there waiting for you and stuff and uh, it might’ve been different the first couple of times, but then after a while it was really set and organized. It was like, table reads every Tuesday at 9 AM. And you go to the table read and then start filming again, so…
Deb: I wish they’d had the guts to put the table read for the break-up episode on the DVD instead of the one after it.
Chris: Oh, they did the one afterward?
Deb: That would’ve been so—
Chris: Well, they might not have because also me and Amber at that point, before the table reads, we got the script you know like the day before, couple of days before, we were just like ffff…., like just on fire. We were just like, “This can’t happen! What are you talking about? They can’t break up! Are you kidding me?”
(Laughter)
Chris: Yeah, so we, uh, that maybe… ‘Cause I remember, I think might’ve like purposely gone in and did a really bad job on the table read, specifically because I didn’t want it to work, so…
Deb: You seemed a little depressed on the one after it too.
Chris: Yeah, I was. I was just really, it was nice, you know.
Tina: Wasn’t it two afterwards?
Deb: Um, it was Common Thread. Was that two afterwards?
Tina: Yeah, the next one is Spring Cleaning.
Deb: Yeah, it was two afterwards, you’re right. Sorry.
Chris: It was fun doing that with Amber, having this mock relationship and it felt really good, too. You know I felt like I was always doing some good work with her, you know so with the threat of that ending we were just, “Nooooooooooooo!”
Deb: Well, I’m glad you guys felt that way because everybody else in the fandom really did too. And it was devastating ’cause they didn’t, there was no sort of warning or lead-in or anything. I mean, obviously you guys were having a little bit of difficulty, up and down, but there was never any, where you see Adam doing some questionable things. It just came out of nowhere.
Chris: That’s what we said. But like that’s what happens. You know, and in retrospect now, you know, I’ve never cheated on anybody, but I’ve realized that if I’ve ever heard a story that seems to be how it happens. Uh, a really close friend of mine, his girlfriend cheated on him, you know, and just there was no warning and she’d been doing it for a long time and he didn’t know. And all of a sudden one day he found out. And uh, you know and people don’t know. Those things just come up out of nowhere. And uh, actually, I kind of, you know, I don’t think I’d have the same reaction now.
Deb: Well, you know, things might’ve been very different if that wasn’t the way it went, in terms of you know, I think that… I think sometimes the tragic nature of that relationship is what keeps a lot of fans so dedicated to the show.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: You know and I mean it has a huge life online still. People just can’t let go of the show, which is great.
Chris: Yeah, it’s good. I really wish they… I really wish we were still filming that, honestly.
Deb: Or maybe some sort of wrap-up or something. If they ever did a wrap-up movie or if they wanted you back to do something with it would you be able to do that do you think?
Chris: Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, for sure. I don’t know if they ever would.
Deb: Nah, probably not. But it’d be great.
Chris: Yeah, totally.
Deb: Well, the next question I had was actually about your working relationship with Amber and you had said in an interview that it was kinda weird kissing her, but you got used to it.
(Laughter)
Chris: Well, I also had a very serious girlfriend at the time, so it was very weird for me to have to like go onset and fake a love relationship on camera, you know and kiss somebody else and like make it as genuine as possible. So, yeah, so I think at first it was very weird kissing somebody ’cause I’d spent like a few years in the relationship, ’bout a year and a half, and um, after a year and a half of kissing the same person every day, that’s it. And so, you know, it was very hard to, you know, go and kiss somebody else.
Deb: And it was your first big romantic story.
Chris: Yeah, it was my first big romantic story, yeah, so…
Deb: Well, you sure pulled it off.
Chris: Well, thank you.
(Laughter)
Tina: It’s really funny because Becky, last night, told us about how she and Michael would be kissing…
Chris: Yeah, I know, yeah.
Tina: And how she would be really…
Chris: I know, just be like, “Oh my God”.
Tina: up front and…
Chris: Then after she’d go, “Oh, God, you disgust me,” you know, just as a joke. And Mike’d be like, “You know what? Next time I’m using tongue.”
(Laughter)
Deb: Do you think, and I wasn’t gonna ask this, but doggone it I’m gonna ask it, uh, do you think that they purposefully kept Adam and Joan’s kissing and stuff kind of chaste because she was, like, God’s girl? Because you guys never did the tongue.
Chris: Yeah, no, we never did the tongue. Yeah, yeah, I think they kept it, I mean they never told us how to kiss. You know we just would kiss and that’s the way it worked.
Deb: It was very sweet.
Chris: Yeah, you know, I mean they’re very nice people, those characters, so it was about some crazy, you know… make out session.
Deb: Yeah. I’ve read a few of the scripts, I think we probably all, we’ve read a few of the scripts, right?
Tina: Oh, yeah.
Deb: Um, and a lot of the stuff that went between you guys wasn’t scripted, like the looks and the touches, and things like that. Was that just natural from you guys or was it directed, or just your relationship?
Chris: Yeah, I mean, you know it’s funny ’cause Amber and I we never really got to know each other, like our histories very well. You know, but it just was somebody… You know, there’s just people you click with immediately, and people you don’t. People take time to warm up, and Amber’s just somebody, you know, like I rarely see her now, I rarely talk to her, but every time I do, like I think another ten years could pass and I every time I do I’ll still feel totally comfortable. And like she’s one of those people that just, you know you’re just comfortable with. Just like, they don’t need to know everything about you, but you still feel like they do in a weird way so… You know, that’s just Amber. Whenever I talk to Amber, I’m like, “Yo!” And she’s like, “Hey!” And she calls me some crazy name.
Tina: That sounds like her.
(Laughter)
Chris: And she uh tries to like, you know, give me a purple nurple.
(Laughter)
Chris: And then she’ll try to like bite me somehow. I’m like, “Why are you trying to hurt me?” And she’s like, “‘Cause I have a crush on you secretly.”
(Laughter)
Chris: I’m like, “You know that’s a lie.” “Yes, it is a lie. But you want it to be.” “No, you do.” “Shut up!” And it turns into like you know whatever it is and it’s fun, you know so…
Deb: That’s great. That’s funny… Um, so if you guys ever had another opportunity you would totally work with her again, right?
Chris: Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it’d be awesome. I remember there was a few things after Joan Of Arcadia that she would book and she’d be like, “All right,” and she’d try to tell the director about me to work with. And I did vice versa. And everybody was always just like, “No.” Like that movie Normal Adolescent Behavior, that thing. Like she tried really hard to get me to do one of the guys in that movie, but the director was like, “Do you know how many Joan Of Arcadia fans would freak out if you guys were in like an orgy together?” We were like, “Yeah, it’s true.”
(Laughter)
Deb: Bring it on!
(Laughter)
Chris: Yeah, yeah, but the director’d just be like, “That’d be too weird.” We were like, “All right.” I was actually supposed to do a small part in the movie and uh…
Deb: Aw, it woulda been great. I love that movie. I know she doesn’t like the final cut.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: Or whatever, but I tell ya, I just find her character so fascinating.
Chris: Yeah, that’s the thing.
Deb: That character’s unlike any other young girl I’ve ever seen in a film.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: And she just was amazing in that part, but she’s amazing in everything she does.
Chris: Yeah, she’s a great actress.
Deb: You went to the Stephanie Daley premiere.
Chris: I did.
Deb: Did you like that movie?
Chris: I did, yeah.
Deb: Wasn’t that incredible?
Chris: Yeah, the movie’s a great one, but it’s a really hard movie to watch.
Deb: It is. It is, but it’s fantastic.
Chris: Yeah, it’s so good.
Deb: I wish I’d gotten a chance to talk to her about it.
Chris: Yeah.
Deb: Hopefully we will at some point… We know that you’re still I touch with a lot of the other folks, mainly Aaron, probably…
Chris: Aaron, Mike Welch, um, yeah, you know, and Ritter I talk to often, and uh… yeah, I haven’t talked to Mary or Joe in a really long time. I haven’t talked to Becky in a long time. Um, I ran into the prop guy, this guy David, like in a bar one night or at this like restaurant place. And I was like, “Yoooooo!”. And uh, I think he got engaged or had a really serious girlfriend, and uh, everybody else, yeah, I haven’t seen everybody in a really long time.