Screamstress Talks With John Landis & Maggie Lawson For "Fear Itself"- Part I

As I had mentioned, I had the amazing chance to speak with both director John Landis and actor Maggie Lawson last week in regards to the latest Fear Itself episode, called In Sickness And In Health which airs tomorrow night. Both Maggie and John had a lot to say about the episode, the series, and horror in general.

Since both of these guys work together on Psych (Maggie as recurring co-star Juliet O’Hara) and John as a director (for 2 episodes and another upcoming), one of my questions was Psych related, and afterwards I had to ask John a little about his experience working with other horror directors on this series:

Alexandra: My first question is going to be, well, this is actually a Psych question for both of you. I wonder if on the set of Psych if there is a lot of pranks going on, and if there’s playing of jokes on you guys since the show is just so funny.

So I’m wondering about how much humor there is between takes.

Maggie Lawson: We have so much fun on the show and yes, the comedy and shenanigans, if you will, that you see on screen is probably doubled off screen. We’re always – it almost becomes some sort of game or challenge to crack the other one up, especially when it’s their close up.

I tend to be a little more professional – no. But James and Dulé, it is very, very funny. It’s very hard, even if you look at our blooper reels, it’s very hard to get through a take without one of them trying to do something to crack – I mean it really does become a game.

John Landis: There’s a very real problem when you’re shooting and someone gets the giggles because it’s like laughing in class or church. It’s contagious and it gets worse and it becomes, you know, more and more intense and for directors who are on a schedule, sometimes it’s completely annoying because they can’t get through a take.

Maggie Lawson: It’s true. When we get the giggles it’s very hard to – which happens pretty much every day at some point – but yes. I can understand how for a director that would be like so frustrating because you have to cover…

John Landis: Also it’s frustrating because sometimes it’s funny. But you can’t – it’s like having children. It’s, you know, okay, we’ll have a time out now until, you know, Maggie and James and Dulé are ready to shoot. You know, because they do – they’re having entirely too much fun. And they get paid.

Alexandra: Well that’s good.

Maggie Lawson: Yeah. Yeah. We get paid to go to work and play.

Alexandra: Oh gosh. Okay, thank you Maggie. My other question is for John and what I wondered is if there is a certain camaraderie you feel when you get to work with other horror directors on a series like this versus you being a lone director on a film?

John Landis: On Masters of Horror, which is sort of the show that this is progeny of, I guess – Masters of Horror there certainly was because it came out of a group of dinners that we used to have that were very fun and Guillermo del Toro was the guy who came up with Masters of Horror because there was a woman having a birthday.

You know, the waiters singing Happy Birthday to her at the table next to us and Guillermo grandly, a little drunk, you know, stood up and gave her this grand toast in Spanglish, you know and ended it with, you know, “Happy birthday from the masters of horror.”

Which is so silly but it was a group of Cronenberg and – David Cronenberg and John Carpenter and Joe Dante and, sheezus, I can’t believe I’m blanking on his name, which is terrifying – Stuart Gordon – oh my god, I can’t – who directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Tobe Hooper.

Alexandra: Yeah.

John Landis: And Tobe and, you know, a bunch of people like that and Bill Malone and it was fun. This one is a little different because we’re not a group. I mean I know I certainly know some of the other directors. I know Ernie Dickerson and – but basically these, you know – you meet each other in the lobby of the hotel because one director comes up to prep while you’re shooting.

Alexandra: Okay.

John Landis: And so you go hi. So Bousman came up and I got – I must say he showed me the trailer. He just did – I’m very jealous – he just did a musical film with Sarah Brightman that looks really cool.

Maggie Lawson: Cool.

Alexandra: Okay. Okay.

Maggie Lawson: Is that a horror film?

John Landis: I think so. It certainly looks gothic.

Maggie Lawson: Cool.

Alexandra: Well thank you John. I’ll go ahead and turn it over to someone else, but I just wanted to thank you guys both for being here.

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