First of all, you don't know me. All about that high school drama, Girl drama, girl, all about.
Them high school queens.
We'll take you for a ride, and our comic girl sharing for the right teen drama queens up girl fashion, but.
Your tough girl, you could sit with us.
Girl Drama, Queens Drama, Queens Drama, Queens Drama, drahn the Queens Drama Queens.
I respect the brevity of this week's synopsis. I like it that we're like, let's not even bother, let's just say it hits the fan.
It is the perfect way to start this episode. Ladies and gentlemen, you're here with us. We are on season eight, episode eleven, Darkness on the Edge of Town air day, December seventh, twenty ten, and the blessedly short synopsis that Rob is talking about reads, thus a storm strikes Tree Hill, putting everyone's life in danger the end.
It's really just so short, it is.
I was so excited. If you get to the synopsis, I just I dissociated.
I wonder if the person that had to write it was like, you kind of got to see it to believe it.
I give up, Yeah, yes, because if you wrote it, you'd be like, and then this person has head trauma, and this person also has head trauma, and this person gets stabbed, and this it would just be it would be a mess. We are also joined by the lovely, the psychotic, massively talented Amanda Schule. Hi High Poal, Hi buddy, you were great in this episode.
In this episode, so many layers.
This episode was not my best work, but I got to say the three of you crushed it.
I thought you were great.
Thank you.
I've been told my off camera presence is almost better than my on camera presence.
I just think it speaks to who you are as an actor that in every scene that Quinn called Clay, you were really on the phone for Chantal. It's like you really are a team player. Rob, You're a good dude.
Thank you for seeing you that.
That is something that you don't think about often when you're watching a TV show that an actor may be talking to another character on the phone, and often they're just reading with somebody off camera, usually script supervisor or an ad or something as reading the other person's lines. But on our show, our guys figured out how to
get the get everybody on the phone. So even if Rob was out grocery shopping, you know, you just step to the side and jump on the phone for the scene so that Chantal could actually hear his voice, and we would a lot of us would do that for each other. It's it's a really nice little addition to our situation.
I've only had that once that somebody was actually on the phone with me, and I am terrable with pretend phone calls. Absolutely terrible, So well done your people for figuring that out.
It's so awkward. At least if your script supervisor reads with you, like the off camera person, at least you're having a conversation. But when you're just doing the dialogue and you're like, hey, honey, what time did you say you'd be home? And then you're like be be me. Oh okay, so you might get there before me, And you just feel so stupid because you're like, am I waiting long enough for this person to actually say the thing that I know they're shooting next Wednesday? Is it
even going to matter? And then you feel nuts and basically just I don't know. At least for me, I'm like, I'm questioning every choice I've ever made in my life in this moment.
It's so awkward.
I also feel like it can be really awkward if the person reading like really wants to do a good job, and so then they start acting out the part for you off camera, not the other actor, just like a stand in or ad or whoever you know, been given the job of reading your sides, and they're really trying. But then I'm like, it's really throwing me off because I'm like, I don't I really don't actually want you to act. I want you to just say words, please.
Please don't. Can I tell you?
Guys?
The most awkward example I have of this that is truely one of my favorite days I've ever had on set. I was working on a show and also shooting a movie which like what a blessing? What a curse? And that there was a week where the travel didn't line up kind of at the end of the movie. Between me and this like actor I've looked up to my whole life, like one arguably probably the most famous actor I've ever worked with. I'm like so excited to be
on set with him. We've had the best time, and no one has told me on this day that I'm on set and he's not, And I'm like, what but what do you And they were like, yeah, we're going to shoot a bunch of your coverage because we got to get you out for your show. And he's going to do this other thing, and so his double's going to work with you and he's done. You know, he does this. They're very well practiced at this, because you know, he has this big career. I'm like, okay, all right,
the double's been great. He's really nice. You know, he's on set. They're doing all this stunt coordination whatever. But nobody tells me that this lovely man's lovely double doesn't act. He does the stunt stuff, but he doesn't do any dialogue. So we are rolling and this amazing, like most entertaining person on set, young scrip supervisor. We have this chick from Argentina who makes everybody laugh every day. I look at this actor's double, I deliver my line and from like eighty feet away here.
You gotta call the d we know where the drugs are coming from.
And I was like, and I just had to like do a take with this woman from like way far away screaming and this lovely man like doing all the physical action, looking at the ground and not speaking. To me and they cut and the director was like, honestly, you guys are so amazing, Like the way you can just do that together, no one would ever know. And
I was like, bro, I didn't know. I didn't know, and like honestly, I watched the movie and I was like, you'd never know, So maybe we shouldn't be self conscious about anything.
Ever, I just can't believe that Scott Beao did that to you, I know.
In charge of what rob.
I wish that I could somehow be a fly on the wall inside your mind. Like there's so many times when you I feel like you're just sitting listening quietly, and I've had conversations with you just across the table and you're so good at listening. You really check in. You're like right there along with But I just want to hear the narration that's rolling behind the behind is still dropped in this there's definitely a script running well.
It feels like you.
Have a whole team of SNL like joke writers just up there all the time being like, oh, if she pauses here, I got it. Nope, she's pausing there, I got it now, Like it's so good.
The script is usually like what's what's for lunch?
What do I have?
What snacks do we have? And then occasionally it's like Scott Bay, it would be funny here, say Scott baa, yeah, in the same vein as you. So I have an incredibly awkward story from one it's like my first big show and uh doesn't Yeah, And Lipstick Jungle ad sex like every episode of Lipstick, right, and I'm like, I came in late in the pilot got picked up. So then we go to New York, right, And one of the scenes we have to reshoot is a bedroom love
making scene. They didn't have the room for it, so they built three quarters of a bedroom in the middle of a high school gymnasium.
Oh my god.
And my my love interest on the show, Kim Raver, had just had her child, so they had a double for her. And they had also told me like two days prior, like, hey, you're gonna have to wear a modesty triangle.
Oh my god.
They actually they just sent a rider to my like to my contract, to my agents, and I just saw a modesty triangle and something deep in my core was like, this is not good. It's not good.
Gang.
For those of you who don't know all show the YouTube audience. It's like at this tiny triangle of fabric with a second piece sewn on the bottom, and you basically just like put yourself in this triangle and there's there's topstick tape on the top of it, and it essentially turns you into a kendle like, Oh, I would rather be naked than wear this thing.
Oh my god, I would rather be dead.
Like I wish that were the most embarrassing part. But no, So I show up high school gymnasium. This set ain't closed, right, there's people everywhere. Wait wait, wait what well I should I mean, it's it's big, so it's closed, but like.
But people are walking around.
Well, there's no wall exactly, Like it was hard to create privacy.
Well how did they didn't make a wall? Like, they didn't hang a curtain of some sort.
No, they had they had a couple of the walls, right, This was the early adds exactly. And they put video village like on the other side of the set obviously, so they were completely out of the eye line. They trod in a gal and they go like, Hi, this is Carly. She's gonna be Kim's double I'm like, Okay, hey, it's nice to meet you. I'm rob. They're like, great, d robe I have?
I have?
So then she literally lays down and I'm like, it's nice to meet you. As she's in just pasties.
So you did love actually the real.
The real scene and oh, I'm so she's in just pasties. I'm in a modesty triangle and like literally like how do I make what is this appropriate small talk in this situation? Like hi, is your dad going well? And then they give me an eye line that's the headboard and then they're like action and as we're doing it, our producing director is shouting from across a gymnasium, all.
Right, Robbie, all right, now you're just your love making. It's a spartan it's a now you love her, Now you love her. Now you're climaxing. Now you're climaxing. It was like having your creepy uncle in.
The closet while you lose your virginity. It also happened in that moment was I realized I've actually never paid attention to the face I make in some of those moments, and I'm my brain was as quickly as it could going Holy what is the face we make? What is an appropriate face to make? Oh my god, this is a nightmare and I think it's blacked out for the rest I.
Geel so sick right now. I feel physically, Yeah, that is that.
Is a unique Yeah yeah, no, my god, did I just bring the podcast to a screeching home.
So, by the way, I'm so glad you've told this story because the number of people over you know, all the years of all of our careers who've done this to me and no doubt to you. There's always someone you know who pulls you aside and goes like, okay, but what's it really like to shoot a love scene? Like is it ever kind of sexy?
Is it?
And you're like no, no, flat out no, never, not ever. It's awkward, it's it's I hope this gives people the pink behind the curtain that they may be never wanted.
The non curtain that didn't exist for.
Oh my god, I had to make bedroomids at a piece of green tape laying on top of a poor strange gal.
You're a really good sport and she's a good sport. I hope someone sent that woman flowers.
Carly.
If you're out there.
I know that's not your real name, whoever that's standing.
You know, it's okay. She knows if she hears this, she's going to know we're talking about her. But her code name shall forever more be Carly.
You're a real one, Carly Well.
Stunt doubles is a good way to get into this episode.
It is.
There really is so many people that had to jump in. We had a big.
Stunt team on this episode. I think, so, yeah, let's let's get started.
Okay, I have a question to dive in because we get this cryptic, you know, musical end to the episode leading us here with you Amanda and a I was like, great singing voice I never knew. Be the the drive into town and the weatherman and the storm. It almost felt like an old radio play setting up this, you know,
big terrible thing that was going to happen. What was it like when you got this script and read that this was going to be the culmination of the Katie storyline or had they told you, you know, an X amount of episodes you're going to come back like, did you know? Or was it a complete surprise that you were going you know, American Psycho.
Almost I don't remember knowing. Okay, obviously we had hints that she wasn't firing with all cylinders.
I guess done diplomatic.
Yeah, so obviously we knew that. I don't remember. I didn't in any hints about that. Joy's episode was the first the one you directed, was the first time I came back as the other person, And I think I knew I had a said amount of episodes, but I didn't know exactly what her journey was going to be.
Well, you had a lot to do. You really got to show up.
And I loved all the different just all the different layers of the cat and mouse and you having fun being so insane. And I could see all of the feelings that she was experiencing, all of the trouble, all of the hatred and anger and yet the desperation. And that's a lot to keep track of while you're running through well you're soaking wet, running through a house and running through rain, and it's a lot.
All of you get a gold star.
Well, I sat in the car, but.
You know for sure you got out of the car. You got out of the car.
Let's stick with the Quinn and the Katie of it for a moment, because I will say in an episode of Just Highest Stakes Hijinks, the one thing I turned my head out and went really was at the beginning when Katie's hair is dripping and so water is dripping on the floor, Quinn just grabs a bowl and puts it on the floor and doesn't even bother to see where the leak is coming from.
Wait, she didn't look up. I thought she looked up.
You know, she looked up for a second, but she doesn't investigate the source.
Yeah, so I'm saying, in the middle of the monsoon, Yeah, your roof starts leaking, it's not her house. You're not gonna You're not gonna investigate.
Ah, it is not her responsibility.
This observation is actually what proves to our listeners that we are adults now, whereas when we made this show we were basically still college students. Because now we're all homeowners, and it's like the minute there's water and it's raining, you're in a full panic running around figuring out where it's coming from your in attic. And yeah, she just looks up and goes a leak and gets a bowl, And it's like, oh wow, that really it does show our youth sometimes the things we just didn't know yet.
Yeah, and then and I may just I'm not sure. To me, this did not seem like a normal thing to do. But would you just not cut the apple in the kitchen and then bring the sliced apple into the bedroom.
I was really upset that the apple was going to be cut on a plate, because that dolls your knives, and so I was frustrated that she wasn't going to use a cutting board.
But she knew she was going to use the knife because she was She knew as soon as she left.
The room that you were there and that she was going upstairs.
But she had gotten the knife, placed it on the plate, and then went off and did a couple of things, checks on the car, came back, did the tea and blah blah blah, And it was like there was no cutting board out at any point, and it was dressing me out. And then and I realized that she was going to take it into the kitchen after that, but I didn't see a cutting board on the horizon, you know.
Yeah, Yeah, it was interesting because you know, there's so much that's fantastical about an episode like this, And I thought everybody really grounded into it, and even I don't know even some of those details. While they certainly bumped me, what was fun for me as an audience member was when I realized when you go in the bedroom and pull the covers back and the pillows are there, I'm like, Oh, she's in on it. She's in on it, okay. And then suddenly some of what bumped me felt more like
her playing along. So I don't know, maybe maybe she was never going to dull the knife, maybe she was.
Who knows she was going to dull the knife, But I know I think for yes, there were all of these not all most of these storylines were fantastical. This was sort of just this was the horror movie element storyline, right.
And we hadn't done something like that in a very long time on our show, Like we've over the seasons had spots where it's like the horror movie element of it, you know, with the Psychoederic and Anny Carrey. Anny Carrey, there's always like a little something every once in a while just to keep the audience on their toes and feeling like things are super dramatic.
So we were due for this, But you know what was interesting about it though, So this is the horror story. Brooks storyline could have been horror story also, But somehow this being heightened made this seem much more grounded and therefore made me more anxious watching you, Sophia. You know, it was like I played watching one and then I tensed watching the other.
Yeah.
And the fact that you didn't lean into the horror of it all with the live wire bouncing around, You just kind of looked at it, clocked it. Yep, Hey, so how do you spell? You know, it was it was much. It didn't it didn't feel as heightened. It just felt like a ticking clock.
And that live wire was a great device because I kept looking at that going oh no, no, And then that wasn't even the threat.
That wasn't the threat. I know.
Yeah, it's a really really smart way that in the writer's room they chose to misdirect, especially because and you know we've all seen it, even with last year's incredible, incredibly large hurricane that hit North Carolina and you know, devastated Ashville. We went through so many hurricanes when we were there. Down power lines are so common because of how many trees fall, and even having the tree fall at the beach and block Quinn from being able to
escape with Katie. It tracked even though we were watching two separate incidents. It tracked what was happening across the city in a really smart way. And to your point, Yeah, I kept thinking, oh my god, what what if these people get electrocuted in the middle of this? And there really is something I think about grounding the Brook, Julian and Jamie of it all with Jamie as a kid, you have to you got to keep calm when kids are scared, because if they see how scared you are,
they get even more scared. And so there was this really interesting it was in a really terrifying scenario, but watching it back, some of the stuff with me and Jackson, the Brook and Jamie of it all felt almost like a buddy comedy in a you know, environmental disaster, and I was like, Oh, this is a smart way to toggle back and forth between exactly what you're saying, this heightened terror and then this other energy.
It was cool.
Have we done a storm episode before? Like, did it really take us eight seasons to do a big storm?
Oh?
We've done big ones.
We did.
Yeah, we did a really big one in season three, we did the big hurricane.
We had a stormy night when you guys do the pop brownies.
Yep.
Oh yeah, that's a stormy night. That's right, yep.
And then even in season one when Haley and Nathan have that big, like iconic first kiss, it's in the rain.
It's in the rain.
We did a lot of rain, but like a proper hurricane. I don't remember us doing, which surprised. It surprised me on the opening because I was like, wait, of course, I mean this happened so often. This was a part of our daily I mean our you know, yearly life out there. I'm surprised we haven't done more of this. But maybe I just forgot.
I can't remember what the season three episode is, but I remember because the big industrial fans that made the wind the wind and water whip sideways. There's a big scene where Brooke and Lucas get in a fight, like out on some road, and we had to loop the whole scene because they couldn't hear us. It was just fun noise, and I remember being like, oh, this is insane. Well, they don't even have a guide track because nobody knows
what anybody's saying. Because there's no sound, so we kind of had to like guess as to where the dialogue would fit and.
Try the very first shot, it's of the center kind of console or dash of the car with the clock and the time, but it's tilted vertically, and at first I couldn't tell because I was watching it on my phone if that was a formatting thing, and I thought, like, what happened here? But then when the car crashes the clock so that was just foreshadowing, right, Yeah?
Yeah, I mean I didn't know that that's what it was at the time. I just thought it was a choice, you know.
Being a little on guard.
I got to say I had a moment in watching that whole sequence of Brook Saving the Day where I actually went, holy shit, Sof's a star. Yeah it was. I was so on board and invested and enjoying it. I was like, I could watch this for ninety minutes.
Yeah.
So obviously we already know that you're pretty darn good at this craft, my friend, but I actually had a moment of even knowing you and knowing you work, I was like, she's a star.
I had that too when you were It was it was kind of a benign moment you were just running from one car to another, but it was the first time because you did several times going back and forth. The first time you ran to the car and you were checking on the kids, and I was just like, yeah, she is so in her element because you're so naturally athletic, and I think you just really you know, physical tangible,
like getting into getting into things with your hands. And I could feel like how right it felt for your whole body to be engaged in something rather than the talking heads that we often have to do, sitting still and emoting everything through our face.
You know, it was like, Wow, this is it. She's in her element. It was great.
It was really the perfect amount of action and I don't want to say acting, but you weren't acting the scene. You know, you were living within it and making realistic choices rather than being like I see somebody climbing through the window and hoisting open the windshield. It wasn't it wasn't overly dramatic. It was exactly how you took us with you, as opposed to us being much more peripheral and not buying into it. And that made the moments
with Jamie so much sweeter. Also, you know when you realize that why he threw the spelling bee and you and rather than you know, making a little uh not a dig, but a little tease, you said you had a little smile on your face, that sweet little smile, and then you said why you know, it was it was just it was it was adorable in a in a really horrible situation. I really was on board with you.
Yeah, it's interesting because the well, first I'm going to say next time I'm in like a self doubt spiral. I'm calling the three of you.
So thank you.
But there was so much that was so physically taxing about that whole sequence. And I remember so much of that because it was February, it was freezing.
How many nights did you shoot that in?
Oh my god, I don't even know.
It was days and you were shooting splits right, yeah, night So splits are night shoots. Yeah, those of you who don't know you show up to work at about four. They do your makeup as soon as the sun goes down. You get although with being soaking white, you probably didn't have too much hair and makeup too, but you had to keep showing up to set and getting soaked. Yeah, before you even walked into anything.
And it was about forty degrees out in February.
So and those the wind the rain machines are not warm water.
No, they're freezing cold water. And so it's it's just tricky. And you know, obviously Amanda, you and Chantal had to do so much of it as well, and like, I remember how hard it felt, and so it was really sweet to watch it back and to be like awe watching the Brooke and Jamie dynamic in the car. You know, him talking about his crush, her being with this little boy and having this experience of telling him about this fight, and they're kind of reflecting on their versions of family
together and it's such a sweet dynamic. And yeah, to your point, it was a really interesting thing to feel emotional warmth in a dangerous scenario. And it was fun to be reminded of that because all I remember is like, oh god, that hurricane episode, we were all so fucking cold, Like I forgot how sweet it was. It was nice to see it.
Also water work, I don't know whether you did the car stuff. Was that in a tank?
Oh?
The underneath the water stuff.
Yeah, that's yeah, awful and scary.
And so hard to hold to be in that position without letting any bubbles out, Like there are things that people don't understand how actually difficult it is to hold that physically.
Oh my god, it's horrible. And I was really knowing how hard it was for us. Watching you girls go into the pool, I was like, oh my god, I can't imagine, because for me, we had to do all the stuff on the bridge, which was really long and hard, and I remember how how important it was to be, you know, the most dead weight, and it works when when Julian's pulling Brooke out of the water, like I do look like a corpse. What got hard was on
the bridge. You know, he's supposed to be pumping my chest doing CPR and pumping hard enough to make it look real. And you know, most most of the time when people get CPR, their ribs break.
And that's hard.
He had to do it hard enough that it looked like he was exerting physical pressure. It couldn't be so hard that it was slamming my head into the ground, which is what happened in the beginning. And then I remember the director walking over and being like, your face is scrunched up, and I was like, yeah, I'm getting hit in the face with frozen rain that's falling from sixty feet in the air, like it hurt. So I was trying to not react to the water.
And that was the.
Thing that I that I was like, oh, that actually looks the hardest. But it was three stages. It was the bridge, then it was a tank on stage where the car was in the river and they could flood it with these huge They basically had these trap doors and they'd come down and water would flood in, and then we had to do the full underwater close ups when the car is flooded, and those we did on stage.
In Nathan and Haley's pool, they took a car seat, They took a seat out of a car, sunk it in the pool, put black duvetine fabric around the pool so you couldn't see what it was. And then I had to put scuba weight belts in my lap and sink to the bottom of the pool on stage so they could film us.
And then with someone next to you doing the and then taking it away.
Yeah, they had a regulator for me. And this is why I can't scuba dive. I've tried, and I've had two panic attacks underwater and I'm like, I'm good, it's a no for me.
I have a science question. If the way Julian was breathing into your mouth, I mean, that's carbon dioxide, though, so does that work?
I was thinking the same thing.
Does that actually work?
I mean, I think to sustain life a little longer? Yes, because what you're trying to do is stop your brain from dying from a lack of oxygen, and so you know, carbon dioxide is COE two. I don't know how quickly that would fail, but you're getting something. You're getting some oxygen back. I did, honestly though, watching it, I was like this, I caught myself holding my breath the Amanda you were talking about how stressed you felt watching the episode, I was holding my breath and I was like, why
am I doing this? I know I live, I know you guys live. Like what am I so stressed about?
Yes?
Oh, how Monster episode? I'm just so impressed. It's just so much work, and shooting those are it's hard. You get the script and the closer you get to the day, you're like, oh man, this is going to be a beast and you just go in and then you have you the first time and you're like, thank God, it's over, except I have to go back and do it again tomorrow, and then I have to go back and do it again the next day. And it's just a lot, especially
when you're cold. It's a lot of stress to put your body through and psychological stress even just the like the pool stuff you're talking about. I remember the first time I saw Nathan Haley's pool and we had to shoot in it. And I don't remember if it was us as the sisters or if Nathan and Haley were in the pool.
I don't know what it was, but.
There were It was a night time, so there were lights in the pool and I had never shot anything in water with electricity before.
You're like, is this how people get electrocuted in their bathtubs?
Yeah?
Is this safe? Like it is? There is some real psychological uh wall you.
Have to break through to get into a pool where there are multiple lights with cords in the water and you just step into the pool then trust that you're not going to die.
They're using a toaster as a bounce card. You're like, that just doesn't seem safe by.
I think that's a no.
But just to Joy's point, like, I don't think people realize that how much faith we put in our departments that they know what they're doing and that all of the safeguards have been put in place, and that we're going to be okay and we can do our jobs because everyone's done their job really well. And if you don't trust the people to do their jobs really well, when you need to be in what appears to be a life threatening situation, it often can be a life
threatening situation. I've been on set for things when I've felt really unsafe and questioned departments and then afterward come to realize I had good reason to question departments.
Yeah, yeah, thank god. We were in such great hands on our show. Our teams were just amazing.
Yeah, because otherwise they're not going to get your work from you.
Yeah, that's right, because you're all kind of frozen and unsure.
I thought it was a great counterbalance Throughout the episode, the whole Nathan and Haley dynamic. There were just so many great moments. There was one that really so One of my biggest pet peeves as an actor is when I'm driving the car and I will invariably every single time I will get the note, Yeah, can you just move your hand around a little more so that the audience believes you're driving. Watch the first shot of Haley and Nathan driving on that road. James clearly got the note.
And for those on YouTube, do this on a straightaway wet road and you're even like, be careful, it's raining outside, and he's like, it's cool. I got it covered, Like.
Is your lineup that far off?
It was funny, but I mean there were so many good parts.
There was a.
Line that Haley had that was so savage and out of pocket. It's when at the spelling Bee, Jamie wants to go with Chuck and Madison and Miss Lauren and he's like, oh, come on, Chuck's Chuck's getting to go, And without skipping a beat, you just go, Chuck's mom's an alcoholic. Of different reasons. You could have explained that to just assassinate the character of that poor woman's really weird.
We needed to understand why Chuck's mom wasn't driving her home, driving them home. Yeah, I think that's it. That's the only reason that existed. But yeah, there was no other way to play it as far as I could see. It just sort of had to get spat out.
You were just trying to move on from the line. But I agree, Rob, it's it's so One of the things that was so great is, you know, Quinn and Katie are in a horror movie. Brooke and Chu and Jamie are essentially in a natural disaster movie. They're in the Day After Tomorrow. It was nice to see a family doing what most families you hope do in a storm, just driving and talking and figuring it out.
Yeah, the audience needed to breathe.
Well, the audience needed to breathe. And it also speaks to the fact that you really never know. You could have a normal night and you could have the worst night of your life, you know, in these sorts of scenarios, and especially you know, again, we just made reference of it earlier, the like superstorm that hit from Florida to
North Carolina last year, Hurricane Heleen was insane. Like, I don't know what it is about being in this time period where sadly we're experiencing more of these things in the world that made this episode feel more relevant to me than ever. But you know, there's plenty of people who unexpectedly get hit hard in something like that, and there's plenty of people who have a mostly normal but slightly inconvenient night, and you really never know what your
roll of the dice is going to be. And it was kind of cool to have you guys serve as comic relief but also in a way fill out the whole spectrum of experience in the episode because you're pregnant, and you know, you really were, so they didn't want to put you in the cold for any longer than they needed to. And it makes sense that Nathan's gonna get out and tell his pregnant wife to stay in the car, and he's being sweet and it's like it's inconvenient,
but it's no big deal. And the humor when Haley kicks the can over with all the lug nuts, You're just like, oh my god, and it's perfect and it's sweet and it's you know, like an average rough night in a storm and I don't know it. It was a cool juxtaposition to be entertained by and to understand what the device was too, you know.
And what's so great about it was that I could see the fact that Nathan Haley were still friends. They weren't just husband and wife like they enjoyed each They are enjoying each other's company, they are having fun together. And I love to see that right where it's like, oh, yeah they married, they married their best friend. Like you had that funny comment where you're like he's working and you're just like, hey, if I wasn't pregnant, we could have sex in the back seat.
Yeah.
I was like, I love I love that. That is such like like I still have like I still dig my partner banter, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, Well, and to see their sense of humor and and you're like, well this kind of sucks.
Wouldn't this be fun?
And he's like yeah, that that makes it suck more. He's like now I'm really down on the rain, and you're like, god, I gotta got it. And the yeah, you're throwing it back at each other. And to be that many years into a relationship and still love to crack jokes, it's fun to see.
I just loved watching him go well, I guess I got a tired to change. There was no like ho humnus about it. There was no complaining. It was just like all.
Right, life, here we go. Yeah, let's get after it.
Like what a relief just even in the context of a relationship that there's no there's no drama around it.
It's just like, yeah, this is just what we do. I appreciated seeing that.
And for Nathan, like, his character just keeps showing up as the great, this great sort of redemption story out of a really tempestuous household that he grew up in and so much struggle that he worked through as a teenager.
And I just really love watching his character development.
And he's so soulfulware like when first of all, the whole bit with him not knowing how to spell entrepreneur at the start, he gets all copy because he thinks he thinks Jamie's won it, and it's because he does not expel the word. And then he's like, yes, I love that. He sits down and he he does a Dan Scott and Jamie goes, you're doing Grandpa Dan, and he goes yeah, and then he gives like the awesome dad response.
You know.
It was like, oh man, he's growing so much.
Yeah, so funny, sweet, Okay, let.
You wind a little bit more. The first scene with Brooke and Julian felt real hot to me. Yeah, it was. It was just odd because I've seen the previous episode. I know how it ends, and it's like the scene opens with both of you at an eleven yeah, and Brooke being like, you always wanted me to sell the company so you could get me back to LA And I just found myself going, like, what what what do I miss to get us to this spot? Because it was kind of it was very unlike Brooke to be
saying these things. I don't think Julian's done anything to make it seem like that's the case. So I was I was a confused, Like.
Little drop drops of that in the past, like two or three episodes, like little tense moments leading up to this would have been I would have been helpful.
And I do remember sitting and really wanting to understand why it was written this way, why they wanted it to be that way, the sort of I remember it really clearly. Weirdly, the feedback was sometimes when you're really angry, you say a bunch of shit you don't mean, which like, okay, fair people do that. Also, they wanted the fight when we first started trying to play it a little more normal,
I would say. The response was, we don't think she'd storm out of the house to go for a drive to cool down, unless it was really really hot, and so then what it had to be was, Okay, well, we're not going to get more of the fight, we're not going to see the inciting incident, because they want to get to the action. They want to get to Quinn Katie, they want to get to the bridge, they
want to do all this. So if we're coming in in the middle of it, if it's so hot that you're like, WHOA, what happened here, maybe we can kind of sell it. But what bugs me about it, and we've talked about this before, is when you have to justify it to be like, well, all this stuff happened off camera to get us here so we can get to the next thing. I always look back and I'm like, I got talked into it, and I don't think I agree.
I didn't agree, and I still am annoyed about it, But you know what I do, right, Like you just kind of have to do the thing. But I do remember having that feeling. And you bring up the line rob of when she says, now it makes sense you wanted me to lose the company so you could move
us back to LA. It's so ridiculous, but it also kind of it became the thing where I was like, if I can be so upset about my partner wanting me to leave my home, feeling like I've already lost enough and now I'm going to lose this, and maybe this was your grand plan all along, Like if I can make Brooke spiral that way, I can buy like I'm being insane and I need to just get out of the house and go for a drive. I need
to cool down. Yeah, so I had to lean into it, but I did have to talk myself into it.
Also, yeah, you guys sold it. It was just clunky because there were no seeds planted. Yeah.
Yeah, there was no sprinkle of this issue in episode eight ten.
They were just huge accusations that came out of left field. There was no foundation for him, so it just kind of left me going like wait what Yeah, even.
If there was something about him saying like moving back to La or Sylvia saying like, well, you know, he still got a life back in La, you guys could even if it was just a little something in the previous episode that would have been helpful.
Yeah.
Also, yeah, decided to sell all of her assets like she made an integrity move. She was coerced into that.
Yeah, exactly. And that was part of it for me where I was like, I chose my choice. Yeah, Why am I accusing him of choosing my choice for me? He wasn't even in the room exact The guy with the pen was in the room, not.
The guy with the pen, who took the pen back?
Who took the.
Okay, I have a little pivot.
I do want to ask Amanda, when you guys were filming this stuff. First of all, when you went into the pool, this is you two or.
Stunts falling in with stunts, okay.
And then once you and then you both had.
To get in where they're Oh, I feel like I can't the episode is a little bit of a jungle because I saw it yesterday. Were there shots of the two of you struggling in that pool cover in the water or was it just shot you getting out and Chantelle laying in the water.
I don't think you there is a fight that happens in the water. No, No, there's there's a scramble.
Right, like a struggle in the pool cover. But I don't think we see your faces. I don't think, right, I don't think they would let you do that.
Yeah, okay, are you.
Sure there's a struggle, because I'm pretty sure it's that you guys just go in and you just see her lifeless up, seemingly lifeless because she's not Do we not struggle? No, you didn't. You both you struggle to get there. She runs back, tackles you over. You fall in the pool. But then when you see Katie kind of you kind of come too. You turn around and look back and her legs are just yeahah yeah. And then you get out of the pool.
There is a kicking around when they hit the water, when the doubles hit the water, and like arms and legs are going yeah. Then it cuts away.
Yeah.
I don't think there's a full on knockdown drag out.
No.
I think they were very smart with stunts, with you guys knowing you know, liability, safety, et cetera. They were going to let them fall in and kick around for a for a second to look like they were fighting.
And then we just climbed it. It was that.
Stop, like stop, stop, stop, are you okay?
We did do That was probably until that point the most in interior the fight stuff that we did. That was the most actual action. I've done stunts, did you know most of it obviously, But I do have a shoulder injury from that. When what happened, I'm holding the knife in my hand and she hits my hand like this, and I didn't know any better to like brace my shoulder against the wall, you know, and so seant shantell we're not. No one was like And I didn't raise
any alarms about it either. My shoulder was getting like yanked back like that. So I do have still.
Like a rotator cuff thing.
Yeah, lid a gate, lid a gate. Yes, let's get let's get you some shoulder money.
Oh wow?
So how much of that was on the beach property? Like you guys were out at the beach.
That was the whole thing, the whole thing, the whole thing.
Didn't shoot it, didn't they create Quinning Clay's beach house on stage.
I never did anything on stage.
No, No, we'd have to go out the top sail.
Yeah, all of that and watching that fight stuff like that was a sloppy, messy fight. They did a good I mean that looked like two people. But you know when you watch a fight sequence and you're like, oh, punch right, dodge and it's like a full on choreography. Yeah, so really sloppy, you know, like like two people really were kicking and scrambling and scratching, and I think they did a really good job with the choreography. And then the Sun performers as well.
Yeah. I love that you even feel that because you acted it as if you were watching it. I was like, Oh, they they look like real people. It doesn't look like stunt doubles who know how to fight. You guys look like two terrified, enraged women scrambling. And I love that because it made me believe that it was you and it was her. I'm kind of shocked to hear that stunts did so much of it. I really thought you guys did it.
I saw one section because they did let us do a lot, and I think at one point Chantelle might have even worn a brace and I kicked her.
M that's so great.
Yeah, yeah, in the ribs when you were standing over her and kick her, that's you, guys, for sure.
So that's definitely not us. A lot of it was us. There's one part where one of us is up against the wall and the other one comes around and there's an interaction and a throwdown, and that was that was definitely stunts because I remember watching that off camera and trying to get the physicality of it and being really impressed by the two women that that's so cool.
Yeah, it was pretty seamless. I mean, those women looked really did a really great job.
Editing was great, wasn't it. I could only tell from one angle it's a it's a lower angle, and I could see that it wasn't my hair.
Yeah, I would not have noticed.
Yeah, I was so impressed. The thing that gave me chills and made me feel the delicious as you know, part of the fan that made this show was you in the kitchen going boo. I was like, I was like, she did it so perfectly.
It's like, oh my god.
It was like spicy and naughty and scary, and I was like, oh, And it made me want to ask you, like how you'd obviously had to do a lot of wild shit as Katie, but how did you prepare for this? How did you figure out your way into the cat and mouse? Like I'm going to enjoy this. Were there movies you were watching or was it a conversation you had or did you just get inspired when you read it.
I truly don't remember details of it. I just remember unlike maybe Brooke going out in a category four I do, I don't. My storyline was breadcrumbed. I'm going with that that she was getting increasingly more unhinged, and I, at that point in my career I for the most part, really was cast as being the cuckoo. I often was the murderer or it's like crazy, So, but that was probably the most unhinged I had ever played. And like,
how often do we get something that imbalanced? Like that's fun, that's really fun, And if you're not going to have fun doing it, then what's the point if we hear doing this for a living, if we don't get to step into the skin of people, will never know and so and you know, the truth is like I do do a whole like meditation, and I do before I walk out on set always, but I also do a lot of work as the character and try to live like through pivotal moments and why that person is that way,
And it's really fun to get to figure out why somebody is that way and then for twenty minute blocks live as that person and then take that skin off and become a little bit, hopefully more hinged. And then so I do like the opportunity. I don't remember details. I definitely didn't watch any movies, but it was sort of just like, she's here for payback and it's going to be sweet.
Wow, that's so inspiring. I also love hearing you say become more hinged to get that lightly.
The moment when Quinn is about to leave the house like on foot, it's when I think you say I'm your storm. We Initially I was like, what's happening because as Quinn's to go to the front door, Katie starts walking the opposite direction. I'm like, why in the hell? And then I realized, Oh, because she's so confident that she can find Quinn again and that she has control over this game that she doesn't even need to chase her, which was such a boss move.
So good.
And also after this is after Quinn.
Sorry to interrupt you, but this is after Quinn shoved a knife in your leg and then ran away from you left you with the knife.
Yeah, didn't Is this right after that moment?
She good things? She missed my femoral but yeah, because I guess there are more in the kitchen in that block. I don't know, she wasn't going to like take the time to like.
Relive it with a weapon.
I actually about when I got stabbed. When I watched that, I was like, oh, that's right. Because the morning after shooting that, I had to put myself on tape for something and I had my sides on my lap and I hadn't been able to get all the blood off my leg My god, and so when I was holding my sides up, I remember there being like crusted fake
blood all over my sides. And I think it was for the audition, was for Nikita, if I remembering correctly, and I was perfect, Oh, this is definitely going to get me the roll.
It didn't like, but it didn't hurt.
No, I might have I don't know.
The question I have though, is the last bit, which is a just it's a lovely payoff for the audience. It's Quinn's like hoorah moment where she walks up to Katie on the stretcher and whispers in her ear, I'm your storm. And I just found myself going if I had a lethal killer of a stalker who is still alive, would I choose to taunt them as the last thing before they go away to prison. It just doesn't seem like it's the smartest move to like poke that bear. That bear doesn't need poking.
Yeah, the bear, the bear will be poked, regardless of whether you do it or not. I don't know. Ten maybe Katie comes out.
But that's really the that's like, that's the action hero lot.
That's what I'm saying. It's the payoff she deserved.
Yeah, she needs to have earned that, Like if Quinn had really kicked her ass, then I feel like maybe she would have earned that line, but she didn't.
I also love the woman who plays Quinn's sister saying that being like Lizzle, little sis, you're getting a little big for your breeches.
Sorry, this was not a fair fight.
Katie won every fight, every moment except for the last one when Quinn turned around and shoved her off the balcony and then she did shoot her, I mean, and then and then she came back and shot her at the very very end. But like the whole rest of the episode was just Quinn getting her butt kicked. So you know, yeah, I agree with you up, maybe it's like an affirmation.
I don't know, I did like the way that Chantelle delivered it. So I like you because she looks as as beautiful as she is for somebody that beautiful, she looks wrecked, you know, in the most stunning of ways. And it's just it's not it's not intense. It's just kind of like a guarantee. Yeah, you know, it's a whisper, but it's not like it's not trying too hard, you know, It's just it's a matter of fact, it's on your storm.
Yeah, there's a really interesting thing, I think, because you have to kind of play against the soapy nature of some of it. And I think her the way I took it was more you think this know it about me, like this, this is what you think of yourself, but really it's me. And it felt to me like she she felt ready to kind of flip the table. And because of the way she delivered it, the last action in the episode made sense to me. Everyone's recuperating. We
see the family of three in bed together. We see Brooke sleeping in Julian's lap and he's up vigilant, and we see her she wakes up not in her bed but on the couch and then like throws open the doors in the windows to let the day in, and I was like, oh, yeah, she's really taking her power back.
Yeah, I agree with that. Also, I just want to defend Katie for a second, because Katie she because Quinn says only I'm not going to leave you here for twelve hours, only a psycho would do that. Katie thought that she killed them, so she wasn't leaving them for twelve.
Hours, you know what.
Totally fair point, valid, totally fairpoint.
I'm just going to say, like, you know, what would be pretty great is like three seasons into the reboot, it would just be great if Katie showed up having totally worked on herself.
Yeah, oh my god. It was like a guidance counselor yes.
Yeah, yeah, no, you know how like people who have the most issues end up being therapists.
Not even a therapist, she's a vicvictim's advocate, like and you're like you.
Yes, yes, I help people work through their storms. Like like her motto is Storm's be Gone.
The tagline on her website storm breaker like a d and character incredible. I loved it. I also want to shout out one of the things I and we're talking about it in every way, right, How do you make things grounded in an episode that's so heightened. I loved and I had forgotten about it because we did this so long ago when we first started dealing with Brooke getting the kids out of miss Lauren's car and Alison Munn finally wakes up that she wakes up and like has that moment of sheer panic.
Oh, she's so great in this too.
She's so good, and you know, I get why miss Lauren couldn't come back, you know, to help, that's the whole idea. But I loved her whole energy in it and the panic out like where am I? And oh my god, and the kids and the whole thing. It all felt so real to me, and I don't know, I really I feel very proud of all of us, guys. I think it was great too.
And that's a good good way to segue to tell you that we actually have else in mind coming up in an episode soon.
I'm so excited that she's going to come talk with us, so we'll get.
To hear all about being miss Lauren from her and how this episode went for her too, because she had a lot of that stuff, like being sideways laying in the rain with that stuff pelting on you. It's one thing standing up, but when you're laying down Like so I was just talking about, Yeah, that's really intense.
Yeah, we're getting to hear from all our favorite blondes.
I know.
We have a fan question, Oh, Rob, you want to read it?
Yes. Wendy literally the girl from the fast food chain, asks how do you film scenes when someone is being revived from drowning. Drowning and water comes out of their mouth while laying down? Do they not choke while holding water in their mouth and coughing it out?
Great question.
I can speak to that, Yes you can in this episode. So what we had to do is, you know, Julian Carey's broke out laser down on the bridge the whole time we're pumping CPR. As an actor, I don't have water in my mouth. It would be incredibly dangerous. What happens is then they'll usually set up a special or they'll call a pause and literally say you know, pause,
someone will run water into you. And I remember, we had to do a couple of takes because it is really scary to get to hold that much water in your mouth and your throat and then have someone push on you one more time, and so I think like the third take, I was like, let me just do it again, and I was basically about to choke. I got almost a whole bottle of water because I was like, if I've been underwater and my lungs have filled with water, it can't be like a little bit of water that
comes out of my mouth. You know, I'm not throwing up where like you can see food and then I can hide it at the back of my head. A lot of water needs to come out. And so in the rain, everyone was really a good sport and Austin was a good sport and was like, I'll just like barely push on your chest this time, and we got that huge cough of water out. But it requires a reset.
Yeah, that's a lot.
It's heavy, it's disgusting and horrible.
Honorable mentions, Well, yeah, my honorable mention goes to our entire special effects crew for this whole episode.
Sune special effects electricians, like everybody our crew worked harder than we did because they were there on you know, we only had to be there doing that stuff the days that we were shooting it, but they were out there every day, all day or night.
That's a lot of work. So those guys really blew our mind, Amanda.
Do you have an honorable mention?
Yes, the honorable mentions. First of all, I think that Austin carrying you out of the water just like holy like, yeah, that was and hero moment. I'm not sure if it was there. There were a lot of good uses of slow mo, so hats off to the SloMo department well done. And the kids. I want to applaud the kids in this episode because they were all fantastic children working in a disaster type thing, especially the water work. That's really scary.
That's really really scary, scary for adults. Hats off to those children.
Yeah, I'm gonna jump in because mine was going to be Chuck. When we first see Chuck on the highway when Brooke sees him, my first thought was like, what what the hell does this kid had some head trauma or something. And then I came to find out he was playing a city concussion. I was like, well, you freaking nailed it, buddy.
He was great. He was always great.
Yeah, everyone everyone was so wonderful. I mean across the board, like you know, I think about it with all of you, I think, like what you, Amanda and Chantell had to do, I would give you know, my personal ones for keeping me seeing through it, to Austin and to Jackson, and then honestly, like our camera operators who were underwater with me, it was really scary to, you know, be sunk to the bottom of a swimming pool and trust that I wasn't going to die, even though I felt like I
was dying. And there would be moments where, you know, one of our camera ops in a full wet suit and fins would just reach out and grab my hand off camera and give me a squeeze, and I was like, oh, we're all gonna be okay, okay. And it's it's those things, you know, to Joy's point about the crew that people don't see, but it really is make or break experience for us for shooting this stuff.
So may I ask something, Sophia about the crews. Did you have your regular camera operators and crew or did they bring in people who were scuba certified?
If I remember correctly, I believe Matt Dahl was scuba certified, and I think they brought in one more person.
Yeah, I think Matt, because that's a whole other thing too. You have to have people who are scuba certified and who can go under the water, so you might not be working with your regular crew and that.
Yeah, I felt very lucky to have Maddie swimming around. He's like the best dad and the best co pilot on set. And so when one of your favorite working co pilots also gives you dad energy in a moment like that, you're like, bless you.
This is such a great episode. Thank you guys, Thank you Amanda for joining us.
Thanks for having me everyone. This was so fun to be able to take a trip down memory lane.
You rule.
This episode.
Season eight, episode twelve. The drinks we drank last night.
We drank a lot of water. So thanks everybody, See you later. Ye hey, thanks for listening.
Don't forget to leave us a review. You can also follow us on Instagram at Drama Queens ot.
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