September 25, 2024 • 36 mins
Let’s talk about Season 4 Episode 5 with writers JJ Philbin and Ella Robinson Brooks about which actor made Selena Gomez break character while shooting and director of episodes 405 (and 406) about how Fisher Price toys helped in the planning of a particularly challenging scene. Plus… A giveaway!
Heads up, there are spoilers for episode five. So listeners, if you haven't watched yet, stream it now and come right back!
Send us your thoughts and theories (in a voice memo!?): onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com
Or chat with fellow fans on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyMurdersHulu
**The Giveaway**
Want to win tickets to the Only Murders themed escape room!?
There are locations in both Los Angeles and New York. If you’re located around one of those two cities and you’d like to test your mystery solving chops with 3 of your best buds, here’s how you enter.
Leave this podcast a rating and review on Apple or Spotify — wherever you listen from — take a screenshot, and email it to us at onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com. Include which city you want to visit the Escape Room in — either NYC or LA.
We’ll pick 2 winners in LA and 2 in NYC. Each winner will get four tickets. We’ll choose the lucky detectives right before the season finale! Good luck!
Heads up, there are spoilers for episode five. So listeners, if you haven't watched yet, stream it now and come right back!
Send us your thoughts and theories (in a voice memo!?): onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com
Or chat with fellow fans on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyMurdersHulu
**The Giveaway**
Want to win tickets to the Only Murders themed escape room!?
There are locations in both Los Angeles and New York. If you’re located around one of those two cities and you’d like to test your mystery solving chops with 3 of your best buds, here’s how you enter.
Leave this podcast a rating and review on Apple or Spotify — wherever you listen from — take a screenshot, and email it to us at onlymurders@strawhutmedia.com. Include which city you want to visit the Escape Room in — either NYC or LA.
We’ll pick 2 winners in LA and 2 in NYC. Each winner will get four tickets. We’ll choose the lucky detectives right before the season finale! Good luck!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Hot Media.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The way I approached is sometimes I use little Fisher
Price toys and just to figure out where people go.
And the thing I was obsessed with is like, how
do we shoot them in the mirrors without seeing ourselves?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hello and welcome to the Only Murders in the Building Podcast.
I'm Maggie Bowles.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
And I'm Ryan Tillotson. We are looking behind the scenes
and money for clues as we meet the cast and
creators of the Hulu original series Only Murders in the Building.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Today on the show, we're talking all about season four,
episode five. We'll hear from writers Gigi Philbin and Ella
Robinson Brooks and director Jessica You about which actor made
Selena Gomez break character while shooting, and how Fisher Price
Toys helped in the planning of a particularly challenging scene.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
But first, a quick recap and listeners. There are spoilers
for episode five, so if you haven't watched it, hip pause,
go watch and come right back. Episode five adaptation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
We start with a monologue from the writer of the movie,
Marshall P.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Pope.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
He's wearing a fake beard and dealing with imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Bev Mellon and the Trio are in the shed. We
learned that Sas left of voicemail for Bev, saying there
was a problem with the movie. She thinks someone involved
with the movie is the murderer. Bev says she'll save
the movie, while the trio find says is killing.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
So you find the killer, I save the movie.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
How's that for a deal.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Charles unveils a third murder board to Detective Williams. I
think the next time you asked me to rush over
here for breaking the case, you.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Need to give me something better than twenty fucking thousand
murder boards.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Okay, it's only three.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And the trio gets their life rights checks. Mabel starts
calling herself a podcast producer.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
The trio decide to go to the production office in
the Penthouse to look for a new suspect, and they
start asking Marshall questions the brother, sisters and lists of
trio for the photoshoot of the movie.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
While questioning Marshall the writer, they learned that he was
doing stand up in la on the night of the murder,
and also that Charles's twelve minute murder timeline might not work.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Oliver is feeling insecure After learning the bicep in Loretta's
Instagram photo belongs to sexy actor Jack Junk Jack Junk,
he decides to prove himself by testing the timeline. It
takes him thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
That's a lot more than twelve all right, Doe, that's
been thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
What what happened to you? Oliver?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, they realize that the footprint from the radiator at
Dudonof's apartment matches a footprint from someone on the set.
That means the killer was upstairs in the production office.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
During the photoshoot. They lay out the Eva Longoria Tachi mats.
They realize that the murderer could have been two people,
and that helps make the timeline work. They think it
must be the brother sisters. Tawny Brothers shoe matches the
shoe print and Trina Brothers is super strong. She can
lift Oliver up.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
She lifted him up. Then a shot is fired. Somebody
has been shocked in this episode. Charles unveils a third
murder board. And so we asked writers JJ Philbin and
Ella Robinson Brooks if the multiplying boards were a reflection
(03:20):
of reality.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
I'd say so. Like in the room. We don't just
have murder boards. We have like murder walls. We have
like the murder table where all the note cards go,
like they're physically I don't think is enough space in
the world to hold all the cards that we need
to make this show. So it's like a little bit
of everything.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
That voice you just heard is Ella Robinson Brooks.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (03:41):
We have murder boards that are just timelines.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And this one is JJ Philbins.
Speaker 8 (03:45):
So we have murder boards that are just like logic
of like, Okay, this is our story and we're sticking
to it, of like what one character's you know, journey
was or the night of the murder is. That's that's
our most valuable the board. I would say, we keep
referring back to that and changing that. We have to
have one for clues, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (04:06):
Just for clues and all that kind of stuff, and
then like fun episode idy is woo.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
That's like our most like whimsical murder board, the ones
that we're the least scared of, you know, yeah, some
of the other ones are scary.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I also love some of the details on the murder
boards that we see in episode five, specifically like picture
to Come or like I think Charles tries to write
Zach galafn Akison fails the first time. Is that stuff
that you guys write into the script or is that
set decoration? How does that work?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (04:39):
I think that's set deck honestly, I mean, you know
it's I think they really get it so right of
like exactly what we are talking about like at the
time ends up on the murder board. But there's always
like funny little details. I noticed those two when I
watch the episodes, I'm like, oh, man, that's so great
(05:00):
that they realized that, like that would be some weird
thing we'd be talking about.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
Really, Hi, I just went down to the lobby to
look for you. Can you hang back and talk with
me for a second. Come sit down with me. Let's
see if we can pass the Bechdel test.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
We get a lot more of Bev Mellon in this episode,
and I'm curious, how did you in the room and
then together when you were working on this episode, how
did you find that balance for her voice? And then
how did Molly Shannon sort of like bring it to life?
Speaker 9 (05:32):
Well, she really ran away with it.
Speaker 8 (05:34):
I mean, you know, we had so much fun pitching
on that character.
Speaker 9 (05:38):
But as we.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
I think by the time Ellen and I were working
on this episode, we had been seeing dailies and we
saw that, you know, she had this kind of unhinged
quality sure, which was really you know, making us laugh
and so and Mollie also, I think she you know,
she was really interactive, like she had thoughts and so
(06:00):
that was helpful.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
There was one day where she she will send like
alts for the lines, and it was like her I remember,
she was like, oh, I'm getting a pedicure, Like here
are my notes that I wrote, and it's just like
literally like a picture that was like taken in a
pedicure chair, like of these notes and it's like, oh
my gosh. Okay, we'll go in and add these. And
it's always like, oh my gosh, because she has like
such specific ways that she like speaks and intonates and stuff.
So she was giving us like, oh, I think like
(06:23):
it would be even funner if we did this, and
it always was. So it was really cool to like
take Molly's notes and implement them.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
That is so cool, absolutely amazing.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
She's so lovely.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Did you guys did either of you go to set
while while they were shooting?
Speaker 9 (06:37):
I went to set for.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
This episode, it was so I mean, gosh, well, first
of all, when I walked into the shack, it was gorgeous,
Like that was the thing when we're like, oh, I know,
whenever we describe something like, oh, a shack, like we're picturing,
you know, like a defunct shack in the middle of nowhere,
and you walk in, it's the most gorgeous shack you've
ever seen. And then also just like getting to see
(06:59):
this where there Charles is going around and taking pictures.
A cool little easter egg that you might not know
is that Jessica you who directed it is in that
scene when the camera goes around, you'll see her sitting
at the desk. So I was there when they filmed that.
And also, oh, this is actually a really fun interesting
fact is that Marshall's apartment is an actual apartment inside
(07:23):
the bell Nord, not the Arconia. Like Marshall does not
live in the Arconia. That's not the lore. But we
shot for the first time ever inside in an apartment
at the bell Nord. We were there to do some
exterior shots of Charles, you know, walking down the street
and Oliver doing that, and they were like, why don't
we kill two birds with one stone, like let us
shoot in the building, so we actually Like I got
to go inside an apartment in bell Nord and it
(07:45):
was so fancy and so gorgeous. Although our sets are
more beautiful, I will say.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I'm just gonna say, how does it compare?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
It's like, I mean ours, like the building itself looks
very new and so our. I think part of what
makes our sets look so gorgeous is that they look
like these beautiful old pre war apartments with the dark
flood and all that stuff. And it was a very
like sterile white apartment, which is how they were able
to make it look like some dudes like studio apartment
in La But it was like the most probably like
(08:15):
the most expensive set and like the nicest set of
us just being like in this apartment building, like just
in the six bedroom apartment, very casually.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's the first time season four, first time they've shot
inside on apartment.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Absolutely wild.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
My favorite moments from set, which was watching Mollie and
Selena do the scene by the elevators where Mabel was
pitching her podcast ideas. It was just so lovely to
be there because Mollie is so funny, and Selena was
like breaking in the scene because she was making her
laughs apart, and like Selena never breaks. That's the thing
(08:51):
you see on set is like Steve and Marty will
be like literally yucking it up and She's just like,
come on, come on, come on. But seeing her interact
with Molly was just like such a wonderful kind of
flavor and color on her. And now that we've like
kind of exonerated Bad Melon, I want more of her
because I love them together. So that's just something that like,
I'm always pushing for more Bad Melon and Mabel together
(09:14):
And that was probably my favorite thing from set.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
That's great. That's great.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
The first one is about people, tall people, short people,
all different sized people.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Hm.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
And uh there's another one about buttons being pushed because
of trauma.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Oh I like that.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
You know, I forget it. None of these are really anything.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Mabel, do you want the advice of a senior VP.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
These ideas are fantastic, They're relatable. I mean, come on,
who hasn't dealt with people and buttons.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
That scene in the shed was just, you know, so delightful,
and we had who was in the shed with something
that the writers talked about, you know, the shed at
the end of concussions that we come up on the
episode with her in there. That was like a very
very big and long and thoughtful discussion.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Like weeks of who was in the bed at the
end of forty months, Maybe not eight weeks, but for
like quite a few weeks. We were like, because it
just as we broke out the story, it was like,
who's the most beneficial, incredible, amazing person that we could
see in the shed that's going to give you the
most bang for your buck? And it really is Mollie
in the end is the person literally who gives you
(10:36):
the most bang for your buck. We tried, like, we
tried it all, but Molly.
Speaker 9 (10:42):
Was the best.
Speaker 8 (10:42):
Other people tried to get in on that shed. No,
we were like, it's Bev Melon bed Melan only. Oh
my god, you.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
I'm so sorry. I've just been a little on edge.
I really do not like being this far east of Bruntwood.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
Do you mind the gun down?
Speaker 11 (11:01):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
This it's not loaded. I had no idea. I mean,
did you have a board just for the shed?
Speaker 8 (11:09):
Probably at one point and s we should have yeah,
several boards. Yeah, I mean, this was the episode where
we were kind of transitioning the story towards the movie
because we had been really spending a lot of time
in the West Tower, and we you know, the movie
had been saying playing a sort of background. So there,
(11:32):
I guess the debate was sort of about do we
want to stay in the West Tower and resolve more
of those questions because we knew that there was more
story to come there, or do we want to go
to this movie that we set up in episode one
and then we do spend time with the actors, but
like we hadn't been really spending a lot of time
(11:56):
with the people on the movie and investigating them as us,
And so I think that.
Speaker 9 (12:02):
Was, like with the Shed, debate was really about.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 12 (12:07):
They're making your movie. You're a real writer. Now you're
convinced the voice in your head, the one that says
you're a fraud, is finally gonna go away. Except that doesn't,
and you start to wonder if it ever will.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
We learn that the writer, Marshall P. Pope, is a
huge Charlie Kaufman fan. I mean, the name episode is adaptation.
I'm really curious to know you know, Charlie Kaufman makes
some strange movies, adaptation being John Malcovich Eternal Sunshine. What
is this movie?
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Like?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
What is have you? How much of the movie do
you know exists? Like how how kaufman esque is it
of the Only Murders movie itself? Yeah, I feel like
just with the.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Vibe of the show, it probably will be very kaufmanesque.
I feel like it like exists in that world. But
that was honestly something as we were working on this season,
I was like, Oh, we think of the show as
a comedy, and we think of this show as a
comedy in a podcast as a comedy, all the things
that happening, like the actual movie based on the podcast
itself would be a drama, but like, no, that's not right.
(13:17):
So like trying to figure out kind of how to
saddle the tone. And I think that having like crazy
directors and the really kind of interesting mix of people
for a cast like helps make you realize that, oh,
this movie is going to be just as crazy as
the podcast. But I think like we had to be like, oh, yeah,
we have to make this crazy because it is crazy
to just make like a comedy movie about a Murder Podcast.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, and I think we also get like a little
glimpse into maybe like the style of script writing from
I think it's like Oliver flitted around like a masculine
tinker Bell or something, and then Charles's brain thumped something
like that like this.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Is this a good script?
Speaker 8 (13:57):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Or is this?
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Well that was something we talked about a lot, because
you know, we are writers that we wanted to kind
of poke fun at writers and sort of how tortured
the process can be. And you know, Marshall seemed like
someone who just wanted this so so so badly and
(14:19):
this is his big shot. But you know, now it's
real and he's on set and he's trying to churn
out these pages and like he's not very experienced and
so yeah, I mean we were kind of like he's
probably panicated writing some stuff that isn't you know that great?
Speaker 9 (14:40):
So yeah, I mean these.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
Were his rewrites I think that he was working on.
So we were really trying to thread a lot in
their Beth Melon kind of coming down on him like
come on, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
Churn out some great scenes. And so he's a little
bit of loose. Sounds in this episode.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Is there someone in the writer's room who can quote
both David Foster Wallace and Ace Ventura. That is that
everybody or.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I feel like, all together we come together to make
a person like that. We do have a couple of
writers on our show who are like so specific, like
Madeline George, who wrote episode four or four. She's like
the type of person like I feel like, if you
really pressed her on it, she could do both because
she's that much of a genius and like that smart.
But it definitely is like Marshall is the most like
(15:30):
annoying version of a writer, and we don't have any
annoying people in our room, so for that reason we're good.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Well, you mentioned he's a little insecure, and I feel
like impostor syndrome is a is a big theme of
this episode.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, we've got both Mabel, Yeah, and Marshall kind of
dealing with.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Right, I think, actually, yeah, I mean we we sort of.
I think it's true, you know, for all of them
in a lot of ways. I mean, Charles was feeling
like he is an imp as an investigator when his
theory of the how, which he was really proud of,
he felt like this is the thing that I have
(16:09):
that's working, And then that got blown up.
Speaker 13 (16:12):
Picture this our Keller takes his place or her place
and waits for the target to come into you. Minute one,
Mark Keller takes a shot. Can I just commit to
male pronouns? It'll be easier anyway.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Doing the James Bondiyan sequence with Steve was like a
high point of my life, you know, I mean that
was then of course I'm like, why isn't he playing
James Bond in some sort of parallel universe?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
That was a total pleasure. That was just a quick
aside from director Jessica.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
U was definitely a very stylish theory, even though it
didn't quite hold up to scrutiny. Back to JJ and Ella.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
All the characters in this are feeling kind of insecure
and wondering if they can really do the same thing
the things that they, you know, say out loud that
they can do. So it felt, you know, we started
talking about Marshall's imposter syndrome, that this was his first job,
that most writers feel that way early in their career,
(17:16):
but oftentimes all the way through, and it just started
to feel like a really fun theme and we kind
of went for it with Mabel too, that she got
this paycheck and she's not used to getting like validated
in that way, and so she too went kind of
down a little bit of a spral of like do
(17:36):
I really you know, do I really know what I'm
doing here? And that was sort of part of her
story with Beth Mellon when they're trying when Bev is
trying to get her to like go.
Speaker 14 (17:45):
To the ideas, Yeah, I don't know if I have
any So it was kind of neat the way that
that idea was sort of like threaded through for all
And you know, it was true in the Oliver story too,
He's like.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Spiraling around Jack jonk. We the writers really fell in
love with Jack John. I can't tell you that was
really We really laughed, but that you know, he was
feeling that way too in his story with Loretta. So
it felt like, you know, if we're doing a story
that we're really focusing on the writer and his you know,
(18:24):
really wanting to feel like professional when inside he feels
like an amateur, that that could be something really interesting
to explore for for all of our characters.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, amateurs flailing their way to success.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
I think that's exactly I think.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Even when it came to writing it, it was kind
of not an easy episode to write. But even as
I was writing it, I was feeling imposter syndrome because
this is my first season on this incredible show with
comedy legends, and I'm like, I can I write for
Steve Martin. I like, I was freaking out. I was
honestly scared. And then you know, when JJ and I
first came together with our asked for the episode, she
(19:01):
was like, okay, like this is my draft, like, don't
judge it too hard. I was like, this is my draft,
don't judge it too hard. Like, oh my god, we're
all insecure. Like everybody feels this way, and it just
like was so validating in writing episode, Like even as
I'm writing this, I.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Feel like Marshall.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
So that was like such a It was like a
really good place to be able to access when writing,
you know, something that's so totally bos around it.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Yeah, that feeling of staring at the blank page and going,
I don't know how to do this.
Speaker 9 (19:26):
I never did.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
This is going to be the moment where everybody finds
out I don't know how to do this, Like, you know,
I think it's such a universal thing, so that I
felt like, you know, strangely, really kind of worked for
all of the little stories that we were trying to
tell for all the characters.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
After the break, how Jack Jonk brought out a sad
but hilarious side to Oliver Putnam and the crazy photo shoot.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
With the Trio Squared.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Welcome back. This is our first time having Ella Robinson
Brooks and JJ Philman on the podcast. JJ joined last
season season three and Ella joined in season four, and
we always find it interesting to ask about the writer's
collaborative process, especially when the two writers are paired together
for an episode for the first time.
Speaker 8 (20:23):
Well, I would say initially, we you know, we collaborated
with the whole room and just talking about what you know,
this was the midpoint of the season episode five, what
we what our goals were for the story. And then
Ella and I, along with the rest of the writers,
talked through so many variations of this story, so many
(20:48):
different versions exist that we actually went off and wrote,
didn't we.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You guys each wrote your own draft and then kind
of merged them together. Is that what I understand?
Speaker 9 (21:00):
Split up scenes?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Yeah? Yeah, but like in the Ether is like a
completely different version of this episode that like, once we
wrote it, we were kind of like, this is good,
but like it's missing that Jenny Siqua and the Jenni
Siqua was martin short writing down like a stair rail
and hitting himself at the bottom of the rail. That
was like what it was missing. And so once we
(21:22):
like went back and added the all of our elements,
that's when like, oh, now it makes sense, Like now
it's really like singing.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
I's been thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
What what happened to you?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Oliver?
Speaker 8 (21:40):
Well, and that's when we kind of went back in
and built off the story in four or four where
Oliver is feeling insecure around the bicep in Loretta's Instagram
pictures and you know, thought, well, what if he is
able to identify who that first in his and then
(22:00):
it's like his worst nightmare of like this like hot
muscle man, that could mean that he could kind of
jump into this story and do that. That kind of
the b side of that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Yeah, he's just as tough as junk and he can
do it. You know, he can sleep with all seven
doors or.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
With a.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, he can chunk someone's junk all junk long or whatever.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
Oh my gosh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Oliver doing the journey from Dudnof's apartment is so full
of physical comedy. It was so so funny, including that
banister slide. I loved it. But also throughout the episode
we get so many good lines from Oliver in this episode,
Like he's like bragging about how many times he's been
(22:52):
asked to be a pall bearer.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
It's funny because you don't strike me as someone who
would like care for their body. Excuse me, I need
to go find someone.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
Actually, I'm known as a bit of a herclean figure
in the theater community, usually picked second for Softball, right
after the lesbian stage manager and out of brag, but
I've been asked to be a pallbear many times.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Or his like his bout with steroids, the twenty four
hour kickline marathon, It's like there are so many of them.
Are those ideas that came up in the in the room,
like different things that maybe Oliver would say, or is
that something that you guys kind of worked on in
your script?
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Well that because that idea came late after Ellen and
I had written the first draft. At that point we're
kind of pressed for time, and so we're going to
make this pretty big change to kind of take out
the Oliver story that had existed in that episode and
give him a story about Jonk that kind of gets
(23:59):
him to that this crazy like physical comedy where he
tries to do the crime.
Speaker 9 (24:05):
And so at that point, we were in a.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Group rewrite and we were all in our own offices writing.
Speaker 9 (24:16):
Like on that like Collabo right thing.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
And there was like five of us and we were
in our offices and texting these lines into the Grieve
chat and we were all hearing each other's like hysterical
laughter from our holes, you know. And I did my
first and only time peeing my pants in my life
(24:42):
during a writing session. Came from it was Ben Smith's line,
and it was like, oh god, I'm going to mangle it.
But it's like I jump to junk and that can
be used as a down and a verb in that
holes you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 11 (24:57):
Right, I'm sorry, you've used junk as the noun and
a verb in the span of ten seconds.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Well, it can be both.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The Jonk jonked my jont till like jont is a
valid sentence.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Well, he and I don't sound that different.
Speaker 11 (25:10):
Both body guys you know, love proteinat a lot of
people don't know this, but I myself went through a
steroids face bread in his own for my sinus infections.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
I was like, oh my god, I think like Jack
johnk has given me life, like because it was at
that point we'd written many versions of the script and
we're like kind of like, oh I'm tired, but we
were high on life thanks.
Speaker 9 (25:32):
To Jack job.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
So that was just like a fun, giddy group for
me right where we kind of added that storyline in
and had so much fun.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Sometimes we'll do it like that, or sometimes we'll like
sit in a room together in one personal like drive
and we'll just look at a big screen together. But
those are my favorite parts of writing because everybody gets
like a little bit punch out because you really are
just trying. You're like making each other laugh until you
find the best joke. So that's when like the room
gets like a little crazy and people are just saying
like the most wild stuff. And that's how you get
it to twenty four hour Kick Linda and Ricketts like
(26:02):
just because you're just saying absolutely anything crazy so fun.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I'm assuming you're also on set for the photo shoot scenes,
because there are some very funny moments. Ryan's favorite moment
probably from the season so far.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Try one back to back, you share a vertebrae and
a shameful secret.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Shameful secret.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Okay, now turn around.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
Wiener sevens Sean.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Penis back to back. Wi Yeah, that was okay.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So this is devastating to me personally, but that was
like the day I got there on like a Monday,
and they shot that on the Friday before, so I
didn't get to go to the photo shoot. So I'm
sad forever. But that was like we always knew there
was going to be a photo shoot and that there
were going to be mirrors, reflections, all of that happening,
(27:06):
and like where it landed in our season, like it
was kind of once we kind of built the story out,
it was evident that it had to go in five
but like literally kind of like week one of the room,
John's like, I want to go to this place. It's
called one Vanderbilt or Vanderbilt one. We still don't know
to this day.
Speaker 9 (27:22):
We call it both.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
We call it both. There's merrors on the floor and
the ceiling and all this stuff, which is really cool.
So we're like, Okay, we have to go to this place.
We have to go to this place, and then finally
they were like, oh, if you go there, it's going
to be impossible to shoot because there's mirrors on the
floor and the ceiling. So we did end up doing
what we did in the episode where it's like the
monitors and the stuff going on. But the evolution of
like that of like, Okay, we're going to have to
go to this place. We know what it's going to be,
(27:45):
and then the like the actual like logistics of shooting
was like we're going to do the same thing but
in a different place. And it still looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Oh oh, I see, but and it's also still really challenging.
Speaker 9 (27:57):
Right yeah. I think it was like that, I mean,
isn't there.
Speaker 8 (28:00):
But you know, I think it was really challenging because
I think they only had that space for one day
and it's quite an involved sequence, and we back in
the writer's room kept getting like, Okay, you guys got
to keep cutting.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
Cut cutting.
Speaker 8 (28:16):
We're like, we've kind of cut everything that there is
to cut without like losing this whole thing. But we
did change really, you know, on the fly, we were
trying to be in lieu of cutting. We were trying
to simplify, and so that gag that is about the
footprints on the sticky mats, we had written something that
(28:42):
we were like, ooh, this is so fun, which was
like where they spilled a giant tub of cheeto dust
was what Longoria was doing in that scene, and then
watching as people were taking steps in that cheeto dust
(29:03):
and seeing what the footprints were, where the shoe prints were,
and John was like, yeah, I love that. And then
he was like, under no circumstances can we throw cheeto
dust on the floor have people walk through it clean
it up?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
And we were like, yeah, you know what, You're right.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
We couldn't have come up with something more annoying or
hard to shoot than that.
Speaker 9 (29:28):
So that was something that we impossible.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Like the team switch was smart.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
Yeah, I mean did the same thing. We were like,
but don't you think Cheeto does Everyone was like put
it on the map. We were like understood.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
What exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
GJ and Ella were not able to be on set
for the photoshoot scene, but director Jessica, you was.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So much going on, so I was, you know, having
these sort of like daymares of trying to keep everybody
straight with you know, we've got triple gangers. I don't
know if that's a word, but you know, we had
three of each of our our you know, of the trio,
the triple trio, and then trying to figure out where
(30:14):
everybody was and to get these angles.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Plus we have mirrors.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It's like, okay, thanks John, We're gonna have mirrors too,
you know. So the way I approached is sometimes I
use little Fisher Price toys and just to figure out
where people go. And the thing I was obsessed with
is like how do we shoot them in the mirrors
without seeing ourselves? And so I got these little mirrored posts.
I'll send you guys a picture because it's ridiculous. I
(30:40):
got so into it. And then I had my Fisher
Price toys and like you know, there's like three Ernies
and three Berts, and like three of the three of
the you know the blonde lady with the you know
who always has the masculine And then so that way
we kind of could It was really helpful to see
like where the camera needed to be, and so I
(31:00):
brought it on set and then as we move things
around and I could just say, hey, next we're moving
on to this, and after a while, like the beginning,
everyone would look in. Then after a while they're just like, Okay,
it's fine.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
So he just got used to it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
We just got used to it. But you know one
thing that helps is on this show. I'm sure you
guys hear this all the time, but like everyone wants
to be on set. Everybody loves me on the show.
And it's like Paul read when I was like, okay, Paul,
you're done, and he's like, no, I'm not done.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Can I do anything?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
This just doesn't happen right. Usually someone's like, thank god,
finally they shot me out so I can leave. And
so even when it's a little chaotic and loud, it's
just a delight, like it's this just did not happen
very often.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Was the stuff in the photo shoot when they're all
kind of crammed in There is any of that improvised?
Is that all scripted? I mean I laughed a lot
about back to back Wiener to Wiener. Oh yeah's curious,
like if that was all written, that was scripted.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
But the part when they're all when they're being prompted
to do you know, my dinner with Andre plus one,
that that little section there that was like it that
was like a game of charades where people were just
kind of throwing things in And.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, yeah, Ron Harry and Hermione.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I love seeing the ones where you know, of course
Charles and Oliver have no idea who they are, just like,
are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Wizards?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I don't think my dinner with Andre plus one was
in the final cup?
Speaker 12 (32:32):
Was it?
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Oh it wasn't. That was my favorite, But.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
It's very funny. That's where I was like, it's not,
although it's possible. Well we'll fact check that, check it.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
Charlie's angels, Ron Harry, Hermione.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Harry Putter, Oh yeah, Godfather won two three.
Speaker 11 (33:01):
Are you sure this plan is going to work?
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
But I didn't have a better idea, such a short
hampous Let's take five, Charles go to makeup, tell them
we need you to look a little less.
Speaker 9 (33:13):
We'll know what that means.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Here's jj. Have you been dropping hints throughout this through
so far? You know this is episode five. Have you
been dropping hints about the brothers, sisters or you know,
are they potentially dangerous?
Speaker 8 (33:27):
I think so, I mean I think there's been a
I mean, first of all, they're just so odd, you know,
so take from that what you will. And you know,
I noticed in in four the way that they were
just that scene with Howard during the audition. I feel
like they dropped a few things just about shooting and
(33:51):
you know how important their art is. I don't want
to give anything away for the episode that's coming, but yeah,
I mean, we had we have our conversations about them
all the way through, and that was sort of it
was fun to build to that over the course of
the episode and have drop little clues over the course
(34:11):
of this one that then sort of enact three.
Speaker 9 (34:14):
It all comes together.
Speaker 8 (34:15):
That was the goal.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening.
We'll be back in a few days with the amazing
Molly Shannon Molly Shannon plus Michael Ciril Crichton who plays Howard,
and of course John Hoffman.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Please continue to send us your thoughts and theories to
only Murders at strawhatmedia dot com. You can send it
in text, or you can send us a voice memo
and we might play it on the show.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Take a minute to subscribe, rate the show, follow us,
and leave us a review if you enjoy the show,
which I hope you do.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Only Murders in the Building Podcast is a production of
straw Hut Media, hosted and produced by Ryan Tilton and
Maggie Bowles. Our Associate producer is Stephen Markley. Original music
by Kyle Merritt and Only Murders in the Building theme
music by Siddartha Cosla. Assistant editor is Daniel Ferrara and
Production Assistant is Caroline Mendoza.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Thank you so much to JJ Philbin and Ella Robinson
Brooks and Jessica you for talking with us this.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Week, and big, big thanks as always to John Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And the entire Hulu team.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Ben Smith, right, Ben Smith is the writer that actually
does drink a gallon of water.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
The size of that water bottle, it's really aggressive.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
It's enormous, and it's always on the table blocking everyone's
blind of sight. Like it's insane.
Speaker 9 (35:54):
It's bigger than most humans in the room.
Speaker 8 (35:57):
Like it's like our biggest writers at water, Like the
heftiest writer we have is that bottom
Straw Hot Media.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The way I approached is sometimes I use little Fisher
Price toys and just to figure out where people go.
And the thing I was obsessed with is like, how
do we shoot them in the mirrors without seeing ourselves?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hello and welcome to the Only Murders in the Building Podcast.
I'm Maggie Bowles.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
And I'm Ryan Tillotson. We are looking behind the scenes
and money for clues as we meet the cast and
creators of the Hulu original series Only Murders in the Building.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Today on the show, we're talking all about season four,
episode five. We'll hear from writers Gigi Philbin and Ella
Robinson Brooks and director Jessica You about which actor made
Selena Gomez break character while shooting, and how Fisher Price
Toys helped in the planning of a particularly challenging scene.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
But first, a quick recap and listeners. There are spoilers
for episode five, so if you haven't watched it, hip pause,
go watch and come right back. Episode five adaptation.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
We start with a monologue from the writer of the movie,
Marshall P.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Pope.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
He's wearing a fake beard and dealing with imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Bev Mellon and the Trio are in the shed. We
learned that Sas left of voicemail for Bev, saying there
was a problem with the movie. She thinks someone involved
with the movie is the murderer. Bev says she'll save
the movie, while the trio find says is killing.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
So you find the killer, I save the movie.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
How's that for a deal.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Charles unveils a third murder board to Detective Williams. I
think the next time you asked me to rush over
here for breaking the case, you.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Need to give me something better than twenty fucking thousand
murder boards.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Okay, it's only three.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And the trio gets their life rights checks. Mabel starts
calling herself a podcast producer.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
The trio decide to go to the production office in
the Penthouse to look for a new suspect, and they
start asking Marshall questions the brother, sisters and lists of
trio for the photoshoot of the movie.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
While questioning Marshall the writer, they learned that he was
doing stand up in la on the night of the murder,
and also that Charles's twelve minute murder timeline might not work.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Oliver is feeling insecure After learning the bicep in Loretta's
Instagram photo belongs to sexy actor Jack Junk Jack Junk,
he decides to prove himself by testing the timeline. It
takes him thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
That's a lot more than twelve all right, Doe, that's
been thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
What what happened to you? Oliver?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, they realize that the footprint from the radiator at
Dudonof's apartment matches a footprint from someone on the set.
That means the killer was upstairs in the production office.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
During the photoshoot. They lay out the Eva Longoria Tachi mats.
They realize that the murderer could have been two people,
and that helps make the timeline work. They think it
must be the brother sisters. Tawny Brothers shoe matches the
shoe print and Trina Brothers is super strong. She can
lift Oliver up.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
She lifted him up. Then a shot is fired. Somebody
has been shocked in this episode. Charles unveils a third
murder board. And so we asked writers JJ Philbin and
Ella Robinson Brooks if the multiplying boards were a reflection
(03:20):
of reality.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
I'd say so. Like in the room. We don't just
have murder boards. We have like murder walls. We have
like the murder table where all the note cards go,
like they're physically I don't think is enough space in
the world to hold all the cards that we need
to make this show. So it's like a little bit
of everything.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
That voice you just heard is Ella Robinson Brooks.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (03:41):
We have murder boards that are just timelines.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
And this one is JJ Philbins.
Speaker 8 (03:45):
So we have murder boards that are just like logic
of like, Okay, this is our story and we're sticking
to it, of like what one character's you know, journey
was or the night of the murder is. That's that's
our most valuable the board. I would say, we keep
referring back to that and changing that. We have to
have one for clues, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (04:06):
Just for clues and all that kind of stuff, and
then like fun episode idy is woo.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
That's like our most like whimsical murder board, the ones
that we're the least scared of, you know, yeah, some
of the other ones are scary.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I also love some of the details on the murder
boards that we see in episode five, specifically like picture
to Come or like I think Charles tries to write
Zach galafn Akison fails the first time. Is that stuff
that you guys write into the script or is that
set decoration? How does that work?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (04:39):
I think that's set deck honestly, I mean, you know
it's I think they really get it so right of
like exactly what we are talking about like at the
time ends up on the murder board. But there's always
like funny little details. I noticed those two when I
watch the episodes, I'm like, oh, man, that's so great
(05:00):
that they realized that, like that would be some weird
thing we'd be talking about.
Speaker 10 (05:04):
Really, Hi, I just went down to the lobby to
look for you. Can you hang back and talk with
me for a second. Come sit down with me. Let's
see if we can pass the Bechdel test.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
We get a lot more of Bev Mellon in this episode,
and I'm curious, how did you in the room and
then together when you were working on this episode, how
did you find that balance for her voice? And then
how did Molly Shannon sort of like bring it to life?
Speaker 9 (05:32):
Well, she really ran away with it.
Speaker 8 (05:34):
I mean, you know, we had so much fun pitching
on that character.
Speaker 9 (05:38):
But as we.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
I think by the time Ellen and I were working
on this episode, we had been seeing dailies and we
saw that, you know, she had this kind of unhinged
quality sure, which was really you know, making us laugh
and so and Mollie also, I think she you know,
she was really interactive, like she had thoughts and so
(06:00):
that was helpful.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
There was one day where she she will send like
alts for the lines, and it was like her I remember,
she was like, oh, I'm getting a pedicure, Like here
are my notes that I wrote, and it's just like
literally like a picture that was like taken in a
pedicure chair, like of these notes and it's like, oh
my gosh. Okay, we'll go in and add these. And
it's always like, oh my gosh, because she has like
such specific ways that she like speaks and intonates and stuff.
So she was giving us like, oh, I think like
(06:23):
it would be even funner if we did this, and
it always was. So it was really cool to like
take Molly's notes and implement them.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
That is so cool, absolutely amazing.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
She's so lovely.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Did you guys did either of you go to set
while while they were shooting?
Speaker 9 (06:37):
I went to set for.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
This episode, it was so I mean, gosh, well, first
of all, when I walked into the shack, it was gorgeous,
Like that was the thing when we're like, oh, I know,
whenever we describe something like, oh, a shack, like we're picturing,
you know, like a defunct shack in the middle of nowhere,
and you walk in, it's the most gorgeous shack you've
ever seen. And then also just like getting to see
(06:59):
this where there Charles is going around and taking pictures.
A cool little easter egg that you might not know
is that Jessica you who directed it is in that
scene when the camera goes around, you'll see her sitting
at the desk. So I was there when they filmed that.
And also, oh, this is actually a really fun interesting
fact is that Marshall's apartment is an actual apartment inside
(07:23):
the bell Nord, not the Arconia. Like Marshall does not
live in the Arconia. That's not the lore. But we
shot for the first time ever inside in an apartment
at the bell Nord. We were there to do some
exterior shots of Charles, you know, walking down the street
and Oliver doing that, and they were like, why don't
we kill two birds with one stone, like let us
shoot in the building, so we actually Like I got
to go inside an apartment in bell Nord and it
(07:45):
was so fancy and so gorgeous. Although our sets are
more beautiful, I will say.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I'm just gonna say, how does it compare?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
It's like, I mean ours, like the building itself looks
very new and so our. I think part of what
makes our sets look so gorgeous is that they look
like these beautiful old pre war apartments with the dark
flood and all that stuff. And it was a very
like sterile white apartment, which is how they were able
to make it look like some dudes like studio apartment
in La But it was like the most probably like
(08:15):
the most expensive set and like the nicest set of
us just being like in this apartment building, like just
in the six bedroom apartment, very casually.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's the first time season four, first time they've shot
inside on apartment.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Absolutely wild.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
My favorite moments from set, which was watching Mollie and
Selena do the scene by the elevators where Mabel was
pitching her podcast ideas. It was just so lovely to
be there because Mollie is so funny, and Selena was
like breaking in the scene because she was making her
laughs apart, and like Selena never breaks. That's the thing
(08:51):
you see on set is like Steve and Marty will
be like literally yucking it up and She's just like,
come on, come on, come on. But seeing her interact
with Molly was just like such a wonderful kind of
flavor and color on her. And now that we've like
kind of exonerated Bad Melon, I want more of her
because I love them together. So that's just something that like,
I'm always pushing for more Bad Melon and Mabel together
(09:14):
And that was probably my favorite thing from set.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
That's great. That's great.
Speaker 7 (09:19):
The first one is about people, tall people, short people,
all different sized people.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Hm.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
And uh there's another one about buttons being pushed because
of trauma.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Oh I like that.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
You know, I forget it. None of these are really anything.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Mabel, do you want the advice of a senior VP.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
These ideas are fantastic, They're relatable. I mean, come on,
who hasn't dealt with people and buttons.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
That scene in the shed was just, you know, so delightful,
and we had who was in the shed with something
that the writers talked about, you know, the shed at
the end of concussions that we come up on the
episode with her in there. That was like a very
very big and long and thoughtful discussion.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Like weeks of who was in the bed at the
end of forty months, Maybe not eight weeks, but for
like quite a few weeks. We were like, because it
just as we broke out the story, it was like,
who's the most beneficial, incredible, amazing person that we could
see in the shed that's going to give you the
most bang for your buck? And it really is Mollie
in the end is the person literally who gives you
(10:36):
the most bang for your buck. We tried, like, we
tried it all, but Molly.
Speaker 9 (10:42):
Was the best.
Speaker 8 (10:42):
Other people tried to get in on that shed. No,
we were like, it's Bev Melon bed Melan only. Oh
my god, you.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
I'm so sorry. I've just been a little on edge.
I really do not like being this far east of Bruntwood.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
Do you mind the gun down?
Speaker 11 (11:01):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
This it's not loaded. I had no idea. I mean,
did you have a board just for the shed?
Speaker 8 (11:09):
Probably at one point and s we should have yeah,
several boards. Yeah, I mean, this was the episode where
we were kind of transitioning the story towards the movie
because we had been really spending a lot of time
in the West Tower, and we you know, the movie
had been saying playing a sort of background. So there,
(11:32):
I guess the debate was sort of about do we
want to stay in the West Tower and resolve more
of those questions because we knew that there was more
story to come there, or do we want to go
to this movie that we set up in episode one
and then we do spend time with the actors, but
like we hadn't been really spending a lot of time
(11:56):
with the people on the movie and investigating them as us,
And so I think that.
Speaker 9 (12:02):
Was, like with the Shed, debate was really about.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 12 (12:07):
They're making your movie. You're a real writer. Now you're
convinced the voice in your head, the one that says
you're a fraud, is finally gonna go away. Except that doesn't,
and you start to wonder if it ever will.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
We learn that the writer, Marshall P. Pope, is a
huge Charlie Kaufman fan. I mean, the name episode is adaptation.
I'm really curious to know you know, Charlie Kaufman makes
some strange movies, adaptation being John Malcovich Eternal Sunshine. What
is this movie?
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Like?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
What is have you? How much of the movie do
you know exists? Like how how kaufman esque is it
of the Only Murders movie itself? Yeah, I feel like
just with the.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Vibe of the show, it probably will be very kaufmanesque.
I feel like it like exists in that world. But
that was honestly something as we were working on this season,
I was like, Oh, we think of the show as
a comedy, and we think of this show as a
comedy in a podcast as a comedy, all the things
that happening, like the actual movie based on the podcast
itself would be a drama, but like, no, that's not right.
(13:17):
So like trying to figure out kind of how to
saddle the tone. And I think that having like crazy
directors and the really kind of interesting mix of people
for a cast like helps make you realize that, oh,
this movie is going to be just as crazy as
the podcast. But I think like we had to be like, oh, yeah,
we have to make this crazy because it is crazy
to just make like a comedy movie about a Murder Podcast.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, and I think we also get like a little
glimpse into maybe like the style of script writing from
I think it's like Oliver flitted around like a masculine
tinker Bell or something, and then Charles's brain thumped something
like that like this.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Is this a good script?
Speaker 8 (13:57):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Or is this?
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Well that was something we talked about a lot, because
you know, we are writers that we wanted to kind
of poke fun at writers and sort of how tortured
the process can be. And you know, Marshall seemed like
someone who just wanted this so so so badly and
(14:19):
this is his big shot. But you know, now it's
real and he's on set and he's trying to churn
out these pages and like he's not very experienced and
so yeah, I mean we were kind of like he's
probably panicated writing some stuff that isn't you know that great?
Speaker 9 (14:40):
So yeah, I mean these.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
Were his rewrites I think that he was working on.
So we were really trying to thread a lot in
their Beth Melon kind of coming down on him like
come on, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
Churn out some great scenes. And so he's a little
bit of loose. Sounds in this episode.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Is there someone in the writer's room who can quote
both David Foster Wallace and Ace Ventura. That is that
everybody or.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I feel like, all together we come together to make
a person like that. We do have a couple of
writers on our show who are like so specific, like
Madeline George, who wrote episode four or four. She's like
the type of person like I feel like, if you
really pressed her on it, she could do both because
she's that much of a genius and like that smart.
But it definitely is like Marshall is the most like
(15:30):
annoying version of a writer, and we don't have any
annoying people in our room, so for that reason we're good.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Well, you mentioned he's a little insecure, and I feel
like impostor syndrome is a is a big theme of
this episode.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, we've got both Mabel, Yeah, and Marshall kind of
dealing with.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Right, I think, actually, yeah, I mean we we sort of.
I think it's true, you know, for all of them
in a lot of ways. I mean, Charles was feeling
like he is an imp as an investigator when his
theory of the how, which he was really proud of,
he felt like this is the thing that I have
(16:09):
that's working, And then that got blown up.
Speaker 13 (16:12):
Picture this our Keller takes his place or her place
and waits for the target to come into you. Minute one,
Mark Keller takes a shot. Can I just commit to
male pronouns? It'll be easier anyway.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Doing the James Bondiyan sequence with Steve was like a
high point of my life, you know, I mean that
was then of course I'm like, why isn't he playing
James Bond in some sort of parallel universe?
Speaker 4 (16:44):
That was a total pleasure. That was just a quick
aside from director Jessica.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
U was definitely a very stylish theory, even though it
didn't quite hold up to scrutiny. Back to JJ and Ella.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
All the characters in this are feeling kind of insecure
and wondering if they can really do the same thing
the things that they, you know, say out loud that
they can do. So it felt, you know, we started
talking about Marshall's imposter syndrome, that this was his first job,
that most writers feel that way early in their career,
(17:16):
but oftentimes all the way through, and it just started
to feel like a really fun theme and we kind
of went for it with Mabel too, that she got
this paycheck and she's not used to getting like validated
in that way, and so she too went kind of
down a little bit of a spral of like do
(17:36):
I really you know, do I really know what I'm
doing here? And that was sort of part of her
story with Beth Mellon when they're trying when Bev is
trying to get her to like go.
Speaker 14 (17:45):
To the ideas, Yeah, I don't know if I have
any So it was kind of neat the way that
that idea was sort of like threaded through for all
And you know, it was true in the Oliver story too,
He's like.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Spiraling around Jack jonk. We the writers really fell in
love with Jack John. I can't tell you that was
really We really laughed, but that you know, he was
feeling that way too in his story with Loretta. So
it felt like, you know, if we're doing a story
that we're really focusing on the writer and his you know,
(18:24):
really wanting to feel like professional when inside he feels
like an amateur, that that could be something really interesting
to explore for for all of our characters.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, amateurs flailing their way to success.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
I think that's exactly I think.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Even when it came to writing it, it was kind
of not an easy episode to write. But even as
I was writing it, I was feeling imposter syndrome because
this is my first season on this incredible show with
comedy legends, and I'm like, I can I write for
Steve Martin. I like, I was freaking out. I was
honestly scared. And then you know, when JJ and I
first came together with our asked for the episode, she
(19:01):
was like, okay, like this is my draft, like, don't
judge it too hard. I was like, this is my draft,
don't judge it too hard. Like, oh my god, we're
all insecure. Like everybody feels this way, and it just
like was so validating in writing episode, Like even as
I'm writing this, I.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Feel like Marshall.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
So that was like such a It was like a
really good place to be able to access when writing,
you know, something that's so totally bos around it.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Yeah, that feeling of staring at the blank page and going,
I don't know how to do this.
Speaker 9 (19:26):
I never did.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
This is going to be the moment where everybody finds
out I don't know how to do this, Like, you know,
I think it's such a universal thing, so that I
felt like, you know, strangely, really kind of worked for
all of the little stories that we were trying to
tell for all the characters.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
After the break, how Jack Jonk brought out a sad
but hilarious side to Oliver Putnam and the crazy photo shoot.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
With the Trio Squared.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Welcome back. This is our first time having Ella Robinson
Brooks and JJ Philman on the podcast. JJ joined last
season season three and Ella joined in season four, and
we always find it interesting to ask about the writer's
collaborative process, especially when the two writers are paired together
for an episode for the first time.
Speaker 8 (20:23):
Well, I would say initially, we you know, we collaborated
with the whole room and just talking about what you know,
this was the midpoint of the season episode five, what
we what our goals were for the story. And then
Ella and I, along with the rest of the writers,
talked through so many variations of this story, so many
(20:48):
different versions exist that we actually went off and wrote,
didn't we.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
You guys each wrote your own draft and then kind
of merged them together. Is that what I understand?
Speaker 9 (21:00):
Split up scenes?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Yeah? Yeah, but like in the Ether is like a
completely different version of this episode that like, once we
wrote it, we were kind of like, this is good,
but like it's missing that Jenny Siqua and the Jenni
Siqua was martin short writing down like a stair rail
and hitting himself at the bottom of the rail. That
was like what it was missing. And so once we
(21:22):
like went back and added the all of our elements,
that's when like, oh, now it makes sense, Like now
it's really like singing.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
I's been thirty eight minutes.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
What what happened to you?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Oliver?
Speaker 8 (21:40):
Well, and that's when we kind of went back in
and built off the story in four or four where
Oliver is feeling insecure around the bicep in Loretta's Instagram
pictures and you know, thought, well, what if he is
able to identify who that first in his and then
(22:00):
it's like his worst nightmare of like this like hot
muscle man, that could mean that he could kind of
jump into this story and do that. That kind of
the b side of that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Yeah, he's just as tough as junk and he can
do it. You know, he can sleep with all seven
doors or.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
With a.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, he can chunk someone's junk all junk long or whatever.
Speaker 9 (22:29):
Oh my gosh, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Oliver doing the journey from Dudnof's apartment is so full
of physical comedy. It was so so funny, including that
banister slide. I loved it. But also throughout the episode
we get so many good lines from Oliver in this episode,
Like he's like bragging about how many times he's been
(22:52):
asked to be a pall bearer.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
It's funny because you don't strike me as someone who
would like care for their body. Excuse me, I need
to go find someone.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
Actually, I'm known as a bit of a herclean figure
in the theater community, usually picked second for Softball, right
after the lesbian stage manager and out of brag, but
I've been asked to be a pallbear many times.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Or his like his bout with steroids, the twenty four
hour kickline marathon, It's like there are so many of them.
Are those ideas that came up in the in the room,
like different things that maybe Oliver would say, or is
that something that you guys kind of worked on in
your script?
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Well that because that idea came late after Ellen and
I had written the first draft. At that point we're
kind of pressed for time, and so we're going to
make this pretty big change to kind of take out
the Oliver story that had existed in that episode and
give him a story about Jonk that kind of gets
(23:59):
him to that this crazy like physical comedy where he
tries to do the crime.
Speaker 9 (24:05):
And so at that point, we were in a.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
Group rewrite and we were all in our own offices writing.
Speaker 9 (24:16):
Like on that like Collabo right thing.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
And there was like five of us and we were
in our offices and texting these lines into the Grieve
chat and we were all hearing each other's like hysterical
laughter from our holes, you know. And I did my
first and only time peeing my pants in my life
(24:42):
during a writing session. Came from it was Ben Smith's line,
and it was like, oh god, I'm going to mangle it.
But it's like I jump to junk and that can
be used as a down and a verb in that
holes you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 11 (24:57):
Right, I'm sorry, you've used junk as the noun and
a verb in the span of ten seconds.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Well, it can be both.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The Jonk jonked my jont till like jont is a
valid sentence.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Well, he and I don't sound that different.
Speaker 11 (25:10):
Both body guys you know, love proteinat a lot of
people don't know this, but I myself went through a
steroids face bread in his own for my sinus infections.
Speaker 8 (25:20):
I was like, oh my god, I think like Jack
johnk has given me life, like because it was at
that point we'd written many versions of the script and
we're like kind of like, oh I'm tired, but we
were high on life thanks.
Speaker 9 (25:32):
To Jack job.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
So that was just like a fun, giddy group for
me right where we kind of added that storyline in
and had so much fun.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Sometimes we'll do it like that, or sometimes we'll like
sit in a room together in one personal like drive
and we'll just look at a big screen together. But
those are my favorite parts of writing because everybody gets
like a little bit punch out because you really are
just trying. You're like making each other laugh until you
find the best joke. So that's when like the room
gets like a little crazy and people are just saying
like the most wild stuff. And that's how you get
it to twenty four hour Kick Linda and Ricketts like
(26:02):
just because you're just saying absolutely anything crazy so fun.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I'm assuming you're also on set for the photo shoot scenes,
because there are some very funny moments. Ryan's favorite moment
probably from the season so far.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Try one back to back, you share a vertebrae and
a shameful secret.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Shameful secret.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Okay, now turn around.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
Wiener sevens Sean.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Penis back to back. Wi Yeah, that was okay.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So this is devastating to me personally, but that was
like the day I got there on like a Monday,
and they shot that on the Friday before, so I
didn't get to go to the photo shoot. So I'm
sad forever. But that was like we always knew there
was going to be a photo shoot and that there
were going to be mirrors, reflections, all of that happening,
(27:06):
and like where it landed in our season, like it
was kind of once we kind of built the story out,
it was evident that it had to go in five
but like literally kind of like week one of the room,
John's like, I want to go to this place. It's
called one Vanderbilt or Vanderbilt one. We still don't know
to this day.
Speaker 9 (27:22):
We call it both.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
We call it both. There's merrors on the floor and
the ceiling and all this stuff, which is really cool.
So we're like, Okay, we have to go to this place.
We have to go to this place, and then finally
they were like, oh, if you go there, it's going
to be impossible to shoot because there's mirrors on the
floor and the ceiling. So we did end up doing
what we did in the episode where it's like the
monitors and the stuff going on. But the evolution of
like that of like, Okay, we're going to have to
go to this place. We know what it's going to be,
(27:45):
and then the like the actual like logistics of shooting
was like we're going to do the same thing but
in a different place. And it still looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Oh oh, I see, but and it's also still really challenging.
Speaker 9 (27:57):
Right yeah. I think it was like that, I mean,
isn't there.
Speaker 8 (28:00):
But you know, I think it was really challenging because
I think they only had that space for one day
and it's quite an involved sequence, and we back in
the writer's room kept getting like, Okay, you guys got
to keep cutting.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
Cut cutting.
Speaker 8 (28:16):
We're like, we've kind of cut everything that there is
to cut without like losing this whole thing. But we
did change really, you know, on the fly, we were
trying to be in lieu of cutting. We were trying
to simplify, and so that gag that is about the
footprints on the sticky mats, we had written something that
(28:42):
we were like, ooh, this is so fun, which was
like where they spilled a giant tub of cheeto dust
was what Longoria was doing in that scene, and then
watching as people were taking steps in that cheeto dust
(29:03):
and seeing what the footprints were, where the shoe prints were,
and John was like, yeah, I love that. And then
he was like, under no circumstances can we throw cheeto
dust on the floor have people walk through it clean
it up?
Speaker 9 (29:20):
And we were like, yeah, you know what, You're right.
Speaker 8 (29:23):
We couldn't have come up with something more annoying or
hard to shoot than that.
Speaker 9 (29:28):
So that was something that we impossible.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Like the team switch was smart.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
Yeah, I mean did the same thing. We were like,
but don't you think Cheeto does Everyone was like put
it on the map. We were like understood.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
What exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
GJ and Ella were not able to be on set
for the photoshoot scene, but director Jessica, you was.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So much going on, so I was, you know, having
these sort of like daymares of trying to keep everybody
straight with you know, we've got triple gangers. I don't
know if that's a word, but you know, we had
three of each of our our you know, of the trio,
the triple trio, and then trying to figure out where
(30:14):
everybody was and to get these angles.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Plus we have mirrors.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It's like, okay, thanks John, We're gonna have mirrors too,
you know. So the way I approached is sometimes I
use little Fisher Price toys and just to figure out
where people go. And the thing I was obsessed with
is like how do we shoot them in the mirrors
without seeing ourselves? And so I got these little mirrored posts.
I'll send you guys a picture because it's ridiculous. I
(30:40):
got so into it. And then I had my Fisher
Price toys and like you know, there's like three Ernies
and three Berts, and like three of the three of
the you know the blonde lady with the you know
who always has the masculine And then so that way
we kind of could It was really helpful to see
like where the camera needed to be, and so I
(31:00):
brought it on set and then as we move things
around and I could just say, hey, next we're moving
on to this, and after a while, like the beginning,
everyone would look in. Then after a while they're just like, Okay,
it's fine.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
So he just got used to it.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
We just got used to it. But you know one
thing that helps is on this show. I'm sure you
guys hear this all the time, but like everyone wants
to be on set. Everybody loves me on the show.
And it's like Paul read when I was like, okay, Paul,
you're done, and he's like, no, I'm not done.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Can I do anything?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
This just doesn't happen right. Usually someone's like, thank god,
finally they shot me out so I can leave. And
so even when it's a little chaotic and loud, it's
just a delight, like it's this just did not happen
very often.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Was the stuff in the photo shoot when they're all
kind of crammed in There is any of that improvised?
Is that all scripted? I mean I laughed a lot
about back to back Wiener to Wiener. Oh yeah's curious,
like if that was all written, that was scripted.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
But the part when they're all when they're being prompted
to do you know, my dinner with Andre plus one,
that that little section there that was like it that
was like a game of charades where people were just
kind of throwing things in And.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, yeah, Ron Harry and Hermione.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I love seeing the ones where you know, of course
Charles and Oliver have no idea who they are, just like,
are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Wizards?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I don't think my dinner with Andre plus one was
in the final cup?
Speaker 12 (32:32):
Was it?
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Oh it wasn't. That was my favorite, But.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
It's very funny. That's where I was like, it's not,
although it's possible. Well we'll fact check that, check it.
Speaker 8 (32:48):
Charlie's angels, Ron Harry, Hermione.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Harry Putter, Oh yeah, Godfather won two three.
Speaker 11 (33:01):
Are you sure this plan is going to work?
Speaker 9 (33:04):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
But I didn't have a better idea, such a short
hampous Let's take five, Charles go to makeup, tell them
we need you to look a little less.
Speaker 9 (33:13):
We'll know what that means.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Here's jj. Have you been dropping hints throughout this through
so far? You know this is episode five. Have you
been dropping hints about the brothers, sisters or you know,
are they potentially dangerous?
Speaker 8 (33:27):
I think so, I mean I think there's been a
I mean, first of all, they're just so odd, you know,
so take from that what you will. And you know,
I noticed in in four the way that they were
just that scene with Howard during the audition. I feel
like they dropped a few things just about shooting and
(33:51):
you know how important their art is. I don't want
to give anything away for the episode that's coming, but yeah,
I mean, we had we have our conversations about them
all the way through, and that was sort of it
was fun to build to that over the course of
the episode and have drop little clues over the course
(34:11):
of this one that then sort of enact three.
Speaker 9 (34:14):
It all comes together.
Speaker 8 (34:15):
That was the goal.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening.
We'll be back in a few days with the amazing
Molly Shannon Molly Shannon plus Michael Ciril Crichton who plays Howard,
and of course John Hoffman.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Please continue to send us your thoughts and theories to
only Murders at strawhatmedia dot com. You can send it
in text, or you can send us a voice memo
and we might play it on the show.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Take a minute to subscribe, rate the show, follow us,
and leave us a review if you enjoy the show,
which I hope you do.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Only Murders in the Building Podcast is a production of
straw Hut Media, hosted and produced by Ryan Tilton and
Maggie Bowles. Our Associate producer is Stephen Markley. Original music
by Kyle Merritt and Only Murders in the Building theme
music by Siddartha Cosla. Assistant editor is Daniel Ferrara and
Production Assistant is Caroline Mendoza.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Thank you so much to JJ Philbin and Ella Robinson
Brooks and Jessica you for talking with us this.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Week, and big, big thanks as always to John Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And the entire Hulu team.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Ben Smith, right, Ben Smith is the writer that actually
does drink a gallon of water.
Speaker 8 (35:45):
The size of that water bottle, it's really aggressive.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
It's enormous, and it's always on the table blocking everyone's
blind of sight. Like it's insane.
Speaker 9 (35:54):
It's bigger than most humans in the room.
Speaker 8 (35:57):
Like it's like our biggest writers at water, Like the
heftiest writer we have is that bottom
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