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By Suzanne

Interview with James Roday and Ally Sheedy of "Psych" on USA Network 3/8/10

This was a hilarious conference call just to listen to.  Roday and Sheedy were just so funny together. They obviously get along very well.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to ask any questions, but I am not too disappointed because it was such a fun call.

The season finale is this week. Ally Sheedy returns as the crazy woman "Mr. Yang". It is a big Hitchcock spoof, and they do an excellent job.  Roday directs.  It is a great episode!

Psych Conference Call
March 8, 2010/2: 00 p.m. EST

PRESENTATION

Moderator: Our first question today comes from Frederic Germay, from Media Boulevard Magazine. Please go ahead.

F. Germay: My first question is what are some of your favorite episodes in Psych’s four seasons?

J. Roday: I assume you’re asking me that question, Frederic?

F. Germay: Sure, well, if Ally wants to answer as well…

J. Roday: That’s a lot of pressure to put on Ally –

A. Sheedy: That’s okay. I love the episodes that have Yang in them.

J. Roday: Yes. Ally likes the Yang episodes. I too, like the Yang episodes. I would toss in just a random sampling of – let’s see, I’ve always been really fond of the tele-novella episode where we spoofed a Spanish soap opera that was called “Lights, Camera, Homicidio.” I think like half of season one is very dear to me just because we were sort of flying by the seat of our pants and every week was truly a new adventure. I look back at some of those episodes and even though they may not be the greatest episodes they’ll always have – they’ll be very near and dear to me because it was just so much love happening to get this show off the ground.

Then more recently they let me direct for the first time in season three and I’ll always remember that very fondly. That was the “Tuesday the 17th” episode and the first time John Landis came up to work with us on an episode called “Scary Sherry,” that also was one heck of an experience. But mostly the episodes with Mr. Yang.

A. Sheedy: See why I like doing this show? There you go.

J. Roday: Yes.
F. Germay: Okay. Where do you get the creative inspiration for your character to be so bizarre and different? Do you get all that from the script or is there someone in your life that you modeled the character after?

A. Sheedy: I’m not sure, who are you asking?

F. Germay: Oh, James.

A. Sheedy: Oh, okay.

J. Roday: It’s a really great character because he kind of lives by his own set of rules and he’s Peter Pan. He’s Puck, I don’t know real people like him. To approach any situation first and ask questions later that’s just Shawn, and I think I’ve sort of found it along the way. Like I said if you go back and watch early episodes and compare them to the stuff that we’re doing now I think the evolution of the character is – you can see a lot of differences. I’ve always sort of trusted in the fact that this guy doesn’t think a whole lot before he does stuff, so I try not to think too much before I do stuff, and I think it’s worked out okay.

Moderator: Our next question comes from Travis Tidmore from CineManiac. Please go ahead, please.

T. Tidmore: Hi guys, thanks for joining us today.

J. Roday: Yes, thanks, Travis.

A. Sheedy: Hi, yes.

T. Tidmore: Clearly in this episode there is a lot of Hitchcock references. James I was wondering if there is anyone else you drew inspiration from – influences from when you were directing this episode?

J. Roday: You know, I really do try to stay as faithful to Hitchcock as I could both aesthetically and in pacing and I just shamelessly ripped off four or five shots straight out of his films, quite frankly. It was an homage episode and I’m a Hitchcock fan, and Andy Berman who wrote the episode with me, is a Hitchcock fan. As much as we could get away with doing Hitchcock in a Psych episode that’s definitely what we set out to do.

T. Tidmore: As a Hitchcock fan I really enjoyed it.
J. Roday: Thanks, man.

T. Tidmore: No problem. And Ally, from the season finale it looks like we may be seeing more of you. Do you know when that might be, how long we’ll have to wait to see you again?

A. Sheedy: I don’t know. I think there is a strange secretive sort of story going on here and so I’m not going to answer that unless James says I can.

J. Roday: I think it’s fair to say we have not seen the last of her and we’ll leave it at that.

A. Sheedy: Okay, there we go.

T. Tidmore: All right, thank you guys very much.

J. Roday: Thank you, man.

A. Sheedy: Thanks.

Moderator: The next question comes from Lisa Steinberg of Starry Constellation, please go ahead.

L. Steinberg: Hi James and Ally, how are you doing today?

A. Sheedy: Good, hi.

J. Roday: Hi.

L. Steinberg: Ally, I want to take the time to say how gorgeous you looked last night on that awards show.

A. Sheedy: Oh, thank you so much. That was a little nerve wracking, thank you.

L. Steinberg: My pleasure. That was a beautiful homage that you guys did as well.

A. Sheedy: Yes, it was great actually.

L. Steinberg: My question for you, Ally is how hard is it to be kind of menacing – this menacing character on such a hilarious show?

A. Sheedy: Oh, it’s not hard at all. It’s not hard at all because everybody is so whacked out and so extreme that I feel like I’m not in the middle of some very serious true to life drama where I have to pull out all these details about how a serial killer would really behave. I just feel like I get to sort of swing out there and wing it, and it was fun working with James as a director because I definitely had the feeling like anything I could come up with goes. Nobody was coming up to me and saying, well, that’s really not how da, da, da, da, da. I felt like I have total freedom with this character to go anywhere, which is the best when you’re working.

L. Steinberg: My question for James is the episode that we’ll be seeing has kind of a little bit shocked and surprised a lot of the fans. It’s kind of hard for them to figure out what’s going to be happening. Is that surprise element something that you feel is important not only to this episode coming up but to the show itself?

J. Roday: I don’t want to pull the rug out from under our fans every week and slap them in the face with stuff, but this was a season finale and it was the long awaited return of Mr. Yang, and yes, we kind of wanted to load our canon with as much stuff as we could. That’s a fun way to end a season, I think.
Moderator: Our next question comes from Rosa Cordero, Accidental Sexiness, please go ahead.

R. Cordero: Hi, James, it was awesome meeting you at Extinction, you were fantastic.

J. Roday: Oh, thank you.

R. Cordero: And Ally, I have to agree with the previous caller you looked gorgeous on the Oscars last night.

A. Sheedy: Ah, thank you. Thank you.

R. Cordero: You have to realize the teenager – oh sorry, the teenager inside of me is doing cartwheels right now that I’m talking to you.

A. Sheedy: Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

R. Cordero: Okay, so then I’ll ask –God, I’m so nervous I forgot my question.

A. Sheedy: Don’t be nervous. Don’t be nervous, please.

R. Cordero: Oh, I remember. Are there any clues as to who Yin is in either of the two episodes that we have?

J. Roday: No, nothing overt. We’re still sort of working that out ourselves, but we’ll make sure that when we do finally sort of come clean we’ll do our best not to make it one of those things where retrospectively it’s like, well, that’s not – that couldn’t have been possible. We’ll do our best not to cheat. I don’t think we’ve backed ourselves into any corners so far. We’ve kept it pretty ambiguous. We’ll just come up with something really cool and then lay it out there.

Moderator: Next question comes from Lauren Becker with Shooting Stars, go ahead please.

L. Becker: Hi … thanks for talking to us today.

J. Roday: Hello.

A. Sheedy: Hi.

L. Becker: I guess it’s obvious now that “Mr. Yin Presents” was always kind of being formed since the first episode but how did the whole story line come together and how long have you been working on writing it, James?

J. Roday: Well, we sort of – we kind of had to ... that it would be fun to do a trilogy within the landscape of Psych. For a while it was just me and Andy that thought that was cool and then we did the first one and it kind of went over like gangbusters. And Ally was a huge part of our campaign to keep going because I think she did such a marvelous job with that character that it’s like how can you not want more of that? I’ve got to give credit to Jimmi Simpson, too, who also came in and –

A. Sheedy: Oh my God!

J. Roday: -- and created this unbelievable sort of character that we didn’t want to see the end of yet either. A lot of things came together to sort of give us a boost and then from there it was sort of like a no-brainer. We started thinking about the second Yang, I think a day after the first one aired and everybody was so pumped about it. We have not stopped thinking about it since because we still have more work to do.

A. Sheedy: Thank you for saying all that, James, –

J. Roday: It’s so true, though.

A. Sheedy: Thank you. That made my day, definitely made my day.

L. Becker: I’m really excited. I really loved the second part and it definitely leaves you on a cliffhanger, but I enjoyed the Hitchcock references and I was wondering for either of you if there was any particular movie that you wanted to reference in that or what your favorite Hitchcock movie is in general.

J. Roday: What do you think, Ally, what’s your favorite Hitchcock?

A. Sheedy: What’s my favorite one? What’s the name of the Kim Novak one?

J. Roday: Vertigo.

A. Sheedy: See, she’s the boss in this and I can’t remember anything anymore. Vertigo, yes, I love Vertigo, absolutely. I didn’t frigging reference anything for that character. I was like, whatever, you know?

J. Roday: Yes, you were just Yang-ing it in the cell there.

A. Sheedy: Yes, I just, you know, yes.

J. Roday: Most of the references were happening outside.

A. Sheedy: Yes.

J. Roday: I personally am a huge Psycho fan. I have always been a Psycho fan. I’m a horror buff, which is why not only did I get Ally Sheedy in a John Hughes tribute, I got a horror film tribute in the same Oscar telecast and I don’t think it gets better than it did last night for me. I just think Hitchcock sort of revolutionized the idea of the chiller twist that horror films kind of attempted to be predicated on since Psycho came out. That is the original jaw dropping twist that sort of set everything else in motion. I love that movie, and Anthony Perkins is fantastic in it and it’s shot amazingly and yes, that would be my number one.

Moderator: Our next question comes from Kiko Martinez with Extra Chicago, please go ahead.

K. Martinez: Hey, James, I thought that was a pretty good Jimmy Stewart impersonation you had there. How long did it take to perfect that, or was that one of those kind of impersonations that you have to know as an actor?

J. Roday: You know what? I didn’t think I had a Jimmy Stewart in my canon but Andy wrote it and I gave it a shot with a full disclaimer that if it was terrible we would not be using it. It’s a bad Jimmy Stewart impression but it’s good enough that you know who it is. Yes, that’s what I have to say about that.

K. Martinez: Ally, what was it like having all those actors on the same stage again last night and what did you think about Fisher Steven’s win?

A. Sheedy: Oh, that was – well first of all, that movie The Cove is an incredible documentary. It really, really is. It’s not a – I’ve never seen a documentary quite like that one just because of the particular people who were involved in it. It was thrilling. There was Fisher, who I’ve known forever, up there for a documentary. It’s just – I can’t really describe the feeling but there is something about it where you kind of feel like you’re proud of the person even though there is no reason for you to feel proud of them, kind of. It was great to see everybody. It’s really, really nice actually to see everyone. The only person I’m really in touch with regularly is Judd, so it was just nice to check in and see everyone is doing so great.

K. Martinez: Thanks a lot.

A. Sheedy: Thanks.
Moderator: Next question comes from Isis Hernandez with USA Fan’s Character, please go ahead.

I. Hernandez: Well I super, super loved this episode. I’m a huge Hitchcock fan and I was just counting every Hitchcock reference and I’ve got to go back and see it a third time to keep counting because –

A. Sheedy: Oh, that’s great.

I. Hernandez: -- it’s fabulous. My first question is for Mr. James Roday. I know that Hitchcock loved to kind of do most of his directing in preproduction in the fact that he kind of knew how he would be directing before the first day of shooting. Did you approach it this way, the same way that Hitchcock approached it?

J. Roday: No. Hitchcock, God love him, he’s one of the great masters of all time, but he did used to stick to that whole idea that the entire movie was in his head before he stepped on set for the first day and that never once in his entire career did anything ever change. That’s like the most impossible thing in the world for me to believe if for no other reason than something must have fallen over at some point or exploded or something.

We’re a TV show on a seven day schedule so it’s like you want to make people laugh, come in with a plan. Ha, ha that’s very funny. You learn very quickly that if you can get two or three or maybe four of the things right or at least close to what you had in your head over the course of a seven day shoot then you’ve succeeded. That’s a lot to be happy about. The same goes for this episode. I sort of chose my battles and I picked the things that I really, really, really wanted to look like the way that they were storyboarded or the way that they were conceived and everything else you’re just rolling with the punches and collaborating like crazy and hoping that other people will step up and make you look good because you simply haven’t had time to think about some stuff as much as others.

For this episode the Hitchcock stuff was obviously very important. We wanted to service that as best as we could and it was a lot. It was a very ambitious episode. Andy and I had sort of looked at each other several times and we were like, gosh, why did we think we could do this? It’s a game and you’ve kind of got to be ready for anything at any time and that’s the fun of it also.

I. Hernandez: Awesome. Now my follow up question for Miss Sheedy, this is amazing
that I even get to ask you a question, this is my life work.

A. Sheedy: Oh, listen to that. It’s not that amazing.

I. Hernandez: Tell me about the conversation, somebody had to have come to you and said, hey, do you want to play a serial killer? I mean, who gets to play a serial killer for fun.

A. Sheedy: Right? Exactly. That was my reaction. No. I heard okay, so there is a show called Psych and they want you to do a character called Mr. Yang, and could you take a look at the script? I read it. I didn’t know how on earth anybody had me in mind for that part either, not a clue. But as soon as I read it, I thought, okay. This is going to be really, really, really fun so absolutely and jump in. That’s how it went.

I. Hernandez: And you were creepy good in it, creepy good.

A. Sheedy: Thank you. It was fun.

I. Hernandez: Thanks.

Moderator: The next question comes from Troy Rogers with DeadBolt.com. Please go ahead.

T. Rogers: Hi, James. Hi, Ally.

A. Sheedy: Hey.

T. Rogers: James, since the show likes to reference the 80s so much, what was it like for you working opposite Ally?

J. Roday: It kind of goes back to that last question, I’ve been a huge Ally Sheedy fan for a long time and she’s been on our board of people that absolutely must come on the show since the very beginning. It’s surreal. It really is. You grow up and you have dreams of doing this for a living and you have people that inspired you and then you get lucky enough to do it and one day you’re sitting across from them and it’s crazy, but it’s also – it’s unbelievable. All you can do is – you just kind of want to capture these moments in little time capsules because –

A. Sheedy: It’s so cool. James, what’s really funny is when we were sitting in the car for the first scene in the first episode, I was sitting there and was just okay, ready, jump off the cliff here and just do my thing; but I was also thinking please let me do a good job for him. You don’t know what goes on, on the other side, too. It’s like both of us, you know?

J. Roday: Yes, I haven’t been nervous many times on our show, I have to be honest, but I had the butterflies going with Ally.

A. Sheedy: Aw, you know, I did not know. Cool.

T. Rogers: Ally, what’s the best part about playing Mr. Yang?

A. Sheedy: Everything. Everything about Mr. Yang is fun for me, everything. When I read this one and – I wish somebody could read what I read for the first one. Mr. Yang is on a bungee cord like banging off walls. You know what I mean? I read that and then I gave it to my kid to read and I said, “I don’t have a clue how they’re going to do this.” She thought it was just hilarious. I also said to Rebecca, “I’ve done a lot of stuff in my career as you know, my darling girl, but I have never been on a bungee cord.”

T. Rogers: Great.

J. Roday: Ally was a very, very good sport.

A. Sheedy: It was fun. It was really fun. It was craziness.

T. Rogers: Cool. I have one more quick thing for James. I want to know how different is it to direct something you wrote as opposed to the other one that Steve Franks wrote and you directed?
J. Roday: I actually wrote the other one with Steve as well. I would say this one was a little different in that in terms of the writing it was actually -- the first one was much closer to me from a writing standpoint in that it was a slasher episode and I’m sort of the slasher aficionado on the staff. There was a lot of responsibility to make sure that we were making a slasher film even though we were doing an episode of Psych.

This time Andy did a lot of heavy lifting and I was able to sort of focus way more on the aesthetics and making sure that it looked good. There was still a difference I think. Also, just the first time around I was mostly dealing with our core cast and this time around I was actually getting to direct Ally Sheedy. That was just the other big difference.

T. Rogers: Excellent.

J. Roday: By direct I mean popping in to the cell after each take and giving her a big thumbs up with a sh..-eating grin on my face --

A. Sheedy: Oh, listen to this.

J. Roday: ... and then going back behind the monitor.
A. Sheedy: Oh my God.

Moderator: Our next question comes from Matt Carter with Examiner.com. Please go ahead.

M. Carter: Hey, hey, James, how are you doing?

J. Roday: Good, man.

M. Carter: Okay, I guess my first question is, ... in the past that your goal here is to get David Bowie on the show at some point, so have you started to think a little bit about season four? Is your little quest to get David Bowie any closer?

J. Roday: It’s a long shot, man. He’s always in some exotic place and he’s tough to track down. I feel like our best shot was probably on “American Duos” when Landis, who is friends with him, sort of reached out almost made it happen. We’re going to keep trying, but I have to be realistic. I want you all to be realistic with me. There is a less than 30% chance it’s going to happen, but we’re going to keep trying.

M. Carter: Well I’m going to keep holding out hope.

J. Roday: All right.

M. Carter: My next question is for Ally. This is just to satisfy the Breakfast Club geek inside of me, and that is if you could bring anybody from the Breakfast Club over to Psych for an episode, maybe you could take them down as Mr. Yang, who would it be?

A. Sheedy: Do you mean a character or an actor?

M. Carter: Actor.

A. Sheedy: Take one of the actors down?

M. Carter: Who do you want to take down?

A. Sheedy: Oh, I don’t know that I should be answering this question. I don’t want to get – let’s just say I have an idea but I’m going to be in big trouble if I say it. I’m not quite sure how I’m taking ... down.

M. Carter: Let’s just say work with, that’s much more feasible.

A. Sheedy: No, no. I know. I know. One of my favorite people in the world is Judd, but he already did an episode of Psych. I guess my personal soft spot love is for Judd, so there you go.

J. Roday: So we can bring Judd back and then she can take him down and there you go.

A. Sheedy: Okay.

Moderator: The next question comes from Sammi Turano with TV Grape Vine. Go ahead please.

S. Turano: Good morning, how are you?

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Hi.

S. Turano: Good. I’m very honored to talk to you both.
A. Sheedy: Thank you.

S. Turano: My first question is, Ally, how did you prepare for this role for Mr. Yang?

A. Sheedy: I just told myself not to get – just to not plan anything ahead of time. It was so funny and wacky so I decided to completely dispense with the creepy dark, very serious and brooding serial killer thing and just like I thought the whole thing was hysterically funny. I thought that whole monologue in the car in the first one was hysterically funny. So I decided I was going to do that and if somebody thinks it should be not funny then they’ll come and tell me.

S. Turano: Oh you were fantastic, though. You had me on the edge of my seat.

A. Sheedy: Oh good. Thanks. It was really, really fun.

S. Turano: James, what was it like doing a more dramatic episode of Psych. Usually you guys are more comedic and funny. What was it like doing such a dramatic episode?

J. Roday: We as the cast dig those. We don’t get to do them very often. As much as we love our show and as lucky as we are to do it and still be doing it, any time we can mix things up it’s fun for us because we get to work different muscles and even if it’s just for a week it’s fun to mix things up. Once or twice a year we know that we’ll have these episodes coming up and everybody gets pumped and everybody gets a little extra sleep. We don’t go out as much and we recognize it as an opportunity to do something that we don’t always get to do.

S. Turano: Fantastic. ... episode, I see an Emmy in someone’s future for this episode. It was fantastic.

J. Roday: Thank you very much.

S. Turano: Thank you for having us.

J. Roday: Our pleasure.

A. Sheedy: Thank you.

Moderator: The next question comes from Stefan Blitz with Forces of Geek.com. Go ahead, please.

S. Blitz: Hi, and how are you today?

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Good.

S. Blitz: James, the question for you is first of all, this episode is extremely Shawn focused and kind of features a little more dramatic pivotal moments for his character. Do you think this in any way will change the tone of the series next season?

J. Roday: No, I don’t think it’s going to change the tone. I think it’s another sort of feather in the cap of Shawn’s growth. Obviously I’m not getting younger; the character is not getting younger. None of us are getting younger so we have to start addressing that. This is a pretty good jumping off point, I think going into season five of just like wow, everybody sort of needs to check in with themselves and recognize that you can’t be a kid forever and maybe that should start informing our behavior a little bit.
We’re still going to be plenty silly. This is just a character beat for him more than anything. He’s mortal even though he likes to think sometimes that he isn’t. This is sort of just a wake-up call. It’s good. You’ve got to do that kind of stuff once you get this deep into the series so that you feel like you’re going somewhere.

S. Blitz: Thank you. And, Ally –

A. Sheedy: Yes, hi.

S. Blitz: How are you?

A. Sheedy: I’m good. How are you? Thanks.

S. Blitz: It was extremely surreal watching it for me and I’m sure it was even more surreal for you. What was the experience like just kind of having – being surrounded by your past?

A. Sheedy: Wait, you mean doing the show?

S. Blitz: I meant on the Oscars when –
A. Sheedy: Oh, the Oscars. Oh it was great. Really I haven’t seen most of those people for quite a while. It’s bizarre because every time we see each other it’s sort of like not a lot of time has passed. I share this crazy experience with those four people and nobody else in the world. It’s weird. We just share a lot so there is a lot of unspoken stuff that goes on.

S. Blitz: Thank you very much. You were great on Psych and it was just nice seeing all of you guys together again last night.

A. Sheedy: Cool. Thank you.

Moderator: Next question comes from Lena Lamoray with Lena Lamoray.com. Go ahead, please.

L. Lamoray: Hi, James and Ally.

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Hey.

L. Lamoray: James, how do you think the fans are going to react to the finale and some of the choices that were made by the characters?

J. Roday: How are they going to react – I’m sorry to what is the second part there?

L. Lamoray: To the finale and some of the choices that were made by the characters?

J. Roday: I hope they dig it. There is not a lot of build up to it and I think our publicity guys have done a really good j ob of sort of getting everybody’s anticipation up and like I said I think we’ll get away with it partially because it’s a finale and everybody gets a few months off to sort of process and water cooler talk and you don’t have to sort of adjust yourself to come right back next week and watch us save a sea mammal of some sort.

I think the fact that it’s the end of the season buys us a little bit of latitude and the fact that it’s a little darker and a little scarier and the stakes are pretty high is fun I hope for fans. It’s a nice sort of curve ball that we don’t throw very often. Also, I think it’s a treat to watch good actors doing good work on a show that you’re a fan of. I think that’s what Ally and Jimmi and the rest of the cast sort of delivered in spades in this episode. They certainly all made me look good.

L. Lamoray: Ally, can you share with us any funny stories about your time on the set of Psych?

A. Sheedy: Oh my gosh, do you have like all day? It was the whole thing was really funny, but I have to say it’s very difficult to work with Jimmi and not break because he is so friggin’ funny. I just basically decided if I started laughing it actually would work and as soon as I did that then it wasn’t difficult. Do you know what I mean? I wasn’t thinking like, don’t laugh because it’s impossible. Besides I think I would find him funny.

On this one there was an entire contraption set up which was a metal cord that was pulling me backwards so a certain part of the scene was just about the cord for me because I just didn’t know when I was going to get pulled backwards, which kind of made it work even better.

J. Roday: Yes, you did.

A. Sheedy: What?
A. Sheedy: I didn’t know when it was going to go back.

J. Roday: Yes, that played every time.

A. Sheedy: Yes, I didn’t. That was completely human response. The guys were behind the wall and they were going to pull it like when they felt like it was the right time so I never knew when it was going to happen.

Moderator: The next question comes from Martin Sternberg with Small Screen Scoop. Go ahead please.

M. Sternberg: Hi, Ally. Hi, James, how are you guys doing?

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Great. What’s up man?

M. Sternberg: Not much. This question is for James actually. In this episode you’re acting and directing. I was just wondering what’s the biggest challenge for you for doing both at the same time in a scene?

J. Roday: The acting part is more challenging because I just don’t want to think about it. I think I might have gotten marginally better from my first time out when I wasn’t thinking about it at all and my set of eyes on the set, Andy Berman, had to keep running up to me going everything is great except for you. You need to go again.

This time I think I was a little more aware of it, but truthfully there are so many things that you’re sort of in charge of and there are so many questions that you have to answer after any given take from the director’s perspective that that’s kind of all you’re thinking about, at least me anyway. I’m just lucky that on the acting side I’m playing a character that I’ve played for many, many years, that certainly helps. Staying in the moment as an actor is definitely the biggest challenge while you’re directing.

M. Sternberg: All right. And, Ally, well, and James also if you’d like. Considering all the remakes that they’re doing in Hollywood now if they were to do a Breakfast Club reboot who do you think they should cast in the roles.

A. Sheedy: Well that will never happen, by the way, ever, never, never.

M. Sternberg: Well, we wouldn’t allow it.

A. Sheedy: Hm?

M. Sternberg: I said we wouldn’t allow it to stand, but hypothetically.

A. Sheedy: Wow. Who should be in it? Well …

J. Roday: Hypothetically I would protest. I would stand outside of the studio with a sign to prevents actors from going in and auditioning.

A. Sheedy: I think – you know who I think is great who would be so – I think she would be great is either Allison Ormali’s character. I love that actress in Up in the Air, the young one, Anna Kendrick, she’s great so she can do anything. That’s what I think.

M. Sternberg: Fair enough. Well, thank you both.

A. Sheedy: Thanks.

J. Roday: Thanks, man.
Moderator: Next question comes from Mike Spring with DVD Snapshots. Go ahead please.

M. Spring: Hi guys, how are you doing?

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Hello.

M. Spring: James, my question is for you first. I was pretty surprised when I was watching the movie Gamer and you and Maggie Lawson popped up together on screen. How did that come about?

J. Roday: Oh man. We’re buddies with the filmmakers. I’ve known Mark and Brian for a while and they just called and said, “Hey do you guys want to come to New Mexico for a day and do some silly stuff?” We were on our way across country to visit Maggie’s family anyway so we just made a quick pit stop and did that silly stuff.

M. Spring: Was the mustache your idea or theirs?

J. Roday: The mustache is always my idea, man. Any time I can exploit that thing I do because it’s serious and it’s real.

M. Spring: Ally, was it tough when you first played the character to come into the show with this really tight knit ensemble cast or did they make you feel welcome from the get-go?

A. Sheedy: They made me feel welcome and it was not difficult because this is just a whacked character. You could drop this character anywhere and I don’t think that she particularly pays any attention to what’s going on around her. She lives inside this crazy ass mind. I felt really welcome and I didn’t feel like an intruder at all. I felt like the killer has shown up.

J. Roday: We were ready to cater to Ally’s every whim and need the first time she came. She was shooting in the middle of a rain storm in a drive-in movie theater and the trailers were way far away and she showed up and was just like, “I’m not going back. I’m not going back to the trailer.”

A. Sheedy: No, no. No way, it was fun there. How surreal was that? We were in a drive-in movie theater in the middle of the night with that crazy man who was worried about his car, you know the entire time. I just thought this is just nuts.

J. Roday: She was awesome. We just all got to hang out with Ally Sheedy for a night. That’s pretty much how it worked out.

A. Sheedy: You’re so funny.

M. Spring: Great, thank you.

A. Sheedy: So funny.

Moderator: The next question –

A. Sheedy: James, that guy was obsessed with the belt buckle, the whole night that he was going to get a scratch on that car. I felt like, so don’t give your car to a movie set.

J. Roday: Exactly. Why, was he there?

A. Sheedy: He didn’t want a scratch on his car. It was like, he had to have read the script like you get thrown on the car and it’s – he kept coming up to me and he was like, “Don’t scratch the car.”

J. Roday: Dude, are you kidding? I’m a serial killer. Why do think you even think you can reach me right now.

A. Sheedy: Huh?

J. Roday: Why do think you can reach me right now, I’m a serial killer. I don’t even understand what you’re saying to me.

A. Sheedy: Oh my God. Oh my God, yes –

Moderator: The next question comes from Kiko Martinez with Extra Chicago. Go ahead please.

A. Sheedy: Hi.

K. Martinez: Hey James, what do you do on the time off during the summer? Do you get a chance to sit down and write more? I know you’ve dabbled in film writing some. Do you get a chance to work on that at all?

J. Roday: Yes. I’ve always got some ball in the air. I’ve got to do it while I’m young I guess. This hiatus I actually spent doing a play. We started in Los Angeles and we’re now wrapping up the run that we’re doing here in New York City so that’s been awesome and different and totally gratifying. That’s pretty much gobbled up all of this hiatus.

You’ve got to keep writing to get better so any time somebody asks me advice – writing advice – I don’t know why they would ask me, but when they do I just say always be writing. There is always stuff on the burners.

K. Martinez: Then Ally, James has this commercial where he and other actors state something about themselves that people might not know. For instance, James says, “I am Mexican.” So what would you say that maybe people wouldn’t know about you on a commercial like that or a PSA.

A. Sheedy: I’m actually a man.

J. Roday: Gee, nobody knows that, but now everybody knows that.

K. Martinez: Thanks.

J. Roday: Don’t even know what to say because that’s so unbelievably startling and profound you don’t even know how to respond.

Moderator: The next question comes from Travis Tidmore with CineManiac.


T. Tidmore: Ally, I have a question. Your character Allison Reynolds on Breakfast Club –
A. Sheedy: Yes.

T. Tidmore: -- seemed a little off. Do you think she hadn’t become friends with those kids during detention she may have gone off – lost the wheels and become Mr. Yang?

A. Sheedy: Oh my goodness. Isn’t that funny? Well, I think she has that day with them but I don’t think it means that her wheels don’t come off. I think things sort of go back to the way they were after that. That’s what I think at the end of the Breakfast Club day it’s the way it was before.

I have my own ideas in my head about what happens with Allison but I do think the wheels definitely come off at a certain point, yes.

T. Tidmore: James, you’ve already had Ally and Judd as you guys have mentioned. When is the next Breakfast Club member showing up?

J. Roday: Good question, man. It would be quite a feat to get all five of them. You know what? I’m not just saying this because Ally is on the phone, Ally was always sort of a – like she was kind of number one and then Judd was number two and then there was like a three-way tie with lots of love for the other ones. I kind of feel like I’ve already – for me anyway, I got the top two on the list. It would be great to get all of them. I don’t even think Emilio really acts anymore, does he?

A. Sheedy: No, he’s directing.

J. Roday: Yes.

A. Sheedy: Molly is doing a TV show, but Michael, I bet Michael would do the show, and he’s really funny.

J. Roday: He’s awesome. I’ve actually hung out with him and he used to be on the network, so I think we could make that happen.

A. Sheedy: Yes, he’s great.

T. Tidmore: I would like to see that. Thanks guys.

A. Sheedy: Yes.

Moderator: The last question will come from Martin Sternberg with Small Screen Scoop. Go ahead please.

M. Sternberg: Hi again, guys.

A. Sheedy: Hi.

J. Roday: Hey, man.

M. Sternberg: Well, this is for both of you, but James, first. They always ask you who you’d like to see guest star on the show and I’d like to ask both of you the opposite, which show would either of you like to be on and what type of character would you want to play?

A. Sheedy: Hm. James, go ahead.

J. Roday: I’m going to sort of cheat my way out of this and say I was ready to do just about anything on Flight of the Concords until it got – but now they’re done so my dream is out. My candle is no longer burning. I would have literally – I think those guys are genius and I would have rode by on a bicycle and just the back of my head being featured. I thought that’s how much fun they were having on that show.

M. Sternberg: Fair enough. And Ally, what other show would you – that’s on currently that you’d like to guest star on and what other type of character would you like to try?

A. Sheedy: I like extreme characters these days that are just fun. I’d love to play some kind of – The Good Wife films in New York and it’s a cool show and I was thinking I’d love to play one of those horrible Washington hostesses. Somebody who is just really awful in every single way on that show, someone really mean. That would be fun.

M. Sternberg: Well thank you both for your time and I haven’t had a chance to see the finale yet, but I’m really looking forward to it.

J. Roday: Well, make sure you get that answer to the producers of The Good Wife.

A. Sheedy: Oh, we’ll send it to them. Or I’ll play Carolyn Maloney, how about that? That would be fun, too.

B. Bernstein: Great. Well, thank you everyone for joining the call today. James, Ally, thank you so much for your time.

A. Sheedy: Thank you.

The Psych Season 4 finale premieres tonight at 10/9c on USA Network. Tonight's episode is co-written and directed by Psych star, James Roday and pays tribute to some of the great Hitchcock films such as Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, etc.

Episode Description:
A killer targets Shawn using scenarios from classic Hitchcock films. Is Mr. Yang responsible? Ally Sheedy guest-stars in Psych's season finale directed by James Roday- "Mr. Yin Presents" - premiering tonight at 10/9C!

videos: http: //www.youtube.com/psychonusanetwork

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