The comedy/murder mystery series The Afterparty is shaking up the genre's boundaries. Each episode focuses on the events of a high school reunion and afterparty from one character's point of view, but switches genres entirely based on the character's motivation, allowing the story to be told through action, thriller, romcom and even animation. It's a big swing that completely lands, partly because of the incredibly talented cast helping to make these genre transitions and over-the-top characters real -- and real funny.
Ilana Glazer, who plays class president-turned-alcoholic Chelsea, and Jamie Demetriou, who plays the often-ignored Walt, spoke with CBR about the upcoming series. The comedians dished on how they got involved with The Afterparty and how working with creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller and the rest of the cast was a dream come true. Glazer and Demetriou also shared the secrets of how they tap into the humor of their somewhat difficult characters and what their own high school reunions were like.
CBR: How did you both get involved with The Afterparty?
Ilana Glazer: I heard about the show and I was so interested in this project -- not only a murder mystery, but the genre-defying element of it. And I've been such a fan of [creators] Chris [Miller] and Phil [Lord] for years, years and years. When this bunch of scripts came my way, I read them and was so excited about it and could not believe the cast that was attached. I said a little prayer to Black Jewish Jesus and my prayer was answered and I got to be a part of this incredible show.
Jamie Demetriou: The process initially for me was a fairly traditional audition process, traditional in the sense that when I audition for American jobs, I don't expect to get them because I'm from the UK -- especially ones like The Afterparty being created by Lord and Miller, whose work I've been following and obsessed with for years. So I auditioned assuming that I may as well sort of cascade the file into my junk on my MacBook. Somehow, it came my way and I couldn't be happier that it did.
You both play somewhat difficult characters -- the school president-turned-alcoholic, the guy no one notices -- so how do you find the humor in those roles or connect to them?
Demetriou: For me, with my particular process, I think I find everything via the humor, that's like my first port of call with anything having come up doing live comedy and writing comedy. That's my access point. I think that ultimately TV shows are there to make you feel something no matter what that is, it's just got to be something. And I think that my kind of instinct is that laughter is the most something that you can feel when watching something.
So I think with a character like Walt, it's about going, "How does he move? What are the funny things about him? What are the chinks in his armor that you can make clear enough that they're something that people can relate to?" Like his half-attempts to say hello to people without quite following through with them, and the ones that he does follow through with and what he chooses to do with that precious moment where he could garner someone's attention. Sometimes it's about stripping a word back to just the noise instead of getting through it. I think that that was kind of my place. I'm intrigued to hear Ilana's.
Glazer: I just have to say, that build up like he's trying to say something and then he just slowly backs out killed me every time because I just relate to that. Especially in comedy, comedians are so playful and I just so often would have that experience -- not even on The Afterparty, just in general. That was just such a funny choice, and then like fading away.
Demetriou: Thank you.
Glazer: For Chelsea, I really love a backstory for characters and thinking about how they came to be at the point where we meet them today. So I was really lucky that it was such a clear backstory for Chelsea and her psychology was so clear and her genre expressed her psychology so clearly with the psychological thriller. So that's really where I come at it from, a kind of mental health standpoint, I guess? But there's a couple ways, she's both really funny and tragic and it was fun to play the slapstick hard comedy, falling down and tripping over herself version. Do you guys remember Collette Reardon? She was an SNL character that Cheri Oteri, this really funny Cheri Oteri character. She's a little bit Colette Reardon, but then to have the serious backstory that Chelsea got to have her do story was really satisfying.
What was the behind-the-scenes culture like on a set with just so many comedians?
Glazer: Rough, competitive, aggro.
Demetriou and Glazer: Violent.
Demetriou: That's how you know it's true.
Glazer: Yup, violent. I would say Dave Franco was really rough on everybody... [laughs] No, it was super, super playful. For the time that it was that we shot this, we shot this October 2020 -- not only pandemic-wise, but like politically, it was such a heavy time and to have this playpen for lightness, we were so excited to be together. It felt like sleepaway camp or something, especially -- I was shocked at how cold it was in LA -- we were very sleeping bags, sleepover, sleepaway camp vibes: hanging out, eating snacks, whispering while the show was going on. It was really fun and open-hearted. It was just as fun to straight up get to know each other and hang as it was to get playful and make jokes and try to make each other laugh.
Demetriou: I can't really say it better than that. My personal experience is slightly different, being from the UK. I knew John Early, who is a genius, and I'd always wanted to work with him and I'm so thrilled to be able to say that I have and it was just a thousand billion times better than I could have even imagined. But ultimately I think the great surprise was that that was the case with absolutely everyone, like everyone. Working with Ilana Glazer, it's mental that I was working with Ilana Glazer, mental that I was working with Ike [Barinholtz], with Sam [Richardson], with Kelvin [Yu], with Dave [Franco], with Tiffany [Haddish]. Tiffany!
Glazer: Wild.
Demetriou: What the hell am I doing working with Tiffany Haddish, it's unbelievable. I felt like there'd be a big old wall that I needed to climb over to kind of de-Walt myself in the situation -- not an expression familiar to people who haven't seen the show yet, my character's called Walt -- but the amazing thing was that it was like straight out the gate there's no wall, just stroll on over to everyone. I mean, I just want to literally say everyone's name, Ben Schwartz -- the welcoming nature of everyone was just amazing.
Have either of you have attended a high school reunion before? Was it at all like the experience in The Afterparty?
Demetriou: They may be, but I actually haven't been to one... You know what, I've done a few of these now and I keep saying my school didn't actually have a high school reunion. For the first time I'm wondering whether they did and whether I just wasn't invited.
Glazer: Oh, Jamie.
Demetriou: So thanks for just hacking at that bone and letting it break.
Glazer: I did, but luckily it was outside of high school. I think I could not have handled that, meeting actually in high school would have given me trauma shivers. Not even like the worst shit happened or anything but just...ooof, that would be weird. So I did and it was pretty chill and we just had all gotten 10 years older.
The first three episodes of The Afterparty premiere Jan. 28 on Apple TV+.