This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Cameron Scoggins: Hi, this is Cameron Scoggins, and you're listening to Behind the Awards Podcast.

[0:14] Eila Mell: Hello and welcome to Behind the Awards. I'm Eila. I'm here with Bruce.

[0:18] Bruce Gotlieb: Hello there, Eila. How are we doing today? Well, it's a good day. And what are we talking about today, Bruce?

[0:25] Eila Mell: Well, we both had the opportunity at the time of recording Wanted opened yesterday evening, and we both had the opportunity to see that show. So why not give our listeners our spin on it? What were your thoughts? Would you like to start?

[0:40] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, you want me to start? Okay. Well, I thought that Wanted was a lot of fun. I didn't know what to expect going in. You know, half the audience was dressed as cowboys, which was fun, too. There were actually more cowboy hats in the audience than on stage.

[0:56] Eila Mell: Well, you know, people do love a good theme.

[1:01] Bruce Gotlieb: So yeah, and leave it to a Broadway audience to be theatrical. So yeah, they were fun. I liked the music very much. There was a lot of music. I thought it was a story that could have been told maybe a little more concisely.

[1:12] Eila Mell: Sure.

[1:13] Bruce Gotlieb: I thought Act Two could have been a little tighter. I thought Act One really developed at a good pace where I understood everything that was going on. I was never confused as to who's this person, who's that person. They made everything very clear, and it was fun. I felt like it was really good energy, and I was rooting for these sisters. In Act Two, I felt like, okay, it's still good, but you know, we could move it along more. I would actually like to have seen it without an intermission, just go straight through if they could. And I feel like there was an opportunity maybe to make it tight enough that they could have done that. But I really did think it was successful.

[1:53] Eila Mell: Yeah. So what did you think, Bruce?

[2:00] Bruce Gotlieb: It was okay for me. I do agree. I think there is a story there that is interesting and worth telling. There were certain things that were unsuccessful for me that I think took me out of it a little bit.

[2:11] Eila Mell: Do you want to say specifically?

[2:12] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, I think, you know, the set, my opinion is, unless you're sitting in the center of the theater, upstairs, downstairs, I don't think it matters. But unless you're sitting in the center of the theater, you have obstruction no matter where you're sitting. I was sitting in, I think, the fourth row of the orchestra, third and fourth seat in.

[2:34] Eila Mell: So close enough to see.

[2:35] Bruce Gotlieb: Which should be an optimal seat. But the way that the set is designed, the structure of it has points that are stationary. Because obviously, if the set is going to move, something has to be bolstered.

[2:49] Eila Mell: Yeah, right. It's like the frame part of the set.

[2:52] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. So when things were moving and there were people that were blocked to be in a certain spot, I couldn't see them because of the way that the set construction is.

[3:02] Eila Mell: Yeah, that's unfortunate. It's hard.

[3:04] Bruce Gotlieb: It's hard. It takes you out of whatever's going on because you're trying to, who's talking? What's happening? One of my concerns as far as the music is sustainability for these actors. Because they're doing all these vocal gymnastics and belting their faces off.

[3:23] Eila Mell: I know. It's a lot of 11 o'clock numbers.

[3:24] Bruce Gotlieb: A lot of 11 o'clock numbers. But is that sustainable eight times a week? People talk about Dreamgirls that way. That role of Effie, can you sustain that eight shows a week? There was a lot of that style of number in this. So I wonder the same. Is it sustainable?

[3:47] Eila Mell: That's an interesting point.

[3:49] Bruce Gotlieb: Just vocal health, right? I mean, you're asking a lot of these people's vocal cords.

[3:54] Eila Mell: Right. Because many of the women more have those numbers and many of them have multiple numbers like that. And they do them beautifully. But yeah, maybe. I wonder. We'll see if people start calling out and we'll see.

[4:11] Bruce Gotlieb: You know what? Hopefully they all have somebody. Most shows have somebody on staff or actors have their own person that they rely on. Like, you know, Alex Brightman, when he was doing Beetlejuice, he had a specific vocal coach to help him sustain that type of manipulation of his voice. So, you know, a lot of these people that are performing on Broadway, they obviously are.

[4:36] Eila Mell: Yeah, they know what they're doing.

[4:36] Bruce Gotlieb: They know that they need to have an arsenal of people that are making sure that they're doing those things, you know, in the correct manner.

[4:44] Eila Mell: Right. And possibly they won't, you know, give 100 percent for a two day show, you know.

[4:51] Bruce Gotlieb: Right, right.

[4:52] Eila Mell: Just, you know, because the body can only do so much. But adrenaline will take you far too, though.

[4:58] Bruce Gotlieb: It will. It will. So, you know, so that was a little bit the projections. I didn't find them to be very successful. And then especially because of the way that the set is that also interfered with how you were viewing those, at least from where I'm sitting.

[5:14] Eila Mell: No, for sure. I think, well, I was in the center, but I was towards the back of the audience and I had trouble understanding what the projections were showing us a lot of the time as well.

[5:27] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah. So, you know, I just there's there are some things that just seemed a little middle of the road. And seeing the reviews that, you know, came out this morning and last night, it seems to me that that's where a lot of people are landing, which is, you know, a middle of the road type of critique.

[5:49] Eila Mell: OK, so did you find it fun like I did or was there just too many obstructions for you to have fun?

[5:57] Bruce Gotlieb: You know what? There were things that I thought there were some people that I thought are really talented on that stage. I wanted a little bit more out of it.

[6:06] Eila Mell: OK, so.

[6:07] Bruce Gotlieb: All right. For me, there were two characters that are the comic relief characters that were so great, so funny. They play maids in the hotel.

[6:17] Eila Mell: OK, yes, yes.

[6:18] Bruce Gotlieb: And I just love them. I thought they were great. But, you know, I really thought everybody was good. Lise LaFontaine making her Broadway debut. I mean, what a debut. Good for her.

[6:29] Eila Mell: Absolutely. And Salaya Pfeiffer is always good. And, you know, I think it's a strong cast. You know, no matter we've said this in other seasons and other shows, no matter what, you could be the highest rated critics pick, you know, the must see show of the season. And then you could be one of those shows that, you know, unfortunately don't get that same pomp and circumstance.

[6:54] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is these people went out there and they, you know, they made their Broadway dreams come true for this season. And they have the opportunity. They have a line on their resume. And, you know, who knows what this opportunity will bring them? It could be a long running show. It could be the springboard to something, whatever's next.

[7:19] Eila Mell: Yeah. And it's clear it's clear that Angelica Cherry, who is the relative of Mariam Arthur Clark and wrote the book and co-wrote the score, is very, very talented. And I really am interested to see what else she does. You know, and how amazing to get the opportunity to tell the story of your family in this way, you know, because there are so many people out there that do want to tell a story, whether it's a family story or what have you. And it's hard to get that done. And here, you know, what a feat to be able to now not only did she have this show perform at Paper Mill Playhouse and now it's on Broadway, like, you know, no matter what, like that's the win, you know?

[8:08] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you say it's hard. It's almost impossible to do. So what a huge accomplishment.

[8:14] Eila Mell: So well, speaking of huge accomplishments.

[8:17] Bruce Gotlieb: Yes.

[8:18] Eila Mell: We have a guest today who's not only wrapping up an off-Broadway show, but also on a hit streaming show that I know you are loving.

[8:28] Bruce Gotlieb: Crazy about.

[8:29] Eila Mell: I love Crystal Lake.

[8:31] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh my gosh, it's so much fun.

[8:33] Eila Mell: And for those who might not know, it is sort of the origin story of Friday the 13th and Mrs. Voorhees and Jason.

[8:41] Bruce Gotlieb: Right. So we have the star.

[8:43] Eila Mell: Yeah, we have Cameron Scoggins, who is fantastic in this show. So let's bring Cameron out.

[8:47] Bruce Gotlieb: Absolutely.

[8:52] Eila Mell: Well, Bruce, I'm so excited to welcome Cameron Scoggins to Behind the Awards. Hi, Cameron.

[8:56] Cameron Scoggins: Hello. How's it going?

[8:59] Eila Mell: Thank you so much for taking time to join us. You're certainly a busy guy lately.

[9:06] Cameron Scoggins: Yes, it's been a busy fall. It's been a really busy fall. Very grateful for that, though.

[9:12] Eila Mell: So I'm sure you're doing Waiting for Lefty at Classic Stage.

[9:17] Cameron Scoggins: So for me, I growing up, I never read Odets. I was aware of the titles of his plays, but I never read any of them.

[9:25] Eila Mell: Were you familiar with this work?

[9:27] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, it certainly are texts that come along in acting school at some point. You get asked to read Odets because of, I think, the nature of his language. And it's a really good exercise for actors to be able to find a through line, you know, in certain pieces of text with his writing. But it's so vastly rich in terms of just like what it offers you in terms of nuance and dynamics. So I think it's it's an actor's text there. They're actors plays, you know, because they were written for the group theater. So you can feel that, I feel like, you know.

[10:02] Eila Mell: Oh, completely. Because the story itself, Waiting for Lefty, anyway, is not a linear story. It's sort of these episodes and the places of life of these couples and these people.

[10:13] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. I mean, it was it was really written as a showcase in a way for the group theater to have like 22 of its actors in a show at one time. And Odets, I think, wrote it at like 23 years old, something some crazy, a very young and sort of it came out in like three days and brought it to them. And and and I so we're doing it with nine people, but it's normally done with a full cast of like 20 people and each just play their little role. It's a very interesting format for a play.

[10:44] Eila Mell: You're right. How did this piece come to you?

[10:47] Cameron Scoggins: This piece came to my wife, Sahar, and I because we had started our band Yeller Tooth and Steve Pasquale was an acquaintance of ours. And I also went to school with Pippa Sue. And so we sort of knew them and would see them around. But then at one point we just got a random text message from Steve Pasquale saying, hey, I have this crazy idea. I'm wondering if you're interested. And we were immediately jumped at it and we were so grateful for the opportunity because having a band of our persuasion and and where we come from in North Carolina and sort of taking on the folk Americana scene, it's it's a rarity to see that in theater. And it's something we've always been interested in bringing in. So that, yes, Steve just approached us and we jumped right on board, did a couple workshops and we were off to the races.

[11:38] Eila Mell: Yeah, the music is so beautiful in the show. I didn't realize when I saw the show, you know, I saw the Yeller Tooth credit, but I didn't know that was you and your wife.

[11:48] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, I mean, we loved the idea of just because the name is so odd, too, which we love, but we loved just having that be a mystery to people. And then as over the course of the show, you kind of get to discover who we are and we are Yeller Tooth and then we're also going to act in the show at one point. So there's a lot of nice surprises in there, which I might have just ruined. But, you know.

[12:13] Eila Mell: And your wife's voice is, oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. You must love listening to.

[12:18] Cameron Scoggins: Yes.

[12:20] Eila Mell: It's my favorite voice of all time.

[12:22] Cameron Scoggins: And then you two have a scene together, so it's not just that all these musicians get to do a scene. I mean, you guys are the real deal. Actor wise also, I mean, it's a it's a very actor specific scene, as you were saying.

[12:34] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, I mean, it's it is a wonderful showcase for Sahar and I. And we both are actors in our own right. And then we have this band, which we've, you know, like I don't I don't do a lot of musicals. I'm a very musical person, but I don't I don't tend to bring my music into that type of sphere in a way. And so we always wanted to approach something with an authenticity of just being a band on stage in a way, which is a slight, subtle difference in the way sometimes things can operate when music is added into theater. And it was important for us to really come off as just like, yeah, an authentic sort of folk duo on stage. And and Steve gave us that opportunity, which is huge. So we're yeah, we're just having the best time.

We can't believe it. And then and then to get to act together on stage, the long story short, we met when we were 10 years old in middle school. And I was Prince Charming to her Cinderella in the play. We were each other's first kiss in the school play as Prince Charming and Cinderella, which is also crazy. And then we lost touch for like 20 years. And she was doing a show at Ars Nova about four years ago in the city called Hound Dog. And she walked out on stage and I was like, oh, well, that's still a still a thing. And and we reconnected.

[15:27] Cameron Scoggins: Yes, she's the best.

[15:28] Eila Mell: Did your Nashville fans come to the show or are they coming to the show?

[15:35] Cameron Scoggins: There are some who have come out, yeah, and I recently…well, our first preview on October 15th of Waiting for Lefty was also the day that my television show Crystal Lake got released, which…

[15:50] Bruce Gotlieb: Oh, we're going to talk about that.

[15:51] Cameron Scoggins: Okay, great, yeah. There's been quite a few more Crystal Lake people who have come to the show than Nashville, but Nashville was a funny thing because I played music at the time and I had records out and everything, and then they cast me as this character who didn't play music and found out later that I played music, but it was great because I still got to jam with the castmates at parties and stuff, which was fun.

[16:16] Eila Mell: Oh, that's cool.

[16:17] Bruce Gotlieb: That's fun.

[16:18] Eila Mell: All right, well, you opened the door.

[16:19] Cameron Scoggins: I opened the door.

[16:20] Eila Mell: Let's talk about it.

[16:21] Cameron Scoggins: With Crystal Lake.

[16:23] Eila Mell: I love this show so much.

[16:24] Cameron Scoggins: Thank you.

[16:25] Eila Mell: And you're the comic relief.

[16:26] Cameron Scoggins: Yes.

[16:27] Eila Mell: You are so good on this show.

[16:28] Cameron Scoggins: Thank you.

[16:29] Eila Mell: In fact, I said to Bruce, I love this show and this actor is so great on it. We've got to have him on the show, and he's doing Waiting for Lefty, so it's perfect.

[16:37] Cameron Scoggins: Oh, thank you so much. I'll tell you what, that was a dream role for me that fell in my lap and there were a lot of things throughout the audition process that I was like, I think I can utilize a lot of silly parts of myself that I haven't been able to use before that have always been there. And they just gave me the best track in that show. You know, I won't give any spoilers away, but I have a really cool arc in the show and it was just a lot of fun to do. I mean, we shot out of Jersey, you know, like I got to come home every night.

[17:10] Bruce Gotlieb: How cool is that?

[17:11] Cameron Scoggins: That's great.

[17:12] Eila Mell: Did you grow up a fan of, you know, of the original? Are you a horror junkie?

[17:19] Cameron Scoggins: Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm the youngest of four brothers and the oldest two are much older than my closest brother and I. And so they would, they introduced me to Jason and they would tell me, I mean, Jason was a legend from them before I even saw the movies. You know, they convinced me that Jason was a real character who was like stalking the woods around our house at night. But then I got into the movies and I'm really obsessed with the first two. I think they're really just like cult classic. I mean, the first one's like a great whodunit movie. And it's right at the start of the slasher genre, which I always just thought was such a fun genre. And I'm so glad that I got to work in something that utilizes the practical effects and the kills and everything. I mean, yeah, it was a blast.

[18:11] Montego Glover: And behind the awards, we'll be right back.

[18:16] Eila Mell: I don't want to give away too much for people who haven't seen it yet.

[18:20] Cameron Scoggins: Yes.

[18:21] Eila Mell: Yeah. But you know, there's well, it's a pretty gory show, but it's it's like fun gore almost.

[18:26] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah.

[18:27] Eila Mell: You know, like it's almost heightened.

[18:29] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. I mean, the beautiful thing about the Friday the 13th franchise for me is that it knows what it is and it leans into its camp, especially by movie, you know, part three, it really starts to just get a little campy. And the whole thing about going to those movies back in the day was that you wanted to see really creative kills done practically because that's how they were done back then. And I love that Brad Caleb Kane, the showrunner, is just the biggest fan of this franchise to begin with. And that was one of the most important things is to just like, you know, put all the budget on the practical effects like that. And they were doing they were doing full body casts of some of our characters that have to get killed or whatever and then making the fake body and then doing things to the I mean, it was just like, well, chef's kiss.

[19:21] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[19:22] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. And the actor who you work with the most is I don't know his name, but the sheriff will Patlett.

[19:28] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[19:29] Cameron Scoggins: Well, he's fantastic in this show.

[19:31] Eila Mell: He is a wonderful actor.

[19:34] Cameron Scoggins: And we had just the best time working together. We didn't ever run anything. We didn't ever say anything to each other. We just like let it happen on camera, because I think both of us recognize really early on that the chemistry was very nice there. And there was like his stoicism and a sort of Sidney Poitier like thing going on. You know, it was so fun to play the goofball like against that, you know, and it and the writing is so great. It takes care of itself in that way. But he is he's something else. He's a star for sure.

[20:06] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah.

[20:07] Eila Mell: Oh, yeah. I can't wait to see what he's going to do next.

[20:09] Cameron Scoggins: Oh, yeah. I think he's already on some other show and I can't even remember what it is. But yeah, he's he's doing good.

[20:16] Eila Mell: He's doing good. But your character is really like in this world. He's over the top, but it's it's still grounded in a real performance. So it never feels like he's just silly for for no reason. But it's so much fun to follow you in the show.

[20:34] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. Brad, Brad and I had a lot of conversations about that, because on the page, Dorf was like the biggest character and it could really have gone over the top. But for for me and Brad, it was always very important that like he really believes everything he's saying and like he really does want to be a good cop. He just has a really massive imagination, you know, and he gets he gets carried away with things and he wants he wants to be good. But like everything he's saying in the moment is truthful to him. It's like, you know, you can I think it's Gene Wilder or whatever. It's like whatever you're saying can be absolutely crazy. But as long as you're saying it like, you know, with pure conviction, then it's going to it's the comedy takes care of itself, I think. So that was a fun thing to explore with that with the character for sure.

[21:26] Eila Mell: Yeah. It's like shades of Barney Fife, but you never go full Barney Fife.

[21:30] Cameron Scoggins: I mean, I grew up in North Carolina. So the Andy Griffith Show was on the television every day when I got home. And Barney Fife is I'm serious, a real inspiration for Dorf, like a very iconic character in my childhood. I was a huge Jim Carrey fan growing up. So just the ability to be on film and also not be afraid to just be expressive and go wild with your face in certain moments. I maybe can lean in too hard to that sometimes, but Dorf was the perfect opportunity to get to do that. You know?

[22:06] Eila Mell: Yes.

[22:07] Cameron Scoggins: And certainly no shade to Don Knotts, who won an Emmy for every season of Don Knotts. I love Don Knotts. Couldn't love Don Knotts more. Inspirational. You'll be ready for Mr. Furley when it comes around.

[22:18] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[22:19] Cameron Scoggins: Oh, another dream role. You know, another show that you did that I just love so much is The Hills of California.

[22:28] Cameron Scoggins: Yes.

[22:29] Eila Mell: Yeah. That was an amazing show to be a part of.

[22:30] Cameron Scoggins: Oh, what a beautiful show.

[22:32] Eila Mell: Yeah. Incredible cast. Obviously Sam Mendes too and Jez Butterworth to get to meet and work with them. It was just a wonderful experience. I mean, that was also my first time understudying. I had to understudy a lot of the men coming over from the West End too with their legitimate accents and everything too. But they were all so welcoming and, you know, it was a three-hour play and on two show days we're basically just living with each other. So being around them all the time, you really just start to inherit all their sounds and everything. And it was wonderful. I mean, that was my first Broadway play too.

[23:09] Eila Mell: Yeah. I mean, that's amazing.

[23:10] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. It was a lot of firsts. We spent a long time dissecting that staircase and having conversations about, you know, when you sit down and it's just, it really takes your breath away. This looming massive, like, you know, to me it always just looked like endless, like it just went up forever too. I loved that set and getting to work on it and taking, I had to walk that massive stairwell, you know, every night and then go all the way up and yeah, it was just an incredible, incredible experience. And the way they built out that stage was beautiful.

[23:46] Eila Mell: Yeah. And for the impact of the end of the show where you find out, you know, I guess we can give it away now.

[23:53] Cameron Scoggins: I think we can.

[23:54] Eila Mell: Yeah. When you find out what Jean, I think the character was, is that right?

[23:59] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah.

[24:00] Eila Mell: What she had to do to get her career. You understand why that staircase has to be so looming and so, so massive because, you know, it's this, again, like almost operatic moment where she's walking up to her fate and it's, you know.

[24:14] Cameron Scoggins: And that for every character that has to walk it, they're all walking it with a different path and a different purpose, but it's illuminating something in them every time someone has to go up that stairwell or come down that stairwell. You know what I mean?

[24:27] Eila Mell: It's like, yeah, stepping into the abyss of that family.

[24:30] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah.

[24:31] Eila Mell: Yeah.

[24:32] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. So, all right. Music wise, what's happening right now with you?

[24:37] Cameron Scoggins: Well, we can't tell, I'm a little tired this morning. We had our, our Joe's Pub debut last night. We played on, we're a glutton for punishment. So on our off day from Waiting for Lefty, we had a 9:30 PM show at Joe's Pub last night. And that was so much fun. We got to play a lot of new material that we are going to be releasing soon. We have a single coming out on November 20th.

[25:06] Cameron Scoggins: So very soon. And then our full record of all original material will be out in January, January 29th. So we were trying to coincide. We'd had this record recorded for, I guess, a year or so and then getting it mixed and mastered and doing different content thing for it. And then we talked with the people at Joy Machine, if you guys have ever heard of Joy Machine. But they are a record label that works with theater artists and puts out a lot of cast albums and other things like that. And it's four guys who all work in musical theater. Will Van Dyke is who we're working with mostly and he's the MD on Galileo right now. So they're all very tapped in and they're helping us release the record. And so that's been very exciting. I mean, we have this play that we're doing where we get to, you know, play music every night and then, and then we get to release new music in the world and hopefully tour some of that music in the new year and everything too.

[26:05] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, it's all happening at once. Like you said at the start of this, it's been a busy fall. But the funny thing about being a creative or an actor or musician or whatever, I think it's true for everybody, is that at some point you plan things for two years, you know, and you work on things for two years. Like Waiting for Lefty has been a nearly two year process with us and Steve, like choosing music and then making demos and then honing those into a show and putting all that together. And then, you know, Crystal Lake I shot over well over a year ago and this record we'd made over a year ago. And sometimes it all happens all at the same time where everything is being released at the same time.

And so maybe we're oversaturating the field, but it's really, it's really exciting. It's like, you know, the fruit of all of our labor. Everything is so different. So I don't think that people will get tired of it because, you know, it's just you, but in so many different forms right now.

[27:03] Eila Mell: Oh, that's good to hear.

[27:04] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, we hope so. We hope so. I mean, yeah, the band is its own thing and we really want to always treat it as that. Like we are, we are a unit who plays, you know, we go out and play shows, we do tours and things just like any other band would do. And as well as we're hoping to build our own theater experiences in the future and other shows and things like that, which we have ideas for. It's a good time right now. I'm very grateful, very tired, but very grateful.

[27:33] Cameron Scoggins: There's this an acapella song in the show that's really beautiful too.

[27:37] Eila Mell: Yeah. Were you part of putting that together and arranging that?

[27:41] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. So Sahar and I have arranged everything for the piece and it was a really interesting opportunity because we, so for that song, If I Didn't Care, which is originally an Ink Spot song.

[27:54] Cameron Scoggins: I did a four-part barbershop-esque quartet-style demo recording and just made it with just my voice, just all four parts. And Adam Cantor sings it way better than I could on the demo because I had him hit notes that I couldn't actually really fully hit on the demo. But I was like, he'll get it. It's incredible. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I mean, he sings it like just better than I could have ever imagined. But we worked with Simone Allen as a music associate and music director in terms of helping us teach music to the cast. And so basically, we were able to make music demos that Simone then got to notate and then be able to plunk out for people in certain parts like that. And then some of the music is never notated.

It's folk music, so it's meant to be breathing. It's meant to be alive in that way. And so we would just teach people sort of aurally, you know, parts and things like that to sort of you get a different vibe when people are allowed to be free within their parts, I guess, folkwise. So yeah, it gives a little bit a little room for like improvisation.

[29:04] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, yeah. And Steve had such wonderful ideas for songs and what to what to use. I mean, he really came to us with a wonderful playlist already put together of songs to utilize. And the conversation didn't take very long of like, I don't I don't know about this one. Maybe we should look into that. Or, you know, he really had done so much wonderful dramaturgical research on union and protest music and brought things to us. And so then it was just a matter of making it for our outfit, you know, that we would have and who what actors we were thinking of and what voices we had available. So, yeah.

[29:38] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, I mean, it's very much a drama, almost everyone in it has done many musicals.

[29:48] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, I mean, it's a very musical cast. We're very lucky. And it's so fun to sing all together. I mean, I might some of my favorite parts in the show or digger song or carpal tunnel when everybody gets to come in on this part, you know, and, and everyone's like I said, like settling in so much to the show that now it just feels so effortless from everybody. And it can be big, you know?

[30:13] Eila Mell: So are there any projects coming up that you can tell us about?

[30:21] Cameron Scoggins: Nothing in the works right now. I tell you, you know, we've been working hard for this time of year. And, and we're, we're very excited to be finishing up the year with lefty and then take our nice little break in December.

[30:31] Eila Mell: Well, that is nice. Yeah. Now I hear there is a possibility that Crystal Lake is going to have a season two.

[30:41] Cameron Scoggins: We hope so. Fingers crossed. Yes.

[30:41] Eila Mell: All right. Now I'm not going to talk about what happens to your character. But is there a chance that you would be able to come back?

[30:49] Cameron Scoggins: Absolutely. I mean, my character is in a is in the first movie in a brief, but memorable scene. So I guess you could call me a legacy character. It means they can't kill me. I would. But yes, I would, I would be returning in season two, if that were to happen.

[31:11] Cameron Scoggins: We're very hopeful. I mean, it's done very well. And we're, we're just so excited to see all the responses from all the fans. But also, the whole point of this was to try and get a newer, you know, younger generation into this franchise and, and maybe restart the story for them and reboot it completely, you know, with new movies and stuff they've got.

[31:31] Eila Mell: Why not?

[31:32] Cameron Scoggins: They've got all sorts of ideas over there in the Jason universe.

[31:36] Eila Mell: Isn't it the most watched show ever on Peacock?

[31:39] Cameron Scoggins: I think it is by now it quickly became like within its first week, it was the number four show that had ever been released on Peacock too. And that was in the first week. I mean, Wow, it's it's over two and a half billion minutes streamed or something. I don't know, you know, all the metrics for the new streaming services are so interesting to hear about. I'm like, it is no longer just like how many people have tuned in. It's like so many other things that they're that they're taking into consideration. But I know they're very, very happy.

[32:08] Bruce Gotlieb: The stat is that in the first 11 days of its release, it reached 1.3 billion minutes watched.

[32:18] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, which is which is wild.

[32:21] Bruce Gotlieb: Just mind blowing.

[32:23] Cameron Scoggins: Mind blowing. Yeah, yeah. No, I I read those numbers. And I and to me, we're also going to the play every night. So I've had a wonderful distraction. But I'm just sort of like, yeah, okay, cool. It's what the play talks about. You know, it's like, to comprehend a billion is an insane thing that we it's we can't even understand that number. You know, and I mean, yeah, you really do have to break it down into things. So it's been a very cool experience to be a part of to be a part of that show and see it do so well. We're very happy.

[32:51] Eila Mell: Are you getting recognized a lot for it?

[32:54] Cameron Scoggins: Not yet. No, not yet. I it'll come. I keep my head down on the subway. No.

[33:01] Bruce Gotlieb: Baseball cap. It's like, very incognito.

[33:04] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, exactly. No one's looking for me. But I'm always in sunglasses and a baseball hat.

[33:10] Bruce Gotlieb: I'm sure you've seen the memes that say Bruce actually sent it to me that Linda Cardellini is like one year younger than Betsy Palmer was when

[33:15] Cameron Scoggins: Yes, it's crazy. She looks like she could be her granddaughter.

[33:22] Cameron Scoggins: Honestly, she is beautiful, but also just a beautiful person. I mean, I can't even begin to describe how real she is down to earth. She is just will. She set the tone for that set. And it really did feel like we were all going to summer camp and just hanging out. And that started with her. I mean, she really is. I couldn't say nicer things about that woman, as well as being an incredible actress and just absolutely mothers that role. I mean, there's some scenes that I'm like she and I would I would show up to watch Linda days, even if I wasn't working. And there's this ability she has and I would be watching on monitor and I'm like she she didn't move her face, but she just changed the temperature like three times. You know, like it's she's incredible.

[34:17] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. And she could have gone so many different ways with that character. But she hit the exact right tone with not leaning into, you know, the crazy until the very end until she's really pushed to that. She made her a full character, a full person where Betsy Palmer didn't have that opportunity because there wasn't that much character development. But but Brad and Linda both like, you know, Betsy Palmer wrote her own backstory from the script just based off like little things that even were a part of her costume or something. And so Brad, of course, was like, well, we're utilizing this. We're utilizing that. And Linda, too, always said she wanted to pay homage to that performance. But, you know, we're redoing it in our own way. And and I think she just knocked it out of the park.

[35:00] Eila Mell: Yeah, she totally did. You know, I don't think people realize how much of it's almost like a Hitchcock movie with some gore. The original because of, you know, because you never know.

[35:13] Cameron Scoggins: It's a movie that we can say, you know, it's not Jason in the first movie.

[35:18] Eila Mell: Exactly. Yeah. And people, fans will even like tend to lose track of that. Like the first movie, she is she is the killer, you know, and and was meant to be it wasn't ever meant to be a continued series. It was kind of just a one off, like, you know, way to make way to make a nice profit off the slasher genre that was just starting. Right. You know, right. It was intentionally a copy, a rip off of Halloween.

[35:41] Cameron Scoggins: Exactly. Exactly. But with, you know, with a female killer. So it was different, you know, like that was their M.O.

[35:52] Cameron Scoggins: But I and talking about the tone and everything of the show and and and getting to work with Linda, it's funny because the way the show was formatted, all of us worked together by the end. But for the start of it, we were all like I would show up and then I'd be gone for like a week and come back and be like, what the hell have you all been doing? Who are these hippies? You know what I mean? It was like there's people there's so many different storylines going on that then all start to like come together. And Brad never, ever, ever really told us in the best way. I mean, this in the best way. He never told us what show we were making tonally. Right. So that's why Dorf gets to be like fully Dorf when the when the scene is with him or and then Linda gets to be in her own.

And then and then there's the like Woodard and Bernstein, like, you know, journalism thing. There's all these like different tone things going on within the show. And I remember reading the scripts and just being like, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what like show we're doing. But I think what I'm seeing is like working well. And then to see it all come together is really just like shows me Brad's genius because it it knows what it is as the show and it knows what it's paying homage to. And so it can be self-referential. It can be self-conscious. You know, it can be campy. It can be like winking at itself a little bit. And I think that only adds to the cool tension that comes, you know, later. I don't know.

It's just a very fascinating show to be a part of in that way because we were all just like, am I doing too much here? Like she seems to be like a real drama thing. And I'm you know what I mean? But yeah, I think that works to its benefit.

[37:38] Eila Mell: It absolutely does. And I never expected Hamish Linklater to show up. That was a great surprise.

[37:44] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, we held on to that secret.

[37:44] Eila Mell: It also makes you or forces you to trust, right? It gives you to give into the creative process, overall arc and creative process and just in theater and on all these things you do, you have to trust what's going on.

[37:58] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. And sometimes that's hard. So it's good to be able to have that.

[38:04] Cameron Scoggins: It absolutely and to feel safe. I mean, we knew he was such a fan and Brad would tell you like when when we got it really right or recreated something perfectly or did whatever, you know, and you could hear him laughing like over by the monitor on how we got audio for some things because you could just hear him like giggling back there. But yeah, and and it was a very quick shoot and it was like 100 degree summer days, dead of summer in Jersey. And and we just didn't have time to do a lot of takes of things. And so it's all very alive for that reason, because it's probably one, two, three takes we got of stuff most of the time and for the practical effects stuff like we only have we only have so much blood we can you Linda can only be covered in blood, you know, two or three times because she'd have to she has to Yeah, like I won't spoil a bit in the first episode.

She's covered in blood and yeah, and to shoot that scene to do that one take where she gets covered in it like they had to do that three times only because you know, every time they do it they have to cut she has to go shower literally shower change get fully back in makeup and hair and then go back into the scene they have to reset the guy who has a bag over his head full of blood another spoiler, but uh, it was just, you know, there's so many things that go into account with shooting a show like that. It's like you you've got a little window of time to get things right, which is also fun.

[39:32] Eila Mell: It must be weird taking a shower knowing that an entire set is waiting for you to finish.

[39:37] Cameron Scoggins: But but at the same time like that they have to mop the entire set they have to clean that you know, like every every every department is like, okay, all right, here we go. Let's do it again. So yeah, but it's like you're filming a scene in the living room and you're like, all right, we're just going to start over everyone.

[39:52] Bruce Gotlieb: Yeah, back to one.

[39:52] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. Yeah. And she must have so many different versions of her costume because you know, she has totally get back into it.

[40:01] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, there's like the wall of blue sweaters each covered in little layers of blood differently. You know?

[40:06] Eila Mell: Yeah, the iconic blue sweater.

[40:06] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah. Yeah, it's just a wild thing. Wild thing to happen.

[40:14] Eila Mell: Well, Cameron, I have a favor to ask you.

[40:14] Eila Mell: If there is a season two, would you come back after it drops and so we can do a deep dive into it?

[40:20] Cameron Scoggins: Yes.

[40:20] Cameron Scoggins: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[40:27] Eila Mell: All right. Crystal Lake episode.

[40:31] Cameron Scoggins: I'm excited already.

[40:31] Eila Mell: All right. Well, now I have a personal stake in you getting a season two.

[40:36] Cameron Scoggins: She's gonna be she's gonna get a pen to paper. She's sending letters.

[40:39] Eila Mell: Right. All right. So everyone can see Waiting for Lefty until when when are you running right now?

[40:46] Cameron Scoggins: November 29th? Hopefully December 6 is the final date. I think I think we'll hear soon about that. We're doing well. So yeah, it seems like there's but end of November, early December.

[40:57] Eila Mell: Yeah. Okay, great.

[40:57] Cameron Scoggins: And where can people get the single that's coming out?

[41:03] Cameron Scoggins: It'll be released everywhere. Spotify, Apple Music, you know, Bandcamp, if you want to go purchase things on Bandcamp, wherever wherever you listen to music, it'll be out. It's called Keep It November 20th. It comes out. And it's Yeller Tooth.

[41:11] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, yellow like old yellow, like old yellow.

[41:17] Eila Mell: Yeah, exactly.

[41:22] Cameron Scoggins: And otherwise, you can stream Crystal.

[41:22] Eila Mell: Yeah, stream Nashville.

[41:22] Cameron Scoggins: Yeah, yeah. All of you can get your fill of Cameron in so many different ways. And it still won't be enough.

[41:36] Eila Mell: All right, well, have a great rest of your run. And we will see you soon, I hope. And we'll see everyone next time on Behind the Awards.

[41:42] Cameron Scoggins: Thank you both for having me. Thanks.