‘The Afterparty’ Stars Dish on Keeping Whodunnit Plot a Secret: “It’s Really an Honor System”
It’s almost time for The Afterparty.
The Apple TV+ murder mystery comedy series from über creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller returns to the streamer for a second season on July 12. The 10-episode installment introduces a new mystery with a new set of characters and episodes told through popular film genres. Though it’s not all brand new: Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) is back to help Aniq (Sam Richardson) and Zo? (Zo? Chao) solve the whodunnit by questioning family members, lovers and business partners to get to the bottom of what really happened when a wedding weekend is ruined after the groom (Zach Woods) turns up dead.
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John Cho, Paul Walter Hauser, Ken Jeong, Anna Konkle, Poppy Liu, Elizabeth Perkins, Jack Whitehall, Zach Woods and Vivian Wu round out the cast. All of the above turned up in Westwood on Wednesday night for the world premiere where The Hollywood Reporter asked the actors to dish on the secrecy surrounding the murder mystery plot.
Zach Woods (Edgar): “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. You want to know who did it? It was mercury poisoning from seafood and it just became magnified in his system. He ate at Kiwami in Studio City. No, just kidding. It’s always funny to think about the [scripts] that get watermarked and held under such secrecy, though, because it can be so intense that it will be like A Bug’s Life 3 and it’s treated like a state secrets. To be fair, I guess even state secrets aren’t handled that carefully anymore.”
Tiffany Haddish (Detective Danner): “You know what’s crazy is that I read the whole thing and by the time we started shooting, I had completely forgotten. I’m like, ‘Who was the murderer again?’ I started making stuff up in my head. But I’m pretty good about not exposing any secrets anyway. Plus everything is digital so I wasn’t taking anything home with me.”
Sam Richardson (Aniq): “It’s really an honor system and everybody who is working on it cares so much about it. The whodunnit is such a big, important part of the show, so if anybody reveals that, it dips into all of the work that we’ve all been doing so I think they really just trust everyone not to spill the beans. I’m also very good about keeping secrets. I don’t have citizenship, and I haven’t said that in 39 years so be careful with that one: it could ruin my life.”
Zo? Chao (Zo?): “We’re all really into this show so you don’t want to open up the Christmas presents before it’s Christmas. It’s in everyone’s best interest to keep it a secret. But, to be honest, we got the scripts for all 10 episodes and I read them all before we started shooting and by the time we got to the end, I had completely forgotten. As an actor, you go into this world so fully and you meet these characters that become like people to you so I was gutted to remember who actually did it.
I was really chuffed to be asked to come back on this ride again. Being an actor has been a dream of mine since I was very young and I realized today that my favorite episode this season is a Jane Austen episode. I grew up with Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility and Merchant Ivory films. I always wanted to wear a wig and be in period costumes though I never saw anyone who looked like me in those movies. I got to do that in this show and it made me think of baby Zo? and how happy she’d be.”
Anna Konkle (Hannah): “I didn’t know who did it when I signed on for the show. You don’t even really know if it’s your character or not. But very quickly after signing on, you read all the scripts and you know who did it. But they were very secretive about it, with NDAs and burning scripts after using. I mean, your name is on every script that you get, so if it ends up at Starbucks, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. I definitely had a couple of panicked nights, like, thinking whether I actually handed my script to the PA or not, you know?”
Jack Whitehall (Sebastian): “We were given all the scripts in advance so we knew from the outset who the killer was. I think it helped inform a lot of what we were doing in the early episodes because so much of it is told through flashbacks or through clues and breadcrumbs throughout. It was quite good to have the full picture before we started shooting. I hate being burdened with that kind of information normally, because I’m one of the most indiscreet people in the world, partly because I’m a comedian. So anything you tell me that might be slightly embarrassing or something secretive that I shouldn’t know about, I find it really hard not to blurt it out or use it as material.”
John Cho (Ulysses): “There are a lot of secrets in Hollywood these days and I think it really started with Star Trek for me. I was always told to keep it all under wraps so now I just know not to ever say anything about anything — ever. Thinking back to Star Trek, that might’ve been the height of security on a project for me because our names weren’t even on the call sheet, we had code names for everyone. That way, if someone found a piece of paper in the garbage, they wouldn’t know anything.”
Elizabeth Perkins (Isabel): “We didn’t really get the finale until we were already a couple of episodes in. They were definitely trying to keep it under wraps, with NDAs and making sure your name was on the script that was sent to you, so if it leaked, they would know who it was. They also completely shredded or burned the scripts once it was done so it could stay a well-kept secret.”
Vivian Wu (Vivian): “When Chris told me who the killer was, I was shocked and disappointed but also satisfied. I kept thinking maybe they would change their minds.”
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