EXCLUSIVE: Jon Bass Talks His Crazy Character This Season on Miracle Workers: End Times
Episode One and Two of Miracle Workers: End Times premieres on TBS tonight, July 10 and we got the chance to speak with one of the stars of the series, Jon Bass.
During our sit down with the actor, we talked the crazy character he plays this season, his first impression of his characters outfit, getting into character, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.
This season you play a pretty interesting character. My first question for you, when the writers and the creators told you who you would be playing this season what was your first reaction?
“I think my first reaction was, ‘All right, let’s do it.’”
At any point did you think, “’Wow, they’ve just upped it from last season. They keep just coming up with these odd characters for me.’”
“Yes. But on top of that, I think that there’s just something so great about committing to something a hundred percent. And I think Robert Padnick and Dan Mirk, the creators of the last two seasons, they just know that I’ll do whatever they want for them. I’m a full plan.”
At the end of last season, were you giving them any ideas of who you wanted to play, or did you leave everything in their hands?
“Oh, I definitely left it all in their hands. I trust them implicitly, which I probably shouldn’t have, because that’s how I end up in leather chaps for an entire season. I think it’s called a… What is that called? Like a dim daddy or dim leather suit. I don’t know what exactly to call it, but it was a weird one. It was fun, but it was weird.”
But what I love that you went for it. You didn’t bat an eye. How do you prep for a role like this?
“I hung out with my dog. That’s pretty much all you can do. All you can do is hang out with your dog. And then I found out while I was shooting, my neighbor’s dog was named Scraps.”
You’re kidding.
“No, I’m not kidding. We were walking our dogs in the street and she was like, ‘This is my dog, Scraps.’” And I was like, ‘I’m Scraps.’”
Did she have a lot of questions for you when you said, ‘I’m Scraps.’”?
“Yeah. After that I was like, ‘Come over for some wine and we’ll have a conversation about it. I’m not crazy, I swear.’ It was very fun. But mainly, it’s such a weird thing because you do have to go through exactly what a dog would be thinking in every moment, as a human being. It’s a really weird exercise. It was super fun because there were some times that I would disagree with the director or the creator about what me as a dog would do. I was like, ‘Logically, it doesn’t make sense that I would bark, that I would run, because I’m still human.’ So, I don’t bark, but I will be like, ‘Hey,’ like yell hey or something because I do have to give the speech.”
You were put to work this season.
“Well, you know what? It’s such a funny thing to say that I think we all had our fair share of work. Geraldine [Viswanathan] had to figure out how to be a warlord. Dan [Radcliffe] had to figure out how to be a vagabond, who’s lived his whole life in the desert. None of us can really talk to anyone about those things. I mean, Karan [Soni [ plays a terminator. He’s not calling up [Arnold] Schwarzenegger and being like, ‘What was your work?’ So, I think this is such an insane season, such an insane story that we all had to really take on these, I would say crazy characters.
Much like the show I’m in a leather daddy outfit. Can’t really have any ego with any of that. You have to go full in and just be like, ‘Let’s commit,’ and hopefully it turns out funny.”
There’s a lot of trust there too. You can see it when the cast is all on-screen together.
“Yeah. I mean, at this point, season four, it really feels like getting to hang out with your family. I just love them all so much. And we just get to play for three months and have just truly the best time in the world. So lucky that I get to do this show.”
Let’s talk your costume. You mentioned it a little bit earlier, but what was your first reaction seeing it?
“It was, again, it was very much like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ Because here’s the thing, I am not going to rail against what I think is a truly hilarious outfit. The most insane part is that by day two, everyone was used to it.”
You’re kidding!
“On set, no one was like, ‘Oh, Jon, you look so crazy.’ The first 24 hours, people were all giggling about it and being like, ‘This is so crazy.’ And truly, by day two or three, we were all just like, ‘Eh, well, Jon’s on set. How you doing?’ So yeah, I think luckily, I was very happy to push the boundaries of what a man can wear on screen.”
What would you say was the most challenging part of making this season for you?
“Most challenging part of making the season was… Oh man, you know what? I would say it was probably when the conversations about when it was like, ‘How would a dog react in this situation?’ And everyone had a different point of view, because everyone has their own relationship with their dog. It was really a question of, ‘Well, what kind of dog is Scraps?’ And so that was always a change in conversation, which is so insane when you’re on set and you’re like, ‘Well, what kind of dog… Human dog am I?’ I mean, it’s so wild. I love it. I love it so much.”
Do you find yourself thinking that now when you see other dogs, you’re like, “Oh…That’s the type of human you would be?
“Pretty much, I did it for a season, I’m done. I don’t look at dogs and say, ‘Am I this dog?’ anymore. It was a very, very specific time in my life that doesn’t really happen anymore, thankfully.”
This season is extremely inspired by apocalyptic sci-fi films. Were you a fan of those types of movies growing up?
“Oh, yeah. I mean, the Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. We watched Mad Max Thunderdome to really get in the mode, and we had a viewing party of a couple films, but mainly it was just Mad Max because that’s where I think the main crux of that first episode, feels like it’s really diving in deep to that sort of Mad Max world of sci-fi-ness.”
Was there any movie from the sci-fi realm that you wish the season would’ve touched on?
“What did we not touch on? I mean, well, it would’ve been cool if there was maybe a little Blade Runner in there, but I think that would’ve taken it to a whole other world. I feel like there’s one episode where we sort of go into Elysium, such a funny one to do because Elysium wasn’t a massive hit.”
You’ve been doing this for four seasons now. If we got a fifth season, is there a character you would love to play?
“I would love to play an Igor type character, this sort of Hench mini, sort of, but it would be how whatever Dan and Robert decide to put the twist on for an Igor. I mean, in the fifties season, I’ll probably be naked if I’m being completely honest. It would just be truly fully, and they’d have to censor every single scene I do.”
Which may be worth it. That’s not something that’s been done before.
“You know what? As I’ve said before, ‘All right, let’s do it. Let’s go.’”
You’ve been doing this show for four seasons now. What is something that you have never been asked before that you’ve always wanted to talk about during one of these press junkets?
“Oh, wow. I think the only thing that we haven’t really been asked about is who’s the biggest monster on set. And it’s such a fun question to get asked because I try and be sardonic with it and be like, ‘Oh, well, Buscemi is a real…’ In honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever been so lucky in my life to be able to work with these actors. It’s like beyond the fact that it’s the legends of Steve [Buscemi] and Dan [Radcliffe], there’s also just the fact that we’ve all become family over the last four or five years, and it’s just a dream. I have to pinch myself because I feel so lucky. It’s so saccharine.”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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