1 week Ago By mliss1578
Hysteria is Peacock ‘s latest and greatest spooky season binge. Taking place amid the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, the series follows a group of misfit teens who pretend to be Satanists to promote their heavy metal band. But things get out of hand when their school’s quarterback is found dead and the town starts blaming them for his murder.
DECIDER recently chatted with actors Emjay Anthony , Chiara Aurelia , and Kezii Curtis , who dished on some of their more head-turning scenes — like when Aurelia had to spit a mouthful of fake blood into her co-star’s face. As Dylan (Anthony), Jordy (Aurelia), and Spud’s (Curtis) popularity begins to skyrocket, courtesy of their newfound Satanism, they decide to hold an induction ceremony for their cult. While Dylan’s crush, Judith (Jessica Treska), is oddly turned on by the whole Devil-worshipping thing, her cheerleader friend Tanya (Aline O’Neill) is more hesitant to join the cult.
When she refuses, Jordy takes a big sip of blood from her chalice and spits it right into the poor girl’s horrified face. According to Aurelia, they only had one chance to get the scene right. “I only had one take, so I had to commit and go for it.
And we were both so shocked by how much blood there was,” she told DECIDER, while Anthony and Curtis said their stunned reactions were authentic. “Nobody was acting,” Anthony added after gagging at the mere thought of the corn syrup mixture that made up the fake blood. During DECIDER’s Zoom interview with Anthony, Aurelia, and Curtis, they also talked about their time at band camp ahead of filming, working with legend Bruce Campbell, and that wild sex ritual between Dylan and Judith.
Check out the full interview below. I loved the scenes when you guys were playing in your band. Did you have to learn how to play instruments and sing for that? Or did you guys already have that talent heading into the show? EMJAY ANTHONY: Well, Chiara already sung, and I already played the drums, but we all went to a band camp.
We flew out to Atlanta three weeks before we started filming, and we had all these professionals teach us our instruments. I learned guitar, then Chiara learned bass. And Kezii mastered the drums, because he already played.
KEZII CURTIS: I didn’t even really play. CHIARA AURELIA: That’s so not true. He played.
He was amazing, and he only got better. It was crazy. KEZII: What had happened was I had to learn how to drum like I’m in a heavy metal band.
I learned traditional drumming from my older brother, but I had to learn new things like stage presence and how to flip your stick while hitting the cymbal at the same time. Meanwhile, Chiara had already mastered our stage presence, and Emjay every day would steadily increase his talent. We came back, and he’s full blown shredding by the end.
I’m like, “This is beautiful. How did we get here?” CHIARA: There was definitely a point at which we were fully playing together without any sort of backtrack or recorded music. And I was like, “Oh, we’re in a band.
” They were like, “Yeah, we’re in a band together. We’re all doing this together. What is this?” EMJAY: It was totally a real band because we actually really played.
CHIARA: Yeah, we do garage shows all the time, what are you talking about? You guys need to release an album now. CHIARA: We’re in talks. Emjay, one of the craziest scenes in the show is that sex ritual between Dylan and Judith.
Can you walk us through what it was like to film that? Did you work with an intimacy coordinator? EMJAY: Yeah, we did. We had an intimacy coordinator, and it was just super professional. Everybody did a really good job.
Chiara, there’s a great scene where Jordy spits blood right in Tanya’s face. What was it like filming that? What was the blood mixture made of? EMJAY: [Gags]. CHIARA: Emjay had blood in his mouth too, the fake blood.
What I can say about that is that we had reached the end of the day. We were on a tight schedule. We didn’t have much time left.
And our director at the time, Alonzo, came up to me and said, “Listen, it’s going to take an hour and a half to reset our lovely Tanya – Aline’s hair. And if you spit this blood wrong, we’re going to go over, so you will get one take. Figure it out.
You’re going to have to do it.” And I was like, “Oh, okay.” I don’t think I’ve ever spit a liquid in that manner before.
It was a very thick-textured blood we were supposed to be using. I think it was some sort of corn syrup with food coloring or something like that. But I know that me and Eileen both had a realization as I was doing it that I had guzzled too much blood into my mouth during this process.
I only had one take, so I had to commit and go for it. And we were both so shocked by how much blood there was. On the monitor, watching back, we were both looking at each other like, [shocked].
But we had to continue with the scene because if not, we were going to mess it up. So, yeah, it was very fun. KEZII: The reactions of me and Emjay were true.
CHIARA: I think everyone was shocked. EMJAY: Nobody was acting. CHIARA: No acting involved.
We had to do weird things as actors. They were like, “Hey, you get to do this today,” and you’re like, “Cool.” In no other situation in my life can I say, “I’m going to spit fake blood on to someone today,” and it would be normal.
Kezii, you shared a few great scenes with Bruce Campbell. What was it like to work so closely with him? Did he give you any advice you can share? KEZII: Yes! So much. Me and Bruce, our first scene together, we kind of just talked for hours about the most randomest things.
And during our weird conversations, he would just throw in a line, and I don’t know where that was in that scene. And I would be like, “Okay. Cool.
Cool.” [I] had so many moments with him. He’s such a cool, honest dude and I really feel like I learned how to carry myself around the set around him.
We’re a site that celebrates all things streaming. Since spooky season is coming up, what are your favorite scary movies? EMJAY: Krampus , definitely, all-time favorite scary movie. CHIARA: One-hundred percent.
KEZII: I’m going to go with, since I just rediscovered it, Final Destination. CHIARA: I like the Scream series. I like, on the thriller side, too, kind of a Cape Fear -esque movie.
EMJAY: Like Krampus ? CHIARA: Krampus is also my favorite. It’s my No. 1 ultimate, starring the one and only Emjay Anthony.
He’s fantastic. And obviously the Evil Dead series, too, because Bruce Campbell is our Lord and savior, and he is the king. I know none of us were alive in the 80s, but what was it like for all of you guys to go back to that era and do the hair, do the music, the outfits, everything? EMJAY: Surreal.
CHIARA: Yeah, it was amazing. We had such an amazing team when it came to everything – hair, makeup, clothing, wardrobe. I was wearing mostly vintage the entire show, which was crazy.
Our lovely costume designer, Debra McGuire, was pulling out the most insane pieces for all of us. I remember the first fitting I went to, the boys were there too, I was getting full, head-to-toe Jordy, which is a little bit different from the way that I represent myself as Chiara. And there was the, “Oh, wow, these are the people that we’re becoming.
” And also I think that there’s such an idea of what it could look like to be a goth girl from that period of time. I think we wanted to create Jordy having this more Victorian, more multi-dimensional, more as a representation of self-expression version of herself. So I thought that was really fun.
Getting to watch the boys transform was amazing as well. KEZII: I want to give kudos to our amazing, amazing [costume team]. Everyone was great.
They listened, they took into account, but they also were very strategic about why they were doing things, like, “You have to wear this in this episode because it signifies this.” So it was really cool to be able to pick their minds and be like, “What do you think about this?” The camaraderie of it all, that was what I liked. EMJAY: And a huge shout out to the crew also.
Set deck, everyone like Tanner, Remi, all those guys. Props to everyone. They just did such a great job with that atmosphere.
It was really cool. CHIARA: Definitely. It felt like being transported to a different time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Hysteria is currently streaming on Peacock..
