[Interview] Stephen Root discusses his new show Praise Petey and the excitement of being a fellow fanboy
This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and sat through the credits just to be absolutely floored when you see an actor’s name you don’t even remember seeing an hour earlier? Stephen Root just might be the prime example of one of those names. As a character actor, Root takes pride in burying himself completely into every role he gets. And for his new show Praise Petey, Root does just that.
Created by former Saturday Night Live writer Anna Drezen, Praise Petey is Freeform’s newest show that adds a comedic twist to a tale about cults and blood sacrifices. After her entire world is turned upside down, city girl Petey (Annie Murphy) decides to start her life over and head out to the country and visit New Utopia, the small town that her cult leader father (Root) left for her to run after his death. Once there, Petey realizes that she is completely in over her head and tries to make the town her own with the help of some loyal cult followers and a very handsome country boy named Bandit, played by John Cho.
Taking A Peek Inside New Utopia
Root is no stranger to iconic roles that are as memorable on screen as they are often short-lived. As a character actor, Root has developed a rare talent to completely disappear into a role. With a penchant for picking roles that allows him to make the most out of his treasure chest of character actor gold, Root is now at a stage in his career where he is in control of which projects he wants to work on. When asked what appealed to him most about working on Praise Petey, Root was quick to point out the most important thing that draws him in as an actor. “Mostly the writing. Because these days I’m lucky enough to not have to do it just to turn straw into gold. I want to turn gold into platinum. And the gold here is really good writing. And if you’re able to have good writing with the quality of character actors, actors, and voice actors…and let me stress that those are the pros from Dover.”
As Petey’s mysterious yet strong-willed father, Root plays a character that has a specific vision for what he wants to achieve and knows exactly how he wants it done. For his preparation for the role, Root says he didn’t have to stray too far for inspiration. “My dad was a construction engineer supervisor for steam power plants. So the kind of thing that would happen is if we finished in about a year and a half, say you were in Sioux City, Iowa…Boom! You’re in Muncie. Indiana. Then a year and a half later…boom! You’re in Wichita, Kansas. So he had to be ready to go at all times and as a family, we went with him so it was like we were in our own little cult.”
“There were just the four of us in the family and he was the man. Everything that I do probably comes a little bit from him because he was a guy that took no bullshit whatsoever. He expected you on Saturday morning at 8 o’clock to be out mowing the lawn. Which I didn’t love but in the end, being an old guy now, I appreciate it. The structure that he gave me.”
For now, Root’s role as Petey’s Dad will remain shrouded in mystery and develop over time as the show’s narrative progresses. What we can tell you is that Petey’s Dad is a charismatic man that knows exactly how to give a damn good speech, which is kind of a must-have if you want to be a cult leader. Another prerequisite in Cult Leadership 101 is the ability to find people down on their luck and being able to exploit their desire for inclusion and acceptance. Diving deeper into the depths of his new character, Root detailed the work that went into fine-tuning the chemistry that goes into this secretive cult leader.
“He is supposed to be a real enigmatic man and somebody who will be followed. So we rehearsed a lot to find the voice for this guy. And I’m older than the character would be but I wanted to get him to register that tonal authority and I think we found that. Even when you’re doing voice, your body is still acting. You still have your body, it’s not separated from your voice. So whenever I’m doing an animated project, I’m doing it with my whole sense and being because you can’t separate it.”
Even though Petey’s dad created a cult and lived a very controlling and insidious life, Root believes that his character is far from one-dimensional. And he credits everyone involved in the show with getting the most from his performance. “I think he’s redeemable. I think this guy is as crazy as he is redeemable. He wants to do good and I think that like with anything, I have to be able to play a guy and say “No, he’s really okay. He’s a good guy. But I know he’s doing bad things.” And I’ve played that a lot, even within Barry.”
“But they’re all so entirely different. In the end, it always comes back to the fact that the writing is good and you want to do an exemplary job to complement how good the writing is…the best thing about some shows is that you do it for the writing and you’re not doing it for yourself. You’re doing it in an ensemble piece. And this [Praise Petey] is an ensemble piece.”
While Root praises the show’s level of writing and the detail that went into his character, what he is most excited about viewers seeing might surprise a [censored] or two. “The bleeped words! This is an adult show. So every once in a while you’re going to get some surprises that are dicey, but to me, the interstitial throwaway lines in the show are the best things, they’re really, really funny. I think people are going to enjoy the adult aspect of this show because they’re not expecting that I think. But as we get into episodes two and three it’s like what the bleep are we doing here?”
“John Cho is really funny in the show, reallllly funny. He’s phenomenal. Annie is just great. She’s done comedy for years. Paget Brewster, everything that comes out of her mouth is funny. So as a fan, I mean, I like to be a fan of the shows that I pick and not read the script too much because I want to see the end product. When I was doing Barry, I did a lot of prep work on my stuff but I didn’t want to read what was coming up so much. I wanted to see it as a fanboy and I think that’s kind of fun.”
The Ins And Outs Of Being A Character Actor
Despite the nomadic lifestyle that saw him travel across the country in his formative years, Root believes that his childhood helped shape him into the actor that he is today, allowing him to separate himself from the art. “I don’t have any friends back from the second grade like most people do and I think it did help me to be moving around (as a kid) because then it’s kind of like being a gypsy, and that’s what you are as an actor. You walk into a project for three days and you walk out and you go do a movie, then you go do a TV show. You’re always moving and grooving somewhere else. So I think that did help me to relate to people quickly and form friendships quickly, but to also be able to go somewhere else.”
With over 300 acting credits to his name, Stephen Root is well-versed in that quick turnaround of portraying multiple characters in any given span of time. When it comes to his preparation for any role, whether animated or live-action, Root says his job as an actor remains the same. “I don’t approach it differently. You’re still doing different characters. What’s different about animation is that it’s almost kind of replaced theater for me because in theater you can put on makeup and play somebody who is 90 years old or you could play a very young character. You can do that in animation because you’re not seeing it. But you’re playing many different characters.”
“On King of the Hill, I play two characters, plus three ancillary characters in each episode. So the quantity of things that you can do in animation I think is attractive. The quantity of being able to do all those different roles is really attractive and in that sense, that’s why I like to do a lot of it. It’s just more exercise for the character actor’s brain.”
“I’m fortunate enough to get a lot of offers, I don’t take a lot of offers because I’m not doing this for the money, I’m doing it for the good of whatever project I think is worthy of doing for myself. I want to be able to do good work and continue to enjoy what I’m doing. That’s a big part of it. I want to enjoy being with the people that I’m working with. I want to enjoy seeing the fruits of their labor, whether it’s writing or acting, and sit back and watch it and be able to go “Yay! That was good” Which is why I got into the business in the first place, you want to work with your friends and you want to do good work.”
As one of Root’s most prominent roles in his career, Bill Dauterive on King Of The Hill showed the depth of layers viewers have come to expect from a seasoned character actor. Bill started out as Hank Hill’s dopey and pathetically helpless neighbor until his ever-expanding backstory unveiled the tale of a sad albeit often unlucky man. Root’s voice work gave Bill the perfect touch of humanity as viewers laughed while he embarrassed himself in eating contests and proudly served his country being the best goddamn barber the military has ever seen. With the news that a revival of King of the Hill has been green-lit and production is underway, Root touched on the rarely before-seen concept that the animated show will introduce.
“It’s been said already that the show is unlike a lot of other animation shows, it’s going to move ahead in time. We left the show 10 years ago and Bobby was 12. Now he is 22. He has his own restaurant. He has his own set of friends and problems. The people that populate [Arlen] from before are still there and they have to deal with how the world is today. And they have gone through COVID-19. It’s like everybody else did and they have gone through the transition into society’s perceptions. And they’ve got to go through that. So, it’ll be different than The Simpsons, where everybody stays the same age, you know? I think it’s a really important step up to do that with the show.”
Whether he’s playing a dead cult leader father who wants nothing more than his daughter to succeed or a tightly wound office worker with a fixation on a certain office supply, Stephen Root never seems to phone it in. And at this point, that’s just what fans have come to expect.
Praise Petey will debut on July 21st at 10:00 pm ET, with the first two episodes on Freeform. Viewers can expect two episodes to drop weekly. All episodes will be available on Hulu the next day after airing.
