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Rick and Morty
A Decade of Being Beth & Jerry - Rick & Morty Season 8 Interview with Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke
Alex chats with the actors behind Beth and Jerry about keeping things fresh eight seasons into Rick & Morty and some of their favourite weirder moments from the show.
Audio transcription
"Hello, I'm Alex Hopley with Gamereactor.
Chris, Sarah, very nice to meet you.
Eight seasons in.
How have you been able to see your characters evolve during that time and what do you think they can still learn, I guess, as we keep going with this Rick and Morty saga?
I think Jerry has grown more accepting of the craziness of his life and the life of his family."
"He's gotten a lot more used to it and more comfortable with it, you know, going to different dimensions, going off-world.
Yeah, I mean, it's nice to see Jerry adjusting.
You know, not to say that he doesn't still get, you know, very surprised and thrown by certain things and terrified by things."
"He's not a totally cool customer, but yeah, it's been awesome.
Yeah, I think for Beth, how has she changed?
I mean, definitely she's fallen more back in love with Jerry.
I think they were having a lot of struggles when the show initially started and they're starting to find their way and maybe Space Beth joining the dynamic helped that."
"But I think, you know, one of my favorite parts of getting to do the show this long is getting to kind of see all the different sides of these characters and kind of learn, you know, so much more about them."
"At the beginning, it's like, okay, there's this family, but then you start to learn, okay, like, why is Beth like she is and what was her childhood like and more of the struggles of her relationship with her dad and then getting to have this clone so that they can each have their own unique experience."
"It's been really fun to get to kind of have the runway of this many episodes of 80 episodes.
You can have the benefit of learning that much more about them.
And not many shows nowadays, especially, feel like they get that 80-episode run, that constant sort of return to these characters."
"Over that time, have you guys been able to influence your characters in any way and have they influenced you in any way as the time's gone on?
Well, I mean, I guess I like to think, I don't know if this is true, but I like to think that they've given me things to do and, you know, I've hopefully stepped up to the challenge and so I think that's just made them feel like they can give me more things to do that are darker, more emotional, stuff like that."
"I don't know if the characters changed me necessarily.
Yeah, I feel like, it's like Chris said, you hope that in a great, in the best case scenario, that the writers start to tailor some things to your strengths and things that you can do."
"But in terms of influencing it, of having ever really brought, like, asked the writers for things in this job that hasn't happened, it's more that I open the scripts and I am kind of just blown away by what they're coming up with every week for us to do."
"It's just, it's kind of mind-blowing.
Like, I don't understand how they come up with something every episode that is like nothing that's been done in any of the previous 79 episodes."
"Yeah, I was talking to Scott and Dan before about the, sometimes the writing changes right up until the last minute.
Is that a particular challenge as an actor or do you just sort of wake up and go, okay, the lines have changed today, I'm going to read this joke instead of that joke and just get on with it?
Oh, yeah."
"The second one, it's not, you know, it's actually the best part I think about this show and it's why I think it's so good is that Dan and Scott care so much and the writers all care so much."
"So when they have a finished product, we've recorded it, they watch it, they're like, oh, you know what, we have a better joke here or this scene maybe we want to hit in a more emotional way.
And so then when you come in to record your next episode, you do some pickups from the previous one and if it just makes the episode better or work more or hit differently, it's great."
"But for us, it's not hard, it's just we all want the show to be as good as it can possibly be.
And so you're going through it, you know, one line of dialogue at a time."
"And so if there's something maybe you recorded in the first one that didn't hit right, right, they're like, we actually need it to be more emotional than we had anticipated.
You know, it's just part of it."
"Yeah.
So do you have any, as the show's gone on, I think we've seen Beth and Jerry especially sort of become more front and centre."
"Maybe originally in season one you have them almost playing slightly background to this, almost feels like a parody on like an after school show it feels like, almost like grandpa and grandson going on wild adventures that turn out to be very weird, as you've said."
"Are there any characters that you still, eight seasons in, would like to see maybe more of your character interact with?
I'm always happy when, you know, I get to have adventures with Rick.
I guess the one that would be fun to see is Jerry and Summer."
"Haven't seen too much of that, you know, so I think that might be an interesting pairing.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
I guess there's been like a few, but not a ton."
"The ones that were really, really funny.
More, I feel like the space Beth dynamic felt super lucky and I've loved getting to kind of it's just been a unique different challenge to play both of them having scenes with each other."
"But also, yeah, I love the Beth Rick episodes because I think it's just cool to kind of find out more about that dynamic and why Beth turned out how she did.
Yeah, I think something that's really interesting about the show is those dynamics of the more anthology type episodes, I think Dan called them, and then the more canonical episodes."
"Are there moments, especially when you were talking about their like unique challenges of recording as yourself?
What does that sort of look like in the booth, I guess, when you have to act as yourself, but also not yourself, but then yourself in a different way?
When you say yourself, do you mean as your main character?
As Jerry, who's not Jerry, but is also Jerry, or Beth who is space Beth, but is also Beth in that weird sense that Rick and Morty provides, yeah."
"Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of fun because it's in the writing and then you'll get some direction from Scott, but just trying to find the right adjustment because for Jerry, his voice doesn't change too much, but there are certain Jerrys that we'll see that are pretty different than our standard Jerry."
"So that's just, you know, it's a fun acting challenge and you want to make sure you fully realize that other version of Jerry so that it feels just as grounded and solid as our day-to-day Jerry.
Yeah, totally."
"Finding ways to make them kind of like just a tiny bit different, but also it's the same character.
And that's kind of one of the cool things about animation.
I mean, that's not a challenge that you really get in other mediums."
"And so it's one of the funnest parts of this job because you want to make sure that it feels like the same character, but that there is something that sets them apart.
And so for Beth and space Beth, I record them separately."
"We'll do all of the Beth lines and then do all the space Beth lines together.
I think I've just got maybe time for one more question until wrap, but are there any episodes, maybe this season, maybe season before, that have made you properly just sort of like pause with the weirdness?
I know, Terry, you talked before about the script and how they constantly build upon themselves."
"Are there any that stand out that have been ones where you've gone, you know, what did I sign up for in a weird way or something like that?
Well, there's an episode, an Easter episode coming up that I just was continually delighted as I read it."
"I was just like, oh, this is so amazing.
This is so creative.
And just, I mean, they're all of those things.
But yeah, that one in particular, I was just like, wow, you know."
"Yeah, I feel like there's a couple in this coming season.
I think season eight might be one of my favorite seasons that we've had.
Finale's really cool.
We got to watch a couple of the episodes."
"Like, we'll get animatics before, which is like a black and white version, not filled in and the mouths aren't moving, but you kind of get the idea of the episode.
But we got to watch a couple of the color time ones."
"And, you know, there's one where, like, there's this scene at the end in one of the episodes and with the music that comes in, we actually get super choked up.
And I just think that's one of the coolest parts of the show, you know, is that they can actually, like, super entertaining, but then also really move you."
"Yeah, yeah. Right. I think that's all my time.
It's been a pleasure chatting to you, Sarah and Chris.
Pleasure to meet you. And yeah, all the best."
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