The first episode of Holliston Season 2 airs tonight and we have the second part of our special features with the cast behind the show. Today, I have my recent interview with Joe Lynch, who told me about his similarities to the character on the show, his involvement in the creative process, and spending time with David Naughton from An American Werewolf in London:
Before your work on Holliston, you were mainly known as a director. Now that you play a character that horror fans are watching on TV, has your life changed at all? Do you find people recognizing you more as your character from the show?
Joe Lynch: It’s strange because it’s not like we have to differentiate ourselves too much from our characters. In Game of Thrones, there’s the character that is “Tyrion Lannister” and there’s Peter Dinklage. He’s not his character, but my character is named Joe and Adam infused the character with parts of me.
There are some traits that at are definitely me, like being mister ambitious. I cannot say that I’m as cheap as Joe. I don’t water down the milk and I don’t steal peanut butter. Because I’ve been in the Comic-Con world for years, we get recognized, but I think it’s also because we’re playing relatable characters on the show. We designed them so that you could relate Adam, Joe, Corri, or Laura to someone in your life.
By making the characters relatable, we’ve allowed ourselves to be on the same level as the fans. There’s a connection and we have this community. When someone sees me at Comic-Con, I hope it’s more like “Hey, there’s my buddy Joe,” than there being a veil of secrecy about me.
If you’re asking Adam what his favorite horror movie is, you’re likely to get the same answer from him and his “character.” Which is the real Joe and which is the fake Joe? There’s a little bit of fun with that.
When it comes to the creative process, do you have a lot of input on your character’s direction?
Joe Lynch: This is Adam’s baby and when he was first conceiving the project, I thought it would be a blast to be on the show when he asked. From that point, we would meet every Saturday without fail and would come up with ideas. When the show got picked up, we agreed that because he was in WGA and I was in the directors guild, we’d both take executive producer credits, which would allow me to be involved in the creative process almost as much as Adam is.
Our process was that we’d get together every Saturday and play a couple of games of Battleship, bitch and moan, and then try to make ourselves laugh with shit we came up with. We’d say, “Dude, could you imagine if we did this..?” We’d then say, “That’s for season 1, season 2, season 3….”
We’re in five seasons deep and it’s all what makes us laugh, what’s something we haven’t seen on a TV show, or what’s something we want to see on a TV show. We then figured out how to incorporate that into the world of Holliston. Once we have a really well defined idea of where the season is headed, Adam will go off to write everything. For example, this past season, he wrote the entire season while on-set for Hatchet III. Six weeks later, he comes back with 500 pages and then we go back and forth on it. I’ve always been very much part of the creative process, including the editing process.
With editing, I also like to take a step back, though, to be as objective as possible. It’s all about what gets the funniest jokes and not how we look. If you’ve seen the show, you know that we clearly don’t care how we look. What’s been so gratifying about this is that Adam has let me be very involved in the creative process and I couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out. It’s been awesome.
I caught the Season 1 blooper reel and it seems like everyone had such a great time on set. Do you have any favorite memories or stories that stand out when you stepped back on the set for Season 2?
Joe Lynch: It’s funny that you mention stepping back on the set for Season 2, because that moment was the answer to the question we asked when we left the set of Season 1: Would we ever come back here again?
The cast and crew all bonded and we didn’t know if the magic was ever going to come back. The day we stepped on set and seeing all of the familiar faces was one of the greatest moments of my life. It was a validation that we did something right on the first season and there was a wave of nostalgia like we got the band back together.
The difference between season 1 and 2 was that there was no fear this time around. This shows on season 2 and you can tell that the performances are stronger. We’re more comfortable in our skins at this point. That first day on set was the greatest feeling I had, but the last day was extremely memorable. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why, but it was the hardest thing I’ve done as an actor, and when you see it, you’ll know what I mean.
Adam told me about his time on set with Bailee Madison. What were some of the guest stars you worked with or were really excited to meet?
Joe Lynch: In terms of the guest stars, the fact that I got to share a couple scenes with David Naughton from An American Werewolf in London was a dream-come-true. I was exchanging words, many of them from the movie, with him and he was the nicest dude in the world. Without giving too much away, I also have quite a tête-à-tête with Sid Haig in the final episode.
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If you're interested in a sneak peek of Holliston Season 2, check out the trailer below and visit our photo gallery at:
To read yesterday's interview with Adam Green, visit:
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