How Jamie Babbit directed ‘Only Murders in the Building’s’ killer reveal party [Exclusive Video Interview]
Jamie Babbit has directed six episodes of “Only Murders in the Building,” including the pilot and both finales, thus far, but the Season 2 closer was unique in one very efficient way. “In filmmaking, one of the most challenging things is putting all the equipment back in the truck, moving it around New York, unpacking all of the equipment, set it up, you shoot something, and then you have to pack everything back up in New York, put it in the trucks,” Babbit tells Gold Derby (watch the exclusive video interview above). “So there’s something nice about having that many days in one location, where you can really focus on the performances.”
The Season 2 finale, which Babbit is submitting for the Emmys, primarily takes place in Bunny’s (Jayne Houdyshell) apartment, where Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) throw their killer reveal party — a party in which Bunny’s killer is revealed and a reveal party that is killer in nature. The lengthy sequence features several supporting players — all of whom participate in the slo-mo walk to freak out the slo-mo-phobic Cinda (Tina Fey) — two false accusations and a fake death before the true culprit, Poppy née Becky Butler (Adina Verson), is exposed. Babbit, who was Emmy-nominated for helming the pilot, only had 30 minutes to rehearse the scene.
“I was excited about the challenge. There’s something about the puzzle of a big, giant scene with a lot of actors and all these timing issues of you can shoot this person on this day, you can shoot this person on this day, got the double on the other days. There’s something kind of geometric about figuring out how to shoot it in an efficient way,” she says. “And I think we had five days, maybe four days, to shoot that party. One of my favorite movies of all time is ‘Clue’ and it really kind of reminded of shooting that, just the comedy of it, the people running around. It was so much fun.”
One of the logistical issues was the fact that Fey and Michael Cyril Creighton, who plays Howard and was working on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” were each only available for one day. When they weren’t around, Babbit filmed the scene with doubles. “Any time there’s an over-the-shoulder [shot of Cinda] or something slightly wider, it’s not Tina,” she shares. Like the Season 1 finale, this one also featured Martin in his physical comedy element. Not only was there the slo-mo, but he also had to chop up and squish a tomato — they did 15 takes — to ostensibly try to break Cinda into confessing. “He’s such a great physical comedian, so we always try to give him space to do his kind of comedy. Even the tomato bit, that’s very Steve.”
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Poppy, Cinda’s put-upon assistant, is revealed to be Bunny’s murderer after an elaborate scheme that involved Alice (Cara Delevingne) stabbing Charles in the abdomen and him bleeding out on the floor, seemingly dead. He later pops back up in a hilarious jump scare to divulge how they figured out it was Poppy.
“It’s funny because he was laying on the ground and we were about to shoot that and I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ Because obviously it’s hard to lay on the ground for a long time because it hurts and also to sit up is not easy, especially when you’re in your 70s. Steve was like, ‘I’m really nervous.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Because I know this is a big moment,'” Babbit recalls. “So he really understood the mechanics of the scene and that that was a funny thing, but I’ve found throughout my career that some of the most talented actors are the ones that still get nervous when they have to do their takes. They care. They really care and they want to do it right.”
Mabel was the one who realized it was Poppy, as the episode cuts back to show the rest of an earlier scene in the Pickle Dinner, where she points to the “14 sandwich” on the menu that Poppy had ordered. If you rewatch the initial scene, you can see it slowly dawn on Mabel that Bunny’s final words were “14 sandwich,” not “14 Savage,” as Charles, Oliver and Ivan (Ariel Shafir) discuss how gross a liverwurst and marmalade sandwich is.
“ include it but don’t give it away. Having just shot the newest finale, I had to do a lot of similar shots, where I was like, ‘OK, I want the audience to see this, but it’s not until the end that they realize what I’m shooting really relates to what I’m doing, so how do I distract the audience or make the shot not quite focusing on the other clue that’s going to be revealed later that’s actually the biggest clue?'” Babbit says. “It’s all intentional. It’s just part of the mechanics of the plot, which what’s so fun about a murder mystery because you are thinking logically about what the pieces of information you want to give the audience. And all of that is a nice structure for the filmmaking.”
As the director of “Only Murders'” season finales, Babbit has the privilege of not only setting up the next season’s murder but returning to “solve” the case. Season 2 ended with a one-year time jump and actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) dropping dead on stage on opening night of Oliver’s Broadway play after a tense exchange of words with Charles, his co-star. “Fans can look forward to Meryl Streep, who was a really big, fun, exciting addition to the cast,” Babbit says of Season 3. “Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep in a single scene. They had never worked together before, so that’s really fun. And they can look forward to a lot of the Broadway world, which is just a fun new setting for Marty’s character. And Steve is obviously the star of the play and Marty’s the director and Meryl’s involved with the production, and just a very, very fun next season with uncovering how Paul Rudd died on stage.”
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