'The Afterparty' Stars Jack Whitehall and Paul Walter Hauser Reveal What Drew Them to the Murder-Mystery Series (Exclusive)
The castmates admitted they initially found a bond over AEW wrestling.
The Afterparty recently kicked off its second season on Apple TV+, and there's no denying that the show's creators have crafted another obsessively clever murder-mystery story. Ahead of the show's premiere, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with some of the cats, including Jack Whitehall and Paul Walter Hauser, who play Sebastian Draperwood and Travis Gladrise, respectively. The pair are both newcomers to the series and, during our conversation, they shared what they found most compelling about joining The Afterparty.
"I mean, I think it's ultimately just the ability to play in all of these different worlds and genres, and some of them are not ones that I've had the opportunity to work in before," Whitehall shared, referring to how each episode of the new season is told through a different filmmaking genre that correlates to each of the characters. "I'd seen the first season and loved it and loved the scope and ambition of it. Then reading the second season and seeing how they'd taken these big swings with each of the episodes and stylistically they were so distinctive and that we were going to get the opportunity to do all of these different mind movies over the course of the shoot. For me, that was the most exciting element and it proved to be so because when we got to doing it, it meant that every single episode was like this fresh reset and you were doing another kind of mini-movie. It was great."
For Hauser's character's episode, the show delivers a brilliantly hilarious noir experience, which the actor was very to jump into. "I think the Noir episode, on the page, was just really funny. I remember thinking this writing was some of my favorite comedy writing I've ever gotten to do, so I was really geeked up about that."
When it came to filming the show's new season, Hauser shared that, behind the scenes, the cast had a great time together. "Everybody was really funny in their own way too, where you had people that were really going for the joke," he said. "You had people that kind of played it straight. Sometimes the more honest the improv or moment was, the funnier it ends up being. That's a good lesson for me to probably meditate on because I sometimes get a little too Energizer Bunny. I had a lot of fun."
Speaking about how their two characters have a compelling chemistry on-screen, Whitehall revealed that he and Hauser already "knew each other a little bit before," after having bonded over their "mutual love" of professional wrestling. "We hadn't actually met, but we had some correspondence online because we bonded over a mutual love of wrestling, bizarrely. So we were both kind of AEW fans and had a mutual friend in Tony Kahn. So we had a little bit of contact warm that, a little bit of a warmup."
He continued, "It felt like when we met on set for the first time, we weren't starting from a standing start. And I think also we both love comedy and comedy movies and have similar kind of influences and are both great admirers of physical comedy and the same types of comedians. And we talked a lot about that." Hauser then chimed in, "I remember you telling me how much Jim Carey inspired you."
Whitehall added, "I wasn't necessarily with my performance was didn't necessarily befit that type of character, but I loved being able to be the sort of straight man in some of those scenes to Paul when he was committing to some of those bits. I'm such an admirer of people that can pull off that physical comedy and he's so wonderfully committed to it and fearless in those scenes that it was great to be on the being able to there to give him something to bounce off."
The first three episodes of The Afterparty Season 2 are now streaming on Apple TV+. Keeping watch PopCulture.com for more cast interviews! [Editor's Note: this interview has been slightly edited to avoid spoilers.]