While Issac and Nigel debate the merits of the Stamp Act, a documentary television crew from the in-universe series “Dumb Deaths” wants to highlight Pete’s (Richie Moriarty) archery accident. Sam and Jay agree to the film crew taking over Woodstone Manor because they want to advertise the history of the house to potential guests. Pete overhears the documentarians discussing how they believe alcohol influenced his death. He doesn’t want his relatives to see him portrayed that way. UK series fans will also recognize the “documentary recreating the death of a ghost” plot but the setup and payoff is tailored to fit Pete’s character development.
Mathew Baynton plays an over-the-top British method actor cast as Pete in the documentary. This is also the first time he’s playing a living as he plays Thomas Thorne in the UK series, a poet who failed to achieve stardom. Thomas died about 50 years after Issac and Nigel in the mid-1820’s. He is also known for acting in and producing Horrible Histories and several other U.K. comedy series. Baynton spoke to Den of Geek about what it was like to film the U.S. series as a U.K. writer and actor, his thoughts on adapting the Ghosts concept to the United States, and why American Ghosts fans should sample U.K. Ghosts if they haven’t already.
DEN OF GEEK: When was your part in “Dumb
MATHEW BAYNTON: I have such a bad memory, but it was sometime during the summer holidays because I took my kids out to Montreal with me, and it was great. It was such a privilege to be the first [of the U.K. Ghosts cast] to get the chance to go play with our American cousins. I got to absorb all of the love from those guys for us creating the original. Everyone was lovely. The vibe we have on the set in the U.K. is a real supportive, friendly, family vibe. We really like to try to make sure that everyone in the cast and crew feels part of the team and wants to come to work every day and enjoy themselves. And it felt like it was exactly the same atmosphere out there on the CBS version, so I felt right at home.
Where did the idea for the obnoxious actor role come from?
They [U.S. Executive producers Joe Port & Joe Weisman] had written this storyline about an actor coming in to play Pete in a reconstruction of his death, and that’s what I was first sent. The main point was that it’s a story about Pete. It’s about Pete and his realization that he’s going to be portrayed as this kind of idiot who ignored health and safety measures and was a fool. [Pete] doesn’t want his living relatives to see this thing that sort of disrespects his memory. The first version of the character was more like an old school hammy stage actor.
We spoke about it and I felt that it would be fun to play with a more modern acting stereotype and the irony of someone who claims to be obsessed with being a method actor and getting to the absolute truth of the character. The irony of using the word truth again and again when you’re portraying someone like a million miles away from what the truth of what they were like. That was the most fun to be beside Richie just playing the game of being as disrespectful as possible to his character right in front of him.
