The actor reminisces about his ‘Pitch Perfect’ days and how his real-life mother feels about Marcia Gay Harden playing his TV mom.
Skylar Astin has got you covered on Thursdays. The actor stars in CBS’ freshman drama, So Help Me Todd, as the titular character — an aimless but brilliant investigator who’s brought in to his mother’s firm to help solve cases — and he sat down with Nischelle Turner on the ET stages to talk about his new series.
“I play Todd Wright, who is a former private investigator stripped of his license, and I have to go work for my high-powered attorney mother, Margaret Wright, played by Marcia Gay Harden,” Astin tells ET. “We butt heads a lot but there’s a lot of love underneath in this mother-and-son relationship.”
The actor admits having Harden play his TV mother is surreal in and of itself, and he usually keeps it professional on set during the workday.
“I play it really cool on the day, but after every week there’s always a text message, a Friday night where I’m like, ‘It’s such an honor to be able to work with you. I’ve seen you on stage and screen for years,'” Astin confesses. “So I do have those moments where I check in with myself and don’t get ahead of myself but yeah, she’s just a joy to work with so it is easy.”
His real-life mother, however, “freaks out” that Harden is playing his mom onscreen.
“She’s met Marcia and loves Marcia,” Astin shares. “But I think she gets upset now that the show’s airing. She’s like, ‘I don’t like how she’s so mean to you,’ as a character of course. Not as Marcia. But then it also hooks her deep when there is the love and there’s the big payoff and there’s the big heartfelt moments at the end. And my mom’s like, ‘But then I realized she loves you underneath it all,’ so my mom approves.”
His Pitch Perfect co-star, Utkarsh Ambudkar, who now stars in another CBS series, Ghosts, visited the ET stages the day before and sent a video message to Astin. The Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist alum shared fond memories of filming the 2012 movie with Ambudkar and the rest of the cast as it celebrates 10 years.
“I really loved creating the game of the riff-off, like the actual science of it and how it works. The filming of it was two nights in a very cold hollowed-out pool and it was a big bonding experience for the cast and I think we all loved just the interplay of the riff-off and [that] translated well onscreen,” Astin remembers, adding that he can definitely rewatch the movie. “It’s like the best high school yearbook ever. I have fond memories so yeah, of course!”
Adam Devine is set to star in a Pitch Perfect spinoff series for Peacock called Bumper in Berlin. Astin was open to the idea of appearing on the show if the stars aligned and the story made sense.
“I would make a cameo, yeah,” he says. “I think [they] might be done with season 1 but I’m sure it’ll be a big success.”
But Astin pitched another idea that may be a bit easier to make happen — a Ghosts-So Help Me Todd crossover!
“I personally would love a Ghosts-So Help Me Todd crossover. I think that that would be phenomenal,” Astin says. “It’s simple. You just have Utkarsh and all those characters, they have to enlist the services of Todd and Margaret Wright. That’s right, Thursdays, we got you covered!”
