The sweet and the savoury

THEY MUST surely be among the most popular couples in the Netflix universe right now and Drew Barrymore and her on-screen husband Timothy Olyphant were certainly all smiles as they dropped into Bangkok last week for the premiere of the horror-comedy “Santa Clarita Diet” prior to this Thursday’s launch of the second season.

The stars appeared to genuinely enjoy chatting with fans and the press and were obviously amused by the advertising blitz that saw poster and screens at every traffic junction showing fingers and ears floating in Thailand’s favourite tom yum goong soup. 
In “Santa Clarita Diet”, Joel (Olyphant) and Sheila (Barrymore) Hammond are husband and wife realtors leading vaguely discontented lives in the Los Angeles suburb with their teenage daughter Abby (Liv Hewson). Until the day that Sheila wakes up feeling a little, well, undead. Despite her hunger for human flesh and a more adventurous life, she tries to carry on and appear normal to the outside world. 
Season 2 finds the Hammonds trying to adapt to Sheila’s now-advanced undead state. The family continues to investigate what happen to Sheila and whether her condition can be cured. Sheila finds it increasingly difficult to suppress her fleshy appetite and bold new attitude, and Joel remains determined to keep his family together at all costs. Abby and Eric (Skyler Gisondo) explore new relationships and dip into environment activism, though most of their time is spent cleaning up her parents’ messes. Unfortunately, while the family has become markedly better at murder, the number of missing people in Santa Clarita is starting to pile up and it’s no longer going unnoticed.
The two stars told us a little more about the upcoming season. Excerpts:

SEASON ONE HAS BEEN GROUND BREAKING |IN MANY WAYS. WHAT’S HAPPENING |IN SEASON TWO? 
Olyphant: The second season is better than season one. The two characters realise that this is the way it’s going to be and do their best to try to save the marriage and the world. 
Barrymore: The second season is bigger and better with higher stakes. It is a pleasure to go to work everyday and talk about things that are normal and things that absolutely not normal in any way.

THE SHOW COMBINES SOCIAL REALITIES WITH A STORY THAT IS PURE FANTASY. WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS WRITTEN THIS WAY?
Barrymore: I like the show because the writers want it to be about a good marriage and the sacrifices the family have to make it work. It could be a metaphor for anybody. I don’t want to watch a dysfunctional couple arguing the whole time. There’s a wonderful balance between the craziness and the blood and the family. The type of love, the sweetness that the family members have for one another, is a great antidote to the blood and the killing. 

IN THE SHOW WE SEE YOU EATING A LOT OF FLESH; WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY EAT ON SET?
Barrymore: It could be a dehydrated apple or weird rubber that they make sweet, or sometimes it’s fermented rice or wet cake. It’s lots of things and all of them taste disgusting! I get surprises every day and there is nothing I taste on the show I’ve tried that make me want to go back for more. The wet cake, which was supposed to be raw chicken legs, was the tastiest! So I pretend I’m crunching on a pizza. 

IN THE FIRST SEASON, YOU PLAYED A REALLY SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND. WILL THERE BE ANY CHANGES IN THE NEW SEASON?
Olyphant: It’s getting harder to be supportive, but he’s doing the best he can.

THE SHOW AND NETFLIX ARE GETTING REALLY POPULAR IN ASIA. HOW DOES THIS NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES FEEL TO YOU?
Barrymore: I’ve never done television in my life so I had no idea what it would be like. Everyday I have a new script. I wonder what I would do if I didn’t like the script. What if you get stuck? I’m terrified of that.
Olyphant: Just tell them to change it. You are Drew Barrymore.
Barrymore: Yeah, but fixing the problems is a long job and doing that every week is no fun. It’s exhausting. You’re acting 17, 18 hours a day, learning 12 pages of dialogue. I’ve been in the business for 20 years. It’s really hard. 

WAS IT A TOUGH DECISION TO SWITCH FROM FILM TO TV? 
Barrymore: I trust Victor Fresco who wrote and created the show and he promised he would be there every day. These days I love reading the scripts every week and I can’t wait to act them out. At the read-throughs with the executives, the writers and the other actors, it’s like doing mini-theatre. It’s a whole new world for me. I took the gamble and I’m the luckiest girl in the world.
Olyphant: It’s a great job. I’ve spent my whole life trying to get out of read-throughs. But the scripts are great, so the read-throughs for this are solid.

DO YOUR CHILDREN GO TO THE SET |WITH YOU?
Barrymore: I had to lie to my children several times. On some nights I would miss parts of the blood and every single time my kids would be like ‘Mum, what's that?’ and I was like … ‘Paint! We were, um, painting at work today’.

DO YOU THINK THE FAMILY SITUATION IS A METAPHOR FOR TODAY’S RELATIONSHIPS? 
Olyphant: That’s the essence of the show, the fact that you are in a long-term relationship and want people in that relationship to make changes. It’s disruptive to the relationship. The key to making the relationship work is showing that you are willing to accommodate that person’s dream and sacrifice your needs. Joel is making some big sacrifices, helping his wife kill people but it’s also a team effort. This season starts to address how Sheila tries to make sacrifices as well. 

YOU HAVE SAID THAT ‘ON SET NO MATTER HOW MUCH BLOOD YOU PUT ON DREW BARRYMORE, SHE IS STILL ADORABLE’. CAN YOU ELABORATE?
Olyphant: I don’t know how she does it. But there is something in her that’s sweet 
 and vulnerable and this, and her willingness come across when the camera rolls – it’s who she is as a person. It’s a gift. I really think the joke about putting the blood on her and she’s still adorable is because Drew is essential to the show. 
Barrymore: First, thank you and second, that describes how I want my character to come across. That said, it wouldn’t work if a man weren’t kind of pulling it all together. I think you need to know that there is a fundamental good guy. 
Olyphant: Yeah, because I’m, awesome. (laughs)
Barrymore: With Victor and Tim, I know I’m giving the character the perfect tone. There’s tenderness in there, and just good comedy, good writing that’s not overtly taboo and plenty of interesting stuff. 

A LOT OF PEOPLE LOVE THE POSTER. |HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?
Barrymore: It’s great! We did that in Europe and America last year and it was so strong. Netflix really has confidence. They’re not afraid and that resonates. In Bangkok it features tom yum goong. It’s my favourite, that spicy Thai soup with lemongrass and coconut. Clearly, it’s not talking about Tom, who just got eaten.
  MUNCH ON THIS
- “Santa Clarita Diet” starts streaming on Thursday.
- Find out more at www.Netflix.com/santaclaritadiet.