Upcoming Psych guest star Jason Priestly chatted with Hypable last week about his role on the USA dramedy’s shocking midseason finale, his thoughts on the new 90210 and more!
Priestley says he’s “always been a fan” of Psych, ever since he got his hands on an early copy of the pilot — “through very nefarious channels.” And that’s why he jumped on the chance to be a part of the show.
“When they called me up and asked me if I wanted to do this episode … and they told me that Jennifer Finnigan was going to be playing my partner in this episode, I was even more excited by that because Jennifer and I have been very good friends for a very long time and I’ve been a big fan of her work,” Priestley explained. “So it was a wonderful confluence of things that made this a lot of fun for me and something that I was very happy and very eager to be a part of.”
Priestley said he enjoyed playing Clive, because “altruistic characters tend to be more boring,” and it’s so much more fun to be someone who’s morally complex.
“Clive’s a rogue and Clive’s a con man and the overriding thing with Clive was, it was that old saying, ‘I never met a con man I didn’t like.’ So I just sort of really took that to heart and made sure that Clive was as charming as charming could be,” Priestley said.
“And that was really the big thing that me and Jennifer made sure that the two of us were, you know, we were the very gregarious, loquacious couple that were very entertaining and kept everybody laughing while we were reaching into their back pockets and stealing their wallets.”
He continued with the midseason spoilers: “Clive is very much in love with his wife and they are very much a couple and they are very much in love with each other. And that’s very endearing and it’s very cute. But the most troubling part of it is that, you know, at the end of the day, they are sociopaths. And they do want to steal everything that you have. But you got to take the good with the bad, you know what I mean.”
Although Clive is a criminal, his character is more comical than anything, whether he’s lounging in a pool chair being overly-cutesy with his on-screen wife or sharing a piece of cake — and a bromance moment — with James Roday’s character Shawn.
And did the duo have an off-screen bromance as well? “Oh, you know, yes, we did. We had a little… we had a thing going on. You know, don’t judge us. Don’t judge us, man,” Priestley joked.
“The hardest part of working with James is keeping a straight face because he is a very, very funny man and so there are challenges inherent within that. But he and Maggie are both very professional and very prepared,” the 42-year-old Canadian actor continued. “But it was a lot of fun, you know. Those guys are very professional and we had a lot of laughs.”
Wednesday’s episode has so much more than the usual jokes, and is one that fans definitely don’t want to miss. “It’s a classic episode of Psych,” said Priestley. “It’s a lot of laughs and there’s a little romance, there’s a little adventure, it’s everything you want. It’s got it all. And it’s got me, Jason Priestley.”
The one thing it’s missing, however, is 90210 jokes. Priestley says the episode is totally Beverly Hills-free, a move which will probably disappoint fans, but seemed to please the former 90210 star, who is forever trying to seperate himself from Brandon Walsh.
And will Priestley ever reprise his most iconic role on the new 90210? “It’s, you know, it’s a good show. I mean, it’s a totally different show from our show. But it’s a good show. But no [I won’t guest star]. I did my time playing Brandon Walsh but Brandon has served his time on this planet.”
After the midseason finale of Psych, “Neil Simon’s Lovers Retreat,” airs tomorrow, the show will be on hiatus until early 2012.
Are you looking forward to seeing Jason Priestley on Psych? What do you think of his character Clive so far?