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Interview with Kurt Fuller

By: Allison Ebner

There's no point in denying the love we have for USA Network's fan favorite series, Psych. Between the wit, the writing and the cast, every single episode reestablishes why it makes our list of best series of all time. While the lead roles are undeniably great, there are some true gems in the form of recurring characters. One of which is the slightly creepy, but ever-loveable Woody, the Coroner.

Now, there are many reasons to love and cherish the screen time that Woody receives, with one of the biggest being the actor behind the role: Kurt Fuller. He's a name and face we all should know and love and I recently had the chance to catch up with him and chat about the unforgettable character of Woody, his love for the show, what else Kurt is up to, his take on pop culture and we may have even laid the groundwork for a get-Kurt-Fuller-on-Twitter campaign.

Kurt is a man of many talents with a career that spans decades and genres, but Woody is a role unlike anything he's ever played (and, we'd venture to say, probably unlike anything any actor has ever played!). Of course, if you know anything about Kurt, you'll probably know that means Woody must not be a bad guy then, because Kurt broke out thanks to his ability to play the not-so-great, antagonistic, slightly shady characters we all kind of love to hate.

"What happens is, I started out playing sort of a corporate bad guy in Ghostbusters II years ago, 25 years ago, and the first thing you do that's memorable, people just try to keep hiring you to do that because they know you can do that," Kurt explained of his typecasting situation.

"And so because that was the first impression I made, it followed me for 25 years! I mean, I could list the odd nicer guy I've played, but Woody, even as this season goes on, you find out more and more about Woody. He really is an odd duck," he laughed. "He's a little sort of cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Hugh Hefner." Accurate, Kurt, accurate.

He went on to talk about Woody, "[He's] a really nice guy and he just- he works for the dead but he loves those guys and everyone else who works at the Santa Barbara Police Department. He just wants to, sort of, fit in and if it were up to Woody, he'd go out on every case. It was like in Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis wanted to be a Ghostbuster... I think Woody really wants to be a detective. He'd be out there solving crimes with them; he'd go on every case if he could. So it's very exciting for him when they come down to the morgue and he is, at his core, a very sweet guy."

It's not just exciting for Woody, but for fans alike to see the show venture to the morgue where we get to see Woody in his element. So while we may not see Woody in every episode and Kurt may not be a series regular, to which he says "better to leave people wanting more than to leave them wanting you to go away," he still remains in the constant Psych loop.

"Because I'm not signed on as a regular, it's very weird," he began, "because I have a family, so I have to work as much as I can. And I do other jobs and apparently in the Psych writers' room they have my schedule on the wall, I found out," Kurt laughed. "And they sort of know, I guess my agents keep them apprised of what I'm doing, and then they try and fit me in."

"And every time they call, I get very excited," he elaborated, "because, I have to say, yes, I like what I'm doing with Woody, but it's written incredibly well. They write for me, they've figured out Woody's voice. I hate to use these little actor terms. They really figured out what makes Woody tick and every scene they write for him is a little gem. It's unlike anything I've ever done, where I read it and instead of going 'Oh, God, what am I going to do with this?' I get excited, because there's so much possibility, even with the small scenes. It's amazing how talented they are, I have to say."


But Woody isn't just limited to the morgue or a few minute-long scenes. As many fans will fondly recall, there was just the hugely successful episode "Late Night Gus" from this season where Woody went out on the case with Shawn, Gus and Lassie, forming their own boys club, if you will.

So how was the experience of getting out of the morgue for Woody and Kurt? "Well, first of all, all those people, Tim [Omundson] and James [Roday] and Maggie [Lawson] and Corbin [Bernsen] and Dule [Hill], they're all friends of mine," Kurt explained. "We just love hanging out together. There are some good shows where I am sure they don't have that much fun working, because that's just the way it goes - like any business. But these people are genuinely friends and great people, so to spend a whole week was, for me, just like a dream come true. And it made me wish that I could do it more, I have to say. Because they're just fantastic!"

"And to actually be part of the case and trying to solve the case and feeling like I was part of the team, it was sort of like art imitating life a little bit because it's sort of how I felt," Kurt continued. "I've always been such a fan of the show and when James called me and asked me to do this a few years ago, it was just going to be one episode, and I said, 'Sure, I'd love to!' and it turned into this and the more I do it, just like Woody. The more he goes out with them, the more he wants to do it. I'm telling you right now, Woody wants a badge so bad."

How badly? Well, Kurt has a theory as to how badly Woody would love a badge. "I have a feeling Woody actually has a uniform in his closet that he tries on every once in a while," he laughed. "I would love to do that! That would be a good little scene, wouldn't it? You just see him posing in his Santa Barbara Police uniform."

Clearly the answer is yes. And we hope he passed along the idea to the writers who are in the process of brainstorming the episodes we'll be getting next season. Fingers crossed we'll get another episode with that Shawn-Gus-Lassie-Woody dream team, again, too!


But this season is far from over and Kurt promises that there are "some UNforgettable moments coming up," including a big storyline in the March 28th episode, "Autopsy Turvy" where Kurt told me that "an old love affair in Woody's life pops up."

Kurt assured me that it's "very juicy" and the love affair is "not Lassiter." But hey, "with Woody, you never know!" But that certainly doesn't mean Woody isn't capable of love!

In fact, it's what Kurt would most like to see explored with Woody next season. "Woody, we know, has a troubled marriage and I would like Woody to have a relationship," Kurt said.

"He's down there with corpses all day. Can't he have a little love in his life?" he reasoned. "Yeah, I'd like Woody to fall in love. He'd probably fall in love with whoever turned out to be the killer that week, but for those 45 minutes it would be great."

We know it would be! After all, when don't the actors and writers for Psych impress us? But how does Kurt feel about Woody and his actions when he first reads a new script? Well, as excited as we imagine we'd be!

"Sometimes I go, 'Are they going to let me say that?' because, boy, you know, Woody's relationship to the dead is... it's very interesting," Kurt talked about reading the scripts. "And this is a comedy, so when you're dealing with dead people you have to remember you're in a comedy. But, I laugh! I just laugh and when I read [it]."

"You know, I'm a huge fan of wit and these shows are very witty and very - the back and forth between Shawn and Gus and Lassiter and Juliet, everybody! It's so well written, but I have to say, I think Woody gets some of the funniest lines in the show," Kurt revealed.

"Because, in Psych, the way it works is James is funny, [while] everyone else is pretty serious. They play it pretty straight and James is the wisecracker. And Woody is allowed to be funny sometimes where other characters usually play it straight and I think that is sort of what helps him stand out, that they allow Woody to actually have a sense of humor. It's a very odd sense of humor, but they actually allow him to be funny," Kurt explained Woody in a way we'd never thought of before.

"And I think that's another reason it stands out because like Lassie plays it very straight, Juliet is very straight, and Corbin, the Chief, they're all... the humor is their reaction to how odd James and Dule are. So everybody gets to react to how Woody is, so that just helps make Woody funny," he concluded.

But both Kurt and James also have a good deal of input into how funny Woody turns out thanks to their skills of improvisation.

"They let me do whatever I want, I have to say. They let me do whatever I want and then, if it's wrong they stop me. But most of the great improvs have come from James. James will throw lines out and he's just brilliant. He's just brilliant! And right just off the cuff, while we're working he'll say 'say this,' 'say that,' 'say this,' and I'll do it and, you know, he's an amazingly talented dude and a lot of Woody's humor has come from him. I'm like a trained monkey when he's around," Kurt laughed amidst explaining.


So, clearly it sounds like the Psych set is the perfect atmosphere for a cast and crew to put forward such a creative series. But Kurt pulled the curtain back even further and talked about the "well-oiled machine" that is the show and what it's like on set.

"Actors don't really get tired because they're sort of pampered, but they do get bored!" Kurt laughed. "So, I would never call acting hard work but sometimes you wait hours and hours and hours and it's amazing..." Kurt went on to describe how the cast goes from acting to non-acting on a moment's notice even on the long days.

"Like, James and Dule are huge sports nuts! Huge! Oh my God! Dule watches every game and he's always got a game on because people are often watching the game, talking sports and goofing off and laughing and stuffing food in their mouths until the second they say action and then... boom! They're into it! And the second they say 'cut,' it's over and they're back to what they were doing." Kurt elaborated.

"It's just amazing. They all know their characters so well that it's sort of like you can't tell the difference when the acting starts and the non-acting is happening because it's just... I mean, it's so comfortable," he acknowledged. "And we all sort of hang out in each other's trailers and talk and laugh and goof off. It's not like a big party, because it's a lot of work, but it's as pleasant an environment as you can possibly imagine."

 

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