Scott Speedman Welcomes the ‘Intensity’ of Peacock’s ‘Teacup’

“I think you’re always just jumping off a cliff when you start a show for the first time.”

Before even reading Peacock‘s new thriller Teacup (October 10), Scott Speedman knew creator Ian McCulloch’s script “couldn’t be pigeonholed as one thing.” Speedman plays James Chenoweth, a father doing whatever he can to protect his family from a deadly threat in remote Georgia. “It really takes off into the genre elements, but at the same time bringing the family drama in this really intense way all together.” Part of what makes the series so satisfying is because the show builds “up that trust with the audience so that when you do take this crazy turn, they’ll come with you, hopefully.” And because Speedman was so familiar with McCulloch’s work, he leaned into his “crazed, demented, amazing mind for this stuff” and knew “he was going to try to take it further and weirder and crazier.” “For lack of a better way to put it, there’s crazy sh** happening.” As it gets crazier, Speedman “just really hung my hat with this particular thing on the family drama, and as the horror, supernatural, sci-fi elements started to progress, you just go for it.”

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Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.

What about this genre appealed to you?

What genre do you think it is? I’m just curious. You think it’s the horror genre? I feel like horror, too.

I feel like it’s it’s in the horror realm, yes.

I knew Ian McCulloch from his previous work, and then we were working on something together, actually, before this, so I knew his writing very intimately, and I loved his writing. So when I heard he was doing something in the space [of horror], I knew it wasn’t going to be something that was routine for somebody that works in that space, because that’s just not who he is. He likes to write Westerns more than anything. When I read it, yes, there were definitely horror elements and spooky elements, but I really liked that it was a genre bending, and almost had sci-fi, horror, Western kind of feel to it that couldn’t be pigeonholed as one thing. As the show progresses, particularly through [episodes] six through eight, it really takes off into the genre elements, but at the same time bringing the family drama in this really intense way all together.

Yes, it does shift in tone, which is thrilling. How do you navigate that as an actor?

I think you’re always just jumping off a cliff when you start a show for the first time and everybody’s figuring each other out, you’re playing family members that just met the night before and your wife who you just met that day on set in the makeup trailer. So I think that’s really hard to do. I always tell my friends, wait till episode five and six, then the show’s really figuring out what it is, and everybody’s getting used to each other, and that’s when a show should really take off. So on that element, I always feel like it’s scary. I don’t know what I’m doing, let’s figure this out, let’s throw it against the wall and see what works. But this, I just really hung my hat with this particular thing on the family drama, and as the horror, supernatural, sci-fi elements started to progress, you just jump off and wing it and go for it. You can’t think too much about these things, because there are crazy—for lack of a better way to put it—there’s crazy sh** happening, and you can’t stop to really get all logical about it.

How would you describe the build up in this show, how things do get wild midway through?

How would I describe that? I mean, just hang on to your hat in that way, it’s fun. I think what doesn’t happen enough in the genre space, and I think some of the markers of what works and what doesn’t is, and maybe it’s the filmmakers, maybe it’s the powers that be rush into the genre element without earning the right turn or left turn of the story of the genre. And I think Ian is really like, if you do six takes, he’ll choose the smallest, less cliched version of a take. And I’m just talking about my own world. And I think that overall is how he looks at the whole thing. So again, it’s a unique view of these things. But, also, he has a crazed, demented, amazing mind for this stuff, and I know he was going to try to take it further and weirder and crazier. So, I think we did a really good job in the scripts, and then on the day of building out that family stuff and building up that trust with the audience so that when you do take this crazy turn, they’ll come with you, hopefully.

You really do see that in the show, when the payout is so anticipated and then it delivers.

We had some great directors that came on, like Chloe Okuno came on for episodes three and four. Watching her shots, she really had her own very unique style, which I loved, and I think she was really matched well with the material when we got to kind of leave the farm and go off into the world and see what’s out there. She was doing some amazing stuff.

When you’re doing a project like this, is it difficult to adjust to the rhythms of a different director for different episodes instead one director throughout?

I think that’s happening more and more [having one director]. Some of the more prestige television you’ll see it’s the same director. But it was kind of cool. I don’t know if I think maybe Ian did this on purpose or whatever, he had the right directors, their personalities matched with where we were in the material pretty well. So, it was kind of cool. John Hyams coming on for more of the action stuff, and he’s great with character stuff, too. He was really good. We had a crazy amount to shoot in a short amount of time, and he’s done a lot of that work, knowing how to make stuff look big and do a lot of action with not a lot of time. And he was incredibly patient and [an] incredibly good director. It is fun to bounce off different personalities, and they also push you in different ways. You get comfortable with one and then one comes on, it takes half a day or a day to get on the same page with how they like to work, or whatever, and they push you in different ways, or they’re more fastidious and want more takes, which is cool.

And the setting, too. I mean, Georgia is not a scary state, but being alone in remote Georgia seems scary.

We’ve done a lot of interesting, good scary movies in Massachusetts and rural Massachusetts. too. But there was something about this particular farm. We weren’t in seven different locations to Band-Aid together one location. They took a long time to find this particular farm, and we were there a lot. When I was driving up the first time, I was like, “Wow, you could put a camera there, you could have camera here, you put a camera there, and just sort of shoot.” It was pretty great that way. And we were able to use all parts of it. There’s a river down there, and it’s a huge plot of land where you could really expand the story quickly.

Does being a dad change how you play a father like this?

Definitely. I played dads when I had no kids and, as a selfish, dumb, young actor, you’re always like, well, I would love to have kids, so I [thought] I knew what I was talking about. But now you have kids, and you see that they can break your heart in an instant. It does inform when you are in this high-stress situation, it is just this thing that happens. It’s a pretty cool thing, to be able to go on set and there’s less work to be done. And those kids were real fun to work with, so it made it easy, definitely.

What keeps you coming back to Grey’s Anatomy?

Okay, it has been an interesting thing. I’ve really enjoyed my time there. They’ve been amazing to me. And they have a very big family dynamic on that show, people have been there since the beginning. It’s just got a very interesting feel, which I’ve never experienced. But when I go there, I know how to do what they’re doing there. They let me be me, and they write really well for me. And then when we’re doing the surgery scenes, some of the most nerve-wracking scenes I’ve done [in] a long time, they really work hard to make those work well, so I love doing it.