“Goosebumps” is back.
The horror anthology series, which is loosely adapted from the wildly popular kids’ lit series of the same name by R.L. Stine, returns to Hulu and Disney+ for a new season on January 10 entitled “Goosebumps: The Vanishing” that promises to be a spooky, scary good time.
Jayden Bartels and Sam McCarthy star as, respectively, twins Cece and Devin, who travel to Brooklyn to spend the summer with their divorced father Anthony (David Schwimmer). It seems like it should be a fun time in New York City, but their first hint that something strange is going on comes when their dad warns them that he only has one iron-clad rule at his home: never, ever go into the basement. Soon, the pair and their friends must face a supernatural threat that’s connected to the mysterious disappearance of four teens in 1994.
If you recall the original Goosebumps novels at all, you’ll know that the second book in the series was titled “Stay Out of the Basement”and featured a memorable image on the cover of a plant-encrusted hand emerging from a doorway.“Goosebumps: The Vanishing,” which tells an original story adapted from elements from several of the books, features a plant-strewn laboratory set that will give devoted readers an eerie sense of familiarity. “That lab was all real plants on a sound stage with really cool lighting,” says Bartels. “We had an amazing team who built it literally out of nothing.”
Bartels (Nickelodeon’s “Side Hustle”) and McCarthy (Netflix’s “Dead to Me”) talked to Awards Focus about how quickly they were cast in their roles, what it was like watching Schwimmer improv on set, and the sheer fun of being young in New York City.
Awards Focus: Tell me a bit about when you heard about the opportunity for the roles of Devin and Cece. How quickly were you two on set trying on the costumes? Was this a pretty quick process?
Jayden Bartels: I think I was literally the last person cast because I found out three days before I moved to New York. So there wasn’t a lot of whole time for me to process what was going on, the audition process wasn’t quick, but not long —
Sam McCarthy: They did take their time.
Bartels: They took their time, I didn’t think about it too much. I was like, well, I hope I got it, but no pressure, and then —
McCarthy: Really? I was literally like, “one more day…”
Bartels: Really? (laughs) I was like, I need to just let this go and let the universe do what it needs to do, but once I found out it was quick to New York, quick on set, and we were shooting right away, which I liked. Once I found out I got the job, I didn’t want to wait anymore.
AF: Now, do you grab the scripts immediately? Do you have a little fun and read the source material?
McCarthy: I read the pilot like 10 times, which is kind of all the preparation I did. And the thing is, you immediately go, oh I have to prepare, I have to read all these books… but Devin and Cece are these new characters, you know what I mean? And you can dive into the source material for a level of like, let me just pay reverence to what we’re doing now. But if you come at it from a sense of “I have to prepare creatively to do this,” I don’t think that was inherently necessary for this job, and it would just become a bit of preparation for the sake of preparation, and that kind of worry can make one a little tense. At least that was my experience.
AF: Definitely don’t want to come in tense to the set. By the way, I still have my copy of the book with the the plant hand on the cover.
Bartels: Oh my gosh!
AF: Very much enjoyed that. I love the sets too. Can you talk a bit about the set with the lab in the basement? It’s so evocative with all the vines coming out.
Bartels: Yeah, I mean, the sets on the show were insane, and a lot of it was out in the streets of New York and in real life, which was so cool. But that lab was all real plants on a sound stage with really cool lighting. We had an amazing team who built it literally out of nothing. And the sets were amazing, but my favorite part was when we got to be out in New York, just running on the streets. I think that added to a lot of what the show’s energy is.
AF: David Schwimmer is just a wonderful actor, and the transformation he goes through looks fun for him to play as he becomes more and more erratic. But it’s also a tightrope that your characters play as you pick up on the clues, and it has to be a slow revelation because you can’t pick up on it too quickly. So I’m just curious as actors, how you try and balance the unraveling of something’s going on here.
McCarthy: The writers do that. (both laugh)
Bartels: I think it was a little easier for us because we didn’t actually know what the next episode was going to be.
McCarthy: Well, that’s true.
Bartels: We actually didn’t know, so a lot of it was genuine. I think that all of acting is knowing what’s going to happen and then pretending like you don’t, but I think that we were all just so in the moment, and so worried about the then and now, that we couldn’t even have told you what was going to happen in the next episode.
McCarthy: Yeah, and even if we wanted to we couldn’t tell you, because we didn’t have the episode.
AF: With regard to being on set, was there a moment when something evolved on the day, whether it’s the staging, somebody brought an idea for how the scene could be played a little different, something like that?
McCarthy: Every day. I think when it’s at its best, this is a collaborative sport. So there was a good bit of improv in this, and David would sometimes be like, what if we have this happen?
Bartels: This isn’t really about us, but Stony Blyden just brought himself to the table, and then that evolved into his character really becoming a main part of this show. So I think people bring themselves and their energy and what they have to offer, and then that morphs into how the show goes.
AF: How many directors did you work with for this season, and is there one particular moment with one of them that really stands out?
Bartels: We had almost a different director for every single episode, so we worked with a lot of different directors. I mean, Rob Letterman will always have a special place in our hearts. Because we wouldn’t be here without Rob.
McCarthy: Rob’s the GOAT.
Bartels: Rob’s the GOAT.
I really enjoyed working with Erin O’Malley. She was incredible, and I mean, every single one of our directors was incredible.
McCarthy: We were shooting episode six with Eduardo Sánchez, who co-directed The Blair Witch Project. I remember I was doing a scene, and you could just tell, we did one take, and he was like, yeah, you want to do it again? And I was like, sure. We did it again. He’s like, great, let’s move on. And that kind of confidence and ease is so key. That stuck out to me, that moment with him.
Bartels: A director who is confident is the main thing.
AF: Is there anything you’re particularly excited this season to share with the fans, and how you feel like the reception has been? It feels like Goosebumps is more popular than ever. We see a lot of nostalgia right now with different reboots, and this is certainly a great property to explore. Have you met R.L. Stine yourself?
Bartels: We wish! No, we haven’t yet, but hopefully. I’m really excited for the running jokes in this show and the one-liners. They’re really iconic and pretty funny. And because we are genuinely a group of people on the younger side, even though we kind of are all over the place in our real ages, it really does look onscreen like a group of teens hanging out and having fun.
And that was the goal. I mean, we were hanging out and having fun, right?
McCarthy: In real life, yeah.
Bartels: (laughs) Yeah!