Bad Monkey's Ronald Peet Talks Crystal The Monkey and How She Made Him a Better Actor

I'm G to say congrats on the series I finished it thank you um you did great thank you very much so uh I definitely have to know what it's like working they always say it's a little risky working with children and animals yeah but the monkey in this show seemed like he was probably a better actor than everybody combined I would agree so the monkey that we had the pr the privilege of working with is Crystal actually and she's a she in real in the real world but plays dggs on the show and Crystal has been around in this game for decades now so Crystal was was teaching me how to act quite frankly but and I I I really uh my experience with Crystal was that having an animal and Crystal in particular but having an animal so near me and and so many of the scenes crystals actually on my person on my body it was it had this grounding effect to it it had a really um almost Zen therapeutic effect and so I was pretty peeved the days that I didn't have Crystal working with me cuz I was like I'm out here by myself but crystal is the best team partner in the world yeah uh uh crystal is um uh real good I'm G say it like that real good so one of the things about this listen I've been a fan of Vince vaugh for a long time I'm sure just like you and the thing about Vince is like he has this very unique delivery that is Vince vaugh and the other kicker is like he's incredibly funny and I could see everyone really laughing in the scenes so what is it actually like working with him where like some of the he says is just so good yeah it's I think it's what you think it would be like it's exactly that it's you have it's like being on SNL or something where you're trying not to not to crack not to break because he's he's a master of the art he's a master of the art of the kind of Comedy that he does so it it felt like a master class every time I did a scene with them and I'm you know I haven't always fancied myself a comedian but it's it's like looking at the sun when you're when you're around someone who really knows what they're doing what was the take that you absolutely ruined from laughing now you g to put me on the spot I I mean I don't think that I had one where I really I really broke because I'm I am a stoic by nature but inside I was definitely cracking up every time oh so there you're not taking credit for any ruined takes I will not take credit for any ruined takes I'll take for other things I'm going to ask Bill about this I'm joking uh so you see the shooting schedule in front of you what is the day you have circled in terms of I cannot wait to film this and what's the day you have circled in terms of how the f are we gonna film this oh that's a great question well with this one my character Neville really gets to do like the gamut he he runs the gamut of things he gets to do he's he's on the water he's on the ground he's in moving moving Vehicles he's dealing with the occult he's dealing with uh uh like these developers and like white supremacist illusion and all different elements and so every single day it was like put my helmet on there wasn't really one day I went to to work where I was kind of just chilling was there a day though that you were like how the f are we going to film this I mean there was an element of that most days to be honest uh but I just like I said before like I just said yes I just I just kind of had a yes attitude to to everything I think so what was it like the night before the first day of filming for you are you in your head are you second guessing everything are you debating the accent like what is going through your mood I think all of the above luckily for me I I do a lot of yoga and and I I run marathons and like I have a pretty robust uh meditation practice so there were a lot of variables running through my head but mostly at the Forefront of it I was like hey if you're here if you got this job it means that you you belong here so just have fun be present and Let It Roll are you able to sleep that night or are you like looking at the clock all night I wasn't looking at the clock all night I was um I was checking in you know I was checking in yeah yeah one of the things I really enjoyed about the show um and it's like it's not preachy but just talking about conservation red lights Florida like um can you sort of talk about that aspect of the show well that's one of the elements of the show that really attracted me I like stories I won't say stories with a message but I was a philosophy double major in school and I I think that there's a a responsibility sometimes even in storytelling to to like be in conversation with what's actually happening in the world so I love that there's an ecological message that isn't preachy whatsoever but it's just like part of the truth of what Andrew yansy Vince Von's character and Neville Stafford my character are dealing with and there's yansy in Florida dealing with like the red lights and conservation around the the the turtles and the deer and the wildlife and my character Neville is also dealing with these developers coming in and kind of threatening the the natural ecosystem there and so I I think that that's so rad I think it's so rad to be able to deal with what's actually happening in the world while entertaining and telling a story I completely agree uh the show is 10 episodes yes uh which is your favorite and why oh no no no every single one is my favorite sometimes there's one like you know there's certain episodes for you you have big scenes than others might be actually say say this because I when I was watching them um I didn't get to see a lot of the other actors and the other story lines like work while I was obviously while I was working because we were kind of atomized and so I was my eyes were so big and my mouth was a gape when I was watching the first two or three uh episodes because I think everybody's doing such phenomenal work and I'm not biased I just think everyone's doing such wonderful work so I was super excited to watch every single episode because of all of the other stories aside from um Neville's storyline that that are so full it's so full and honest and the cinematography is so Juicy and Delicious I yeah I'm a fan of the show aside from my involvement and I'm a real fan of it yeah last question for you um what you're wearing as an actor uh really informs the character you're playing absolutely talk a little bit about collaborating with Heidi on the costumes and was there anything that you brought in that really helped or like you know what is that collaboration like I mean everything every uh aspect of this show from Heidi to Bill to Vince to it was super collaborative and so uh creative and Neville Neville's uh attire had everything to do with like how I got to access Neville's character Neville is so uh close to the ground and Neville is so close to the ocean and Neville is wearing these tank tops and these oversizes and he has this key that I remember us uh collaborating on that has we we created a real backstory about the key uh being connected to his father who had passed and little things like that went a long way to to keep me in the reality of um the reality of the fiction that we were that we were making but Heidi was so so so open to every idea that I had and I I feel really blessed to be able able to say that [Music]