Bad Monkey Cast Talks Adapting a Book, Wildlife Cameos, and Line Improvisations

should we play a game on who knows more about pop culture between me and Meredith hi I'm Jordan Bohan here with pop culture Planet nice to meet you hi nice to meet you Jordan so I'm really excited as you can see I'm a big reader and this is Bad Monkey a book adaptation awesome did you read the book beforehand before getting casted once you found out about it or you not read at all once no I hadn't read it at all I wasn't familiar with Carl heon's work at all and it was only when Bill had um offered me the role I read the script and he was like this is based on a book um a writer that I've admired for a really really long time it's been a dream of mine to adapt this specific book and um and I read the book and I just saw the appeal and I was really I was really taken with the book of course but also how impressed I was with Bill's adaptation of Carl's novel was there anything you noticed that changed with your character Bonnie from the book to the show that you were really excited about you know Bonnie didn't actually have a huge presence in the book uh so so Bill took it upon himself and really um wrote a character that was much sort of bigger in scope uh than what what Carl had originally written but what he did stay true to were you know all the complexities and and those things that that Bonnie she's a bit of an enigma uh Bonnie and uh she's she's a little bit tricky and and complex and so um Bill took it upon himself and he wrote he wrote that and I just I love her so much was there anything specific from that you know new version of the character that really Drew you in any specific parts of her story or little quirks about her yeah I think what I loved about her are all of her kind of quick turns that she makes I loved how kind of playful and um sexy and confident uh she is sort of at the beginning of of the series and then we start to reveal that she's actually um hiding a lot of Secrets and she's um she's actually quite Sly and manipulative and slightly treacherous and for me she felt a little dangerous and I loved that because I've I've not tapped into that and I think what made me f made me excited and I knew it would be fun to play um would be um the tone the tonal changes and um being able to do that with someone like Bill Lawrence who is a genius at tone um would be really exciting and in a fun challenge to to do Bonnie's a very unique character and she kind of goes through different like you said variations as you kind of peel back these layers of her story was there a specific scene that you were really excited to play just because it was super dynamic or it showed a different side of her yeah I really liked um I really liked the scene uh obviously I I got to swim with a manate it was uh it was a really special um experience you know it was something that we kind of rocked up to this place called Crystal River where you're hoping to see manate um we didn't know if we'd get one that wanted to kind of play or act with us that day and we all went under the water and it was just this beautiful creature that was just overwhelming and um just mesmerizing and we played with this and swam with this Manatee for about an hour and it was really one of the most special things I've ever done so and it's and it's a it's a great turning point for the character as well not just personally it was cool but for the character it it was quite revelatory um for her and it just kind of sets her up for like the third act so it was very cool for a show called Bad Monkey and then you had a scene with a manate there's a lot of wildlife in the show you know between the key deer and the roosters and the turtles and uh you know I think that's one of the elements of the show that I think people will really um they'll really enjoy as well audiences great to speak with you very excited should we play a game on who knows more about pop culture between me and Meredith oh boy I will not win I already lose don't ask me anything I just had a baby I don't know okay well first question this new series Bad Monkey is based on a book did you read the book beforehand after you got cast or did you decide to just go strictly off the script I don't know how to read um no I read the book yeah of course yeah once I got the pilot script and then immediately got the book it's it yeah I read it did you read it yeah I read it I read it twice I read it no I read it I read it five times I read it memorize I wrote it book both of your characters are very Dynamic very different you could say um Meredith I mean your character she kind of has this double sided life one kind of in Miami which is kind of like the front and then her life in the Bahamas that's kind of like her secret life did you find having those separate type of locations to kind of help play into different sides of the character I don't know I'm thinking yeah I mean I think she just is a is a I I I think she's just a master manipul ler so I think she's just somebody who like wherever she goes it's just how do I get what I need out of this situation and um I'll do that at any cost so yeah I think we we shot everything like I think the most of the Bahama stuff that we shot was actually right in the keys I guess maybe on the the flip side of that you have more of a a dual timeline to your character younger version of her and then kind of where we meet yeah no episode 104 when you see my flashback stuff really helped inform the rest of the season and helped me find the character it's always a gift when you get to learn the backstory Charlotte did you find those kind of flashback scenes for your character as well to be helpful in kind of understanding how to play around those later scenes yes completely I mean reading the book as I did 5,000 times um I already knew that Caitlyn was this former model ex drug addict turned extreme um Christian you know married wife like I knew the extremities of Caitlyn and the depth of her but as a viewer you don't know that just from first meeting her like you you know you hear she's sober or her dad thought she had a drug problem or all this stuff and and I love getting to know backstory as Meredith does because you you got to see Caitlyn as this like really innocent sweet and pure child and then see how she slowly turned into what she became which was really dark and sad and and messed up in a lot of ways although still lovely I love her so much I have so much empathy for her still but yeah I think backstory is so important it makes you have empathy for a character you know even Eve Who's a insane person like seeing little bits and pieces of her backstory and you know episode 104 was kind of both of our like big backstory moments seeing that she came from like you know Darkness it it makes you still understand her a little bit more than you would have just like oh she's just a psycho I mean you two have some very confrontational scenes with each other was there a scene that you were really excited to shoot or a specific scene that jumps out as being really fun to film well we hate each other in real life so everything was really easy it was really method we didn't even read on a script it was just like let's let our truths come out to each other that's what that was the direction that was given to us I love the scene where when even just the first time cuz it's like you just crack up immediately laughing hey honey like I think I I can see your vag I was going to say that that was one of my favorite laugh that was a I think your dad pitched line it hit my Funny Bone hey honey your vagina's hanging out shirt no we had fun I love the scene after the church I don't know what episode that was but I remember we were at the church and I went and I said you might share your dad's DNA but I swallow it yeah which is so gnarly which is like imagine being a daughter and hearing that about your father it's crazy I love the I love the funeral one too that was the first ever time I that was the first scene I've ever done an acting period ever so it was so nice to be so nervous and then have my dad of all people which is hilarious scream out hey tell her you can see her vagina and being like okay I can let go of this like nerves cuz everything is weird and it's all funny and and ridiculous and Meredith you know delivered in such a funny way I think we had to redo that a few times because I couldn't stop giggling but yeah everything scene we had to do together was wonderful definitely some iconic line delivery between between the two of you for sure but we'll definitely get clipped and I I anticipate going viral but this was great thank you so much Charlotte merid so nice to meet you thank you