James Roday ponders the future of 'Psych'

James Roday

Like his Shawn Spencer character on "Psych," James Roday has a deadpan sense of humor. When he’s not playing a fake psychic on the USA Network dramedy — which also stars Dulé Hill as Shawn’s sidekick, Burton "Gus" Guster — Roday likes to joke around and sing the praises of David Bowie.

As of January 27, "Psych" leaves its longtime Friday time slot to air in a new regular time period: Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time. Roday recently chatted with journalists via a telephone conference call, during which he sounded off on the new time slot for "Psych"; co-hosting "WWE Monday Night Raw" with Hill; and what Roday thinks of World Wrestling Entertainment star John Cena, who makes a guest appearance on "Psych" in the January 27 episode. . (This interview took place before Roday had to bow out of guest-hosting duties on the January 25 episode of "WWE Monday Night Raw," reportedly because Roday had an appendectomy. Hill still went ahead as guest host of the show.)

Is there somebody else that you’d really love to see take a turn at the "Psych" theme song?

Yeah, there’s actually a couple people I’d love to see take a turn. I think the Chipmunks should do it. I think that maybe we could, maybe we could structure like a, a holiday episode or something where the Chipmunks just come in and blast it and do their thing. And then I think a David Bowie cover of our theme song would probably go over pretty, pretty nicely as well. If you’re asking me like what would be great for the show, I could make a list of every sort of one-hit wonder that ever came out on any ‘80s compilation imaginable.

For me, selfishly, I would want it to be Bowie so that I could hang out with Bowie and I would actually request that he come dressed as the character from "Labyrinth," and I would hang out with him while he did it. And then doesn’t want to hear their theme song sung by the Chipmunks? Am I crazy? Am I wrong on this? You wouldn’t be able to understand what they’re saying. It would be awesome. I know it’s all squeaky and we could get Theodore [to do] like a solo but nobody would know it was Theodore because they all sound the same when they sing, but we would know.

Tears for Fears would be great. Depeche Mode would be great. The Cure would be great, the Smiths. How about this: We beg the Smiths to finally reunite because they’ll get to sing the "Psych"theme song?

James Roday in "Psych"

Are you watching "Glee" or "American Idol"?

My dear girlfriend, who also works on ["Psych"] with us, is addicted to both of those shows. And it took me a little while but she got me on the "Idol" train, so now I watch that. I’m not fully aboard the "Glee" train, but I have seen two or three episodes and they really do look like they’re just having almost as much fun as we do.

Now that "Monk" has ended, "Psych" is the longest running original series right now on the USA Network. What’s that like? Has that changed the way that you guys look at the show now?

I feel older and my knees feel older. You know what, it’s a testament I think to the sort of little engine that could mentality that we’ve had from the very beginning with the show, that we have sort of stuck around long enough to be anybody’s flagship. USA does such a great job sort of branding and packaging their shows, and you’ve really got to keep up with the train. And we’ve managed to sort of kind of continuously reinvent ourselves and become this sort of hybrid show that can stick around hopefully no matter what else is going on around it. So it feels good for us, I’m not sure if it makes any difference to anyone else, but it feels good to have lasted this long and still be standing for sure.

Are there any guest stars that you’ve really wanted to get that you haven’t yet?

I always say David Bowie. That’s sort of like my stock answer to every question regarding who I’d like to have come on the show, who I’d like to sing our theme song, who I’d like to meet for coffee in a completely unrelated non-"Psych" atmosphere. He’s just the god, he’s the man, and I think we could probably make really good use of him on our show.

In addition to him, there’s sort of like a, a little like mini-"Psych" dream that before it’s all said and done we would be able to have all five members of "The Breakfast Club." We’ve only nailed two of the five, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. And I think Emilio [Estevez] is going to prove especially tricky, but these are the kinds of goals that we’ve set on our show.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

If Shawn and Gus were a wrestling duo, what would their names be and what would your stage attire be?

Wow. It’s appropriate and my answer is going to be rather rudimentary. I’m going to go ahead and call us Black and Tan — me, of course, being Black and Gus being Tan. And I’m going to say that we come to the ring in our Black and Tan want to be male-model attire and that we are what is known in the WWE universe as jobbers, meaning that it is our job to come in and get our asses beat by whatever tag team that they’re trying to push at the time. There it is, there’s my estimation of Shawn and Gus as wrestlers.

In the episode "Let’s Get Harry," we get to meet Shawn’s and Gus’ wrestling dolls. Will they be making a comeback and in real life? Do you own any dolls?

I think, if I remember correctly, we kind of retired the dolls right then and there in the moment in the episode because we sort of had the epiphany that we were a little too old and they were actually a little creepy. So I don’t know if the dolls are making a comeback. In real life, I don’t have any dolls, but the Robert doll that we used in "Tuesday the 17th" floating around somewhere.

Will there be any more scenes like the one in Season 2, when Gus and Juliet almost kiss?

Well, I can tell you that our, our dear show creator Mr. Franks has sort of ambiguously informed us that he does have sort of definitive plans for Shawn and Juliet in Season 5, which we haven’t started yet.

As far as the stretch run here in Season 4, I think it’s a little more tangled up and there’s lots of different moving pieces and like you said Abigail’s floating around in there and, well, it’s complicated you know, it’s, it’s complicated for a little while longer.

John Cena and James Roday in "Psych"

John Cena said that you were a closet WWE wrestling fan. Was he able to teach you any wrestling moves?

Roday: First of all, the whole point of being a closet fan of anything is that people aren’t supposed to then out you and say that you’re closet fans of stuff. So now I’m going to have to beat John’s ass, because I don’t think they’ve factored that into our very tight itinerary. As far as moves go … this is my fear and I think it’s legitimate: I go into the ring on like a one-off deal guest hosting "Raw," I flash some stuff, and … all of the sudden, there’s a conflict of interest because "Raw" wants me to join the roster. And obviously, I have commitments to "Psych" … That’s where it’s tricky for me.

I’m probably going to have to purposely look awkward, to try and help sell the fact that I’m just an actor, and these guys are crazy and I can’t do what they do. And I feel like I’m going to have to sort of really work hard to sell that because I think we all know that I could moonlight drive anybody at any given moment …

No the truth is, quite frankly, if I got in the ring and those guys even like accidentally bump me too hard, my boy would disintegrate, so my feeling is that it’s probably safest for me to enjoy the action from a safe distance, and I think Dulé would probably agree with that.

James Roday and Dulé Hill in "Psych"

Have you ever just had dreams of like getting in the ring with like a ladder or like a table and chair or anything like that?

Absolutely. Dreams because dreams are safe. You can do serious damage in dreams, you know what I mean? But then you wake up and you realize wow. I am in my 30s now ,and I get aches and pains for no reason at all. Imagine what would happen to me if I took a ladder to the back.

Yeah, a safe distance. These guys are unbelievable, they’re amazing athletes and the stuff that they do to their bodies and continue to do to their bodies is beyond anything that we as normal earthlings can comprehend.

Did you ever go to like a live WWE show as a kid?

I grew up in Texas and it was back, it was back when there was still regional territories … and we had world-class championship wrestling … So they would do local shows like in San Antonio and Dallas and I would go check those out. The WWF was some sort of unachievable, unreachable East Coast dream that could only be watched on television. But I have since been as an adult, now that it’s out there and I might as well just fess up to it...

I went to the Royal Rumble a couple years ago at the Madison Square Garden, and it’s sports entertainment, it’s so pure. They pack so many people into those place and it’s families and it’s kids and it’s moms enjoying it with their sons and dads enjoying it with their daughters. And you know, it’s good, clean sort of escapist fun. And that’s why I’m coming out of the closet you know, because I think that’s a good thing.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

Do you have plans to have John Cena guest star on the show again if he is available?

Absolutely. That’s a no-brainer, because of everything you just said, which is what an interesting, like what a truly interesting character to explore. And I mean there’s almost nowhere that you can’t go with that guy, you know. His moral code is ambiguously pointing north, but in sort of a gray way, and he’s got every physical tool you could possibly imagine. And he can get in just about anywhere you can possibly need to get in, and he has an emotional investment in Juliet, who is one of our regulars.

So for me, it’s an absolute no brainer to bring him back and because the way we left things, there are countless ways that we could do that. And we had a blast with John and I think he’s great in the episode. And unless he’s lying to us, I would suspect that he would be up for coming back as well.

What was it like working in that environment in that episode?

Well first and foremost, it was interesting because there is no military base where we shoot in Vancouver. So we managed to sort of transform an old asylum for the mentally and criminally insane into a military base, and when you watch, I’m sure military experts will probably be cringing, but I’d buy it.

So props to our production design team for that. And then anytime you put on fatigues and you sort of get yourself into that military mindset, especially in these our times it, you have to take a moment to reflect. I mean we’re obviously silly and we don’t take ourselves very seriously and we’re a comedy. But the truth is, there are a lot of young men and women out there wearing those uniforms that put their lives on the line every day. So there was that, there was that element going on as well, where we would just stop and look at each other and be like, "Wow. Here we are making jokes but there are other people that don’t get to make jokes." So it was interesting.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

What story line would you like to write or see in the show that has not been explored enough yet?

My gut would be to go to a place that hasn’t been explored at all … One is we do so much singing on our show and everybody sings. It just seems like we’re way overdue for a musical; we’ve just got to come up with a clever way to do it.

And now that "Glee" has captured the country’s attention and is in everyone’s subconscious, I think it’s probably the best time ever, because they do it so well that I think the expectation for us would be to just do it OK, and I know we can pull that off. So we should do a musical episode.

Beyond that I think a dream therapy episode where Gus, or Shawn and Gus, agree to sort of participate in some sort of dream therapy experiment where they could actually go into each other’s dreams. To me, that’s no boundaries, that’s like Shawn walking around Gus’ dream world and everybody being able to see what Gus dreams about. I don’t know if we could top that. You’d get like a giant foot locker organized like it’s a mile long, where everything is organized and color tabbed just so, and then Halle Berry is in charge of keeping it like safe. And it might be that all the women are Halle Berry; just Halle Berrys walking around. That would be fun.

When you were a kid, was there ever a serious thought of being a wrestler when you grew up?

Not a serious thought no, I watched it enough and I watched, you know I watched it religiously to know how much risk those guys are at on a nightly basis, and how many injuries they suffer and you know, you watch all the documentaries and it’s, it is a very, very sort of specific journey that these guys choose to go on for our entertainment. And I prefer to be one of the entertained.

James Roday in "Psych"

Was it a dream come true for you to have John Cena on "Psych"?

Well yeah, I mean it is, it is just because you know, to be able to sort of rub shoulders with these guys and get a sense of their, of their culture after being a fan for so many years is, it is, it’s a bizarre dream, childhood dream come to life.

And I can’t imagine a better catalyst for all of that than John, just because you know, not only is he bigger than life in the ring he’s bigger than life outside the ring. And he’s such a nice fellow - I just said fellow, don’t say, don’t write that I said fellow, he’s a nice guy, you know what I mean? He’s so genuine and he’s so grounded and he was so happy to be with us, which is why for us it was an absolute no brainer to go be with him.

I don’t have enough nice things to say about the guy except that most of his pants are custom, are custom made. Because it’s impossible, it’s impossible to find stuff that has like 27-inch waist but also enough room in the caboose for this giant sculpted hamhock buttocks, you know what I mean? He can’t just walk into the Gap and buy a pair of 1969 boot-cut jeans, like that’s not an option for him.

Do you have any concerns about "Psych" moving to a new night?

We’re all just sort of cautiously optimistic that it’s going to be a good thing. We’ve been in what the industry would consider a tough time slot for our whole run. A lot of our sort of loyal fan base, I would suspect, are not always home Fridays at 10 [p.m.]. So the idea that a lot of those fans that usually have to TiVo us and watch us on Saturdays or later in the week might actually be home to watch us live I think is a good thing. And yeah that’s what we’re going with, and a move to Wednesday can only be good.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

Between Gus and Shawn, who you think would win in the wrestling ring?

I think Shawn takes that because he wouldn’t think twice about cheating. In the immortal words of Jesse "The Body" Ventura: "Win if you can, lose if you must but always, always cheat." And I think while Gus would come in with his ideals and attempt to win a fair and square match. Shawn would go to any lengths necessary to walk out of there with the victory, even if it was painted.

How much of the stuff that you guys do on the show is improv?

I think we started off in the beginning much heavier on the improv side. And I think as we sort of found our groove and we’ve been lucky enough to continuously sort of improve and supplement our writing staff with each season I think we’ve sort of come full circle now and it’s like our scripts are really, really, really solid and any improv-ing that happens is just icing.

What is the deal with the pineapple that keeps appearing in "Psych"?

Really arbitrarily, which I think is the fun of it. If you remember all the way back to the pilot episode, there’s the scene where we’re about to leave Gus’ apartment and there’s a pineapple sitting on top of his refrigerator and I grabbed it … Cut to the very, very end and the director had lifted it, and Steve went back in at the last second and put it back in there.

And then over the course of the series it’s become the insignia for the show. So the irony is that (a) if the scene had been cut there would be no pineapple, and (b) if it had been a coconut or some bananas, a dragon fruit sitting on top if his refrigerator, it would probably mean that we’re talking about coconuts or dragon fruit right now.

Dulé Hill and James Roday in "Psych"

Do you expect to put any more ‘80s references into the series as it goes on?

We’ve created the expectation, and I think our fans enjoy it. The good thing about the ‘80s is that it’s a bottomless vault of good and bad pop culture. So I think we’ll probably be able to keep it going for however long we’re lucky enough to be on the air.

What’s your favorite nickname you ever came up with for Gus?

I’m just going to be a traditionalist and say that Silly Pants Jackson is the one that started the whole ridiculous thing. It’s just my favorite just because it was the first one.

On "WWE," what are the chances you’ll take off your shirt and wear the spandex pants?

One a scale of 1 to 10 I’m going to say the chances of that happening are between a 2 and a 3. We’re sort of all brainstorming about what it is exactly that we’re going to do on the show. I can’t commit to like shirtless in ring action until I know exactly what they have in store for us.

Corbin Bernsen and James Roday in "Psych"

When you did the telenovela episode, your Spanish didn’t sound like it was great. Was that on purpose? Since you’re part Hispanic, do you speak fluent Spanish?

I speak semi-fluent Spanish, enough to get by if people are speaking to me really slow, but I can tell you that for the purpose of the episode I was speaking silly Shawn Spanish, so you know part of the comedy came from the fact that it didn’t sound great. Although, because there weren’t any Spanish speakers on set, I was able to sneak in a few jokes in Spanish that made it simply because no one knew what I was saying.

What can you say about your play "Extinction" opening in New York City?

Thank you for mentioning that … It’s a play that I did in Los Angeles opposite Michael Weston, who played Adam Hornstock, Esq., in "Cloudy Chance of Murder." And Amanda Detmer, who played Ciaobella Masterson in "Black and Time, Crime of Fashion." And the play is moving off-Broadway to the Cherry Lane Theater, starting next month and Dulé Hill, my generous co-star has also joined the team as a producer. So there’s "Psych" all over this thing, and it opens on February 17 and it’s a limited engagement, it’ll run through the middle of March and possibly extend to the end of March if people are actually coming to see the play.

There was a scene where Juliet was in the office with Gus, and she asks Gus how he thought Abigail and Shawn’s relationship was going, and Gus responded with he didn’t know. If someone else besides Juliet would ask Shawn the same question, how do you think he would answer?

Well, since it’s still pretty new to Shawn, I think he would probably say that it’s going OK. I think the fallacy there would be that he would say that it was going OK if she had just broken up with him as well because he would realize that means that things are rocky. So I think you know it’s a pretty semi-fluid kind of relationship that he’s just sort of going along with, and we’ll see I mean I think he’s one of those guys that might have to have an anvil dropped on his head to be like, "What, we’re done, really? I thought we were doing great." So we’ll see. We’ll see, and I say that as if I don’t know even though I do know. But I’ll just say that we’ll see.

Photo credits: USA Network