The Afterparty Killer Actor Reveals How Confession Scene Was Filmed
WARNING: Spoilers for The Afterparty season finale below
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The actor who played the killer on AppleTV+'s The Afterparty has spoken about his experience filming his character's confession scene and how it impacted him and his co-stars. Despite series creator, Christopher Miller, first developing the idea in the early 2010s as a full-fledged film, the project never came to fruition until June 2020 once AppleTV+ acquired it and the concept was redeveloped as a series. The first season eventually wrapped filming in February 2021 and premiered on the streaming service on January 28. The show's first season recently concluded on March 4 and is currently awaiting a second season after being renewed on March 2.
The Afterparty follows a group of old acquaintances at an after-party following their high school reunion as they witness a gruesome murder, leading a detective to enter the scene and slowly uncover each of the former classmates' own experiences that night in an attempt to discover the truth. The Afterparty's cast includes Tiffany Haddish as one of the detectives investigating the cast, Ben Schwartz Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer and Jamie Demetriou as attendees of the party and suspects. Dave Franco plays the murder victim. In The Afterparty season 1 finale, it's revealed that Schwartz's character Yasper was the murderer.
In a tell-all interview with Vulture, Schwartz spoke all about his character's ultimate confession in the show's final episode and how he prepared for such a pivotal day of shooting. The actor spoke about his rehearsal process, consistently practicing while home alone as to not spoil the reveal for his girlfriend. Furthermore, he also commented on the emotional day of filming that it took, revealing his Afterparty co-stars also became emotional and that he was able to channel their energy into his own performances. Read the actor's comments below:
I was very aware of the day I was going to confess, and I really wanted to be on my game. I prepared in my house — I did it a couple times when my girlfriend wasn’t around so she wouldn’t know who the killer was. If she was in the house, I would never rehearse that scene. I didn’t want to spoil that for her.
I was watching Zoë Chao while confessing, and she was tearing up every take. She would look at me like, “His life is over. He’s going to jail for the rest of his life.” It would make me cry. I tried to let that fuel the whole performance. There are takes where I was full-on crying and Chris was like, “Now try one where you’re really angry. Now do one where you’re a little unhinged.” He found a way to merge them all together. It was so tiring, and it was a blast.
During The Afterparty season 1's very well-received run, there were many theories thrown around about the killer's identity, mostly spanning across the entire cast. However, Schwartz's character, Yasper, was always a fan-favorite suspect that featured at the top of plenty of speculated lists due to his full access to the venue's security system and his full access to another suspect's story. Alongside Yasper, some other major suspects included Chao's Zoe and even Haddish's Detective Danner.
With the amount of dedication and passion that went into such an emotional season finale, there is no doubt that viewers can look forward to an explosive sophomore outing in The Afterparty season 2. Furthermore, this first installment should live on as a successful piece of television and a powerful foundation for a strong show moving forward. More of The Afterparty is coming in the near future with the announced development of a second season.
Source: Vulture