'I remember Peter Jackson, when I got cast in 'The Hobbit,' said, 'We loved you in 'Pushing Daisies.' That’s why you’re here.'' leepace answered every question we had about 'Pushing Daisies'
Pushing Daisies premiered in an exciting, uncertain moment on television. It was 2007, several years before streaming services would explode the number of series that premiere each year, and well into an era where network dramas were looking to experiment with form and style.
I bring up Wonderfalls because it’s not the same world as Pushing Daisies, but they feel like cousins. It’s an unusual place to begin a career, in this bizarre fantasy world. I was going to ask about the dialogue — there are so many words, it seems like a challenge to balance the musicality with the way a human might actually say some of these ideas. Was there a long rehearsal process to figuring out what the dialogue should sound like?
Barry pulled off something really cool in the pilot. It was one of the things that first made me think, This is really interesting: He pulled off a joke that happens in-camera. What I remember is the killer in the bedroom and Swoosie kills the guy who’s coming in, and Chuck is in the room with me. But Swoosie doesn’t see it because she has the eye patch, and the gag worked because the camera cut to her perspective, and you didn’t see what she didn’t see.
So you have this pilot, it’s extremely weird. How worried were you about whether it was going get picked up? It completely does. It’s thrilling that we’re now in a moment where we can have queer TV, shows that say all of those things out loud. But there’s something really fascinating and magical about Pushing Daisies and the way it plays in that space in a winking, covert way. Just as you said — people can come to it however they’re going to come to it.
I suppose you’re right. I felt like when I’ve looked back on scenes, I always think I’m being very, um, big. But compared to some of the other things that went on in that show, I guess he was simple in his way, Ned. He’s kind of passive, along for the ride. Yeah. I think about certain scenes, like when we bring Chuck’s father back and she wants to keep him alive. I mean, that’s pretty sad, that’s pretty serious. That was the balance, but we were working so, so hard on that show, that inside of our little bubble it was all we were thinking about. This was the world, these were the terms that we thought in. That dichotomy came up in all of our performances because it was in the environment around us.