The stars of Evil gathered in the Hyatt Centennial II-IV ballroom at 1PM to discuss the show and answer some questions about how they have dealt with evil in their own lives during “Devil in the Details: Cast of Evil.” Mike Colter, Katja Herbers, and Aasif Mandvi all spoke eloquently and shared some deeply personal insights during the hour-long panel.
From the start, it was clear that the three guests had a light and warm camaraderie between them as they immediately started making jokes and poking fun at one another. While none of them have watched themselves on the show, Herbers said that she would watch the opening credits because they aren’t in the script. She felt that the creativity in the opening sequence was fantastic each time.
One question from the audience was about whether any of the guests had a possibly supernatural experience that they couldn’t explain. Herbers said that there was a period of time where she was experiencing severe and debilitating headaches. She’d seen doctors, tried various remedies, but nothing was working and no one could explain why she was having these headaches. Then a friend in Amsterdam, where Herbers is from, suggested that she go see this woman who lives in the woods. The woman told her that she is carrying around thirty-seven ghosts and that they were weighing her down. “She told me that I could believe it or not, but that she was going to get rid of them,” Herbers said. She added that apparently some of the ghosts didn’t want to leave, but eventually the woman was able to get rid of them and the headaches eased. Mandvi commented that thirty-seven ghosts are too many, and Colter agreed, adding that thirty-six might have been manageable but the thirty-seventh was too much. Herbers also added that she thought that her room in the Hilton might be haunted and is convinced that the hotel is probably haunted because several people must have gotten drunk and fallen from the atrium over the years.
Colter’s own supernatural experience was more of a folk tale surrounding a woman who lived in his neighborhood. Like most children, he believed the rumor that the elderly woman living on her own was a witch. During a bout of sleep paralysis, his friends told him that his inability to move was because she, a hag, was “riding him.”
Mandvi, however, didn’t talk about his own experience. Rather it was something that was part of his culture that he actually brought to the creatives involved with Evil. The story was that some of the sex workers were actually demons, and that you could tell the ones that were demons because their feet were on backwards. It was a story that was meant to scare young men away from engaging a sex worker, but it was a concept that made it into the show.
The storylines in Evil were often intense, so one audience member wanted to know if there was anything that ever got too real or too spooky for the cast. Mandvi said that there was a moment when the actor who played the demon George was standing by himself in full costume in the hair and makeup department while no one else was around. He hadn’t yet met the actor or seen his face, so it was odd for his first encounter with him to be in full costume. Mandvi said that had creeped him out a bit. Herbers had a similar experience during her second day of shooting. She was filming one of the scenes from the pilot episode where George is on top of her in bed and he chops off her fingers. Again, she didn’t have the opportunity to meet the actor before spending two days with him on top of her, so in the end she Googled him to see if he had a kind face.
A frequent topic of the conversation was how the actors deal with the evil in the real world. Herbers and Colter are very passionate about the existential threat posed by climate change. Colter noted that there’s “no sex on a dead planet, no anything that people enjoy, no Dragon Con.” He also said that evil grows by passive observation and the hope that someone will rescue us. It is the active participation of a community, like the one gathered here for Dragon Con, that combats evil. Mandvi also noted that they want us to focus on the little stuff, like who lives next to you or who your neighbor is in a relationship with, than fight against the big stuff.
This was a theme they returned to after a question about how they shield their creative space from evil. Herbers said that she thinks art has a responsibility to talk about what is going on and incorporate all of the real evils in the world into the stories. She doesn’t think that actors should shield themselves from the darkness because art’s job is to reflect what is going on in the world. Mandvi agreed saying that he feels best when he actually lets the darkness in and feels it so that it can make the creative space richer. Colter added that he doesn’t want to filter the difficult and dark things out because they as actors are a conduit for these important messages. Nothing is ever just pure entertainment if it is good or great; it always has a message.
It wasn’t all heavy and dark conversation. One audience member asked about the “hand-slappy game” that they were rumored to play on set, which made Colter and Herbers immediately stand up and begin stretching as if they were going to run a race. They then came to the front of the stage to demonstrate the pat-a-cake like game, with Mandvi lamenting that he spent years having to endure them doing this. Herbers, when she was done, said that it originally started with the young actors who were playing her daughters as a way to keep their energy up, but she found that it worked for her (and for Colter) as well. “It’s like a cup of coffee!” she said.
After the panel, Colter, Mandvi, and Herbers took a moment to speak with the Daily Dragon. This is the first time at Dragon Con for Mandvi and Herbers and both said that Dragon Con was much bigger than they were expecting it to be nor were they expecting it to be such a big party. Colter, however, has been a guest three times, including this year, and he will come back as often as he is invited back. He said that he feels like they are just the sprinkles on the cake, but the main attraction is the cosplayers and all the amazing costumes. We certainly hope to have more Evil in our lives!
