“I’m just telling you right now, you’re wrong,” American star Tiffany Haddish says to StarLifestyle during a virtual roundtable interview for the Apple TV+ whodunnit comedy series The Afterparty, in which Haddish plays a cop.
The actress has asked us who we think might be the killer in the show.
The stand-up comedian continues to shoot down StarLifestyle’s theory with this hint: “Somebody’s lying when they’re telling their story. Somebody’s that telling the story IS the murderer. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
In The Afterparty, her character, Detective Danner, is assigned to a murder case involving a group of people who've gathered for a high school reunion.
The host of the party (Dave Franco) – who’s disliked as a teenager and is now a famous movie star – ends up dead at the bottom of the cliff below his lavish home.
The mystery unravels with each of the eight episodes features a retelling of the same night from a different character’s perspective.
As the six people recount the night’s event, Danner must decide who had done the deed and why.
While StarLifestyle got the answer totally off the mark, Haddish mentions that she had solved the mystery two weeks before she started filming the series’ finale where the murderer is revealed.
“You think Detective Danner didn’t figure it out? You think I’m gonna make a wrong guess. Knock it off! Knock IT off!” Haddish unleashes in mock anger towards our congratulatory comment for guessing the killer right.
Being in the thick of a mystery was one of the reasons why Haddish was immediately keen to star in The Afterparty.
“They said it’s a mystery show where you solve cases, a whodunnit like Clue (aka Cluedo), and I was like, that’s my game. Let’s go!” recalls the host of Kids Say The Darndest Things.
Another was a chance to bring to life an eccentric female detective on the small screen.
“We don’t see many women in this role. Gabrielle Union plays one (in L.A.’s Finest) and Angela Bassett (in 9-1-1), but they are HARDCORE!
“My character is more like, ‘Let’s get this done, but let’s have a little fun while we do it. Also, I’m not gonna be awfully obedient to my superiors because they don’t know what they’re talking about. But I know my intuition is on. Let’s go!’
“That’s how I feel Detective Danner is like,” shares Haddish, laughing. “She’s quirky... like a little weird, you know? Like who carries popcorn in their purse?”
Devised by the duo Chris Miller and Phil Lord (The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), The Afterparty is a "genre-defying" series.
Every episode in the series not only explores a different character’s account of the same event but it is also told through “the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective”.
The series kicks off as a rom-com, centring around the character Aniq (Sam Richardson) – a hopeless romantic. Episode Three is a musical thanks to Yasper’s (Ben Schwartz) recollection. He’s an aspiring singer.
Writer-director Miller states: “Everybody’s story is in a genre that matches their personality. So, we have a rom-com, an action movie, a thriller, an animated episode, a teen party one and a musical.”
He adds to the press: “That’s what’s fun about the show. Each of these styles of storytelling is reused as a way to get into how each character sees themselves and how they see the world and what their insecurities are.”
Actor Schwartz attests in a separate interview that it was an amazing experience to be part of The Afterparty because of its unique storytelling format and the challenges it brings.
“Each genre makes you feel like we’re in a different movie every time. Then it’s like, ‘How would my character act?’
“And so, it was a great acting exercise for us in a way, to deepen our characters, and to kind of like flesh out our characters more than we usually do. All this stuff was very exciting.”
Richardson adds: “Not only was the acting different, but the lighting was different, the camera moves were different. It was a really cool.”
At the same time, both Schwartz and Richardson also agree that they couldn’t keep track of every little detail as there are changes to the set like props and clothes in every episode, small differences that are made to fit the genre.
“It takes someone as brilliant as Chris to be able to pull it off,” explains Schwartz.
“I would have lost my mind, you know what I mean? Because everybody’s interpretation of what that scene is (not the same) – that prop might not be there one time and in this one that prop would definitely be there; in this one you were in a different jacket, etc.”
Meanwhile, Miller credits his cast for bringing their A-game to the show and then some.
“It is really a complicated thing, if you start thinking too much like, ‘OK, I’m doing the thriller version of myself, how is that different from the rom-com version of myself?’
“And if we had a cast that wasn’t quite as experienced or clever, it might not have gone as smoothly as it did,” he says.
“But with these people, you know they are going to be funny. But you don’t quite know that they could pull off a more subtle, real and grounded moments of vulnerability.
“Like Tiffany is funny. But until you see her in the moment with a spark that she has that like, energises everyone, you see why she is the superstar that she is.
“She’s got this something that people underestimate her. But, she’s savvier and sharper than anybody would expect,” Miller adds.
Besides Haddish, Franco, Schwartz and Richardson, the ensemble cast also features Zoe Chao, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer and Jamie Demetriou.
Since almost all the cast members are improv-trained comedians, they were allowed to improvise their scenes besides filming one following the script.
Miller notes that some of the best moments on the show are the ones the actors came up with along the way.
Barinholtz gives an inkling of what it was like on set: “Chris wanted us to improvise. If you had an idea for something, you could bring it to him and he’s like, ‘Yeah, great. Let’s try that.’
“And when you’re improvising, it wasn’t in like a vacuum. He wasn’t just like, ‘Yeah, just go do a fun one’.
“He would like guide it a little bit... And the reason that’s so nice is because it’s very easy to have the camera run, but... if it’s going to have a chance of being in the show, it needs to make sense and be on point with the story.”
However, improvisation certainly brings about unexpected elements on set – such as actors having to keep their laughter in check so as not to ruin a take.
Schwartz confirms: “It was hard not to laugh. Everybody’s so funny... They found so many funny people to be in this show, so, it was hard not to laugh because part of the fun of being around comedians is to try to make the other comedian laugh.”
Haddish elaborates: “Man, I laughed so hard (during filming). Everybody’s so talented. I had fun with everybody.
“When we were shooting it, I was like, ‘Man, this show is gonna be so damn good because I’m enjoying every single person.’
“I became curious about every single character in the show.
“Jamie’s character, where everybody forgets that he exists – that’s my favourite character of all.
“When we were shooting, Jamie’s so funny. Like, there’s a part where I have to eat, and I’m eating right? And he starts doing his thing. And I’m like, I’m laughing so hard, I break all kinds of Covid rules, because I spewed the food just everywhere. I couldn’t hold it in.”
Although the comedy and mystery are great, Haddish surmises what makes The Afterparty truly special: “It (depicts) the epitome of the human condition.
“Ten people can be at the same event, see the same exact thing and you talk to each person and they are telling you a whole different thing. Everyone’s perception is so different.
“In acting class they teach you, there is no such thing as a villain.
“Because everyone sees themselves as the hero; as a person that’s doing good even if they’re doing something bad... You can never judge people by the way they look.
“I have learned that in this entertainment business. If somebody is constantly kissing my a**, something’s going on. Something ain’t right. They got some kind of motive.
“Because real people don’t kiss a**.”
The Afterparty is available on Apple TV+.
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