While Shawn Spencer and his lifelong best friend Burton “Gus” Guster may be accomplished crimefighters in their own right, it’s police detectives Juliet O’Hara and Carlton Lassiter that helped make it all possible across eight seasons of Psych. With the fan-favorite cast reuniting for the new Peacock original movie Psych 3: This Is Gus, Jules and Shawn continue to navigate their marriage together, while Lassiter recovers enough to rejoin the police force and contemplate the future of his law enforcement career.
In an interview with CBR, Maggie Lawson and Timothy Omundson explained how their shared life experiences with the rest of the cast and crew informed the writing of Psych 3. They also praised this opportunity to play off their co-stars while exploring new depths with their characters and teased where they would like to see Psych go next.
CBR: Two years after you guys wrapped on Psych 2, how does it feel to be back for Psych 3? And Tim, it’s so good seeing you kick the movie off literally back on your feet!
Timothy Omundson: Thanks! To answer your question, it’s as incredibly amazing as Christmas morning or whichever holiday has the most significance to you. So, for me, it was like Christmas morning, being back on set seeing my friends.
Maggie Lawson: Every time we get to come back together and hang out is the best time, but I think this one was even more special after coming from and still being in this pandemic and everything. I hadn’t left my house much, much less gone to a set and seen everyone, so to go to work and see all of these people after this whole experience and get to work and be together again, it was sweeter. Every time is so wonderful, but it meant that much more to all of us.
One thing about the movies is you’re able to go more serious than the television series. How is it working those muscles as you push and develop these characters that you know so well?
Omundson: It’s amazing we’re afforded the chance to do that!
Lawson: Yeah, I feel like the writers have [done that] all through the series but now, as we’re getting older and experiencing life together, they’re writing to that. There’s almost more weight to it and this movie in particular feels a little more like Grown-Up Psych, which is great!
Omundson: But still fun, goofy Grown-Up Psych!
Lawson: Yeah! But I feel since our relationships have grown even closer and have been through that much more life together, they’ve written to that and it kind of shows in the movies as well.
In Psych 3, you both get to work with actors you didn’t work with that much on the show. Tim, you get to work a lot with Corbin Bernsen.
Omundson: Yeah, I think Corbin and I had maybe two scenes together before this and this particular scene is so grounding and important for Lassiter because he’s really at this existential crossroads of his life if he can continue being a cop, which is how he self-identifies. He finds this budding friendship with Henry, which helps ground him. Corbin and I, in real-life, have had very similar conversations that Lassiter and Henry have about my future as an actor, what I think I can do and what he thinks I can do. It was really amazing to get to play out that real-life conversation on TV
Maggie, how is it getting to play more with Jazmyn Simon as Jules and deal with everything from Shawn and Gus to snooty restaurant options?
Lawson: It’s nice to have someone react to Shawn and Gus with, not like Lassiter, but woman-to-woman. It’s really fun. Juliet has a friend in the chief too, but I think it’s really exciting for her to have a girlfriend and Gus is her family too. I feel like they’re all in the same family now and I love that we got to have the three girls together so much in this one too. There were only two of us for awhile and even with our positions on the show, a lot of my stuff was with Tim. We called it ladies’ night when we all got to have scenes together and that’s a really fun, new part of Psych. We didn’t know we had a missing piece [in Selene] but we did.
Kirsten Nelson and Jazmyn were saying they wanted more ladies’ nights and, with Steve Franks planning three more Psych movies, where do you want to see your characters go next?
Lawson: I’m down, I would love to see more ladies’ night, but I’m going say too that I want more with Tim in the movies coming up because he has this new energy now.
Omundson: I would agree with what Mags just said because we got such beautiful moments at the end of the second movie and we didn’t get much to do together in this one. To see that friendship continue as well would be lovely. I also want to see where Lassiter goes in his career and hopefully we’ll get to explore more of this budding relationship with Henry.
After eight seasons of television and three movies, what keeps you creatively fulfilled enough to come back for more with these characters?
Lawson: I think it was what I was saying about the writers. We all grow together. There is always something new to explore and play. I feel like our characters are growing, aging, moving and it still being Psych. I don’t even have to look for it. We just sort of show up and the script is where we are now and then we’re going to go explore that. That, in it of itself, is inspiring to me.
Omundson: Steve and James [Roday Rodriguez] keep giving me the gift of specifically writing to my physical and emotional journey. It’s really incredible that they keep doing that and letting me exorcise my own demons and explore my thoughts and emotions, certainly in this movie. Lassiter’s journey in this movie is so close to my own. It’s really incredible and, creatively, it’s just incredible to get on set with our castmates again.
Directed by Steve Franks from a screenplay he co-wrote with James Roday Rodriguez, Psych 3: This Is Gus premieres Nov. 18 on Peacock.
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