‘Hysteria’ stars were “shocked” by the amount of blood Jordy spat in Tanya’s face: “No one was acting”

Hysteria is the latest and greatest binge of Peacock’s spooky season. Taking place amid the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, the series follows a group of teenage misfits who pretend to be Satanists to promote their heavy metal band. But things get out of control when the school’s quarterback is found dead and the town starts blaming them for the murder. DECIDER recently spoke to actors Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia and Kezii Curtis, who talked about some of their most impressive scenes – like when Aurelia had to spit a mouthful of fake blood in her co-star’s face.

As Dylan (Anthony), Jordy (Aurelia), and Spud (Curtis)’s popularity begins to skyrocket, courtesy of their newfound Satanism, they decide to hold an induction ceremony for their cult. While Dylan’s crush Judith (Jessica Treska) is strangely turned on by the whole Devil worship thing, her cheerleader friend Tanya (Aline O’Neill) is more hesitant about joining the cult. When she refuses, Jordy takes a big gulp of blood from his goblet and spits it straight into the poor girl’s horrified face.

According to Aurélia, they only had one chance to get the scene right. “I only had one take, so I had to commit and go for it. And we were both so shocked by how much blood there was,” she told DECIDER, while Anthony and Curtis said their shocked reactions were authentic.

“No one was acting,” Anthony added after choking at the mere thought of the corn syrup mixture that made up the fake blood.

During DECIDER’s Zoom interview with Anthony, Aurelia and Curtis, they also talked about their time at band camp before filming, working with legend Bruce Campbell and that wild sex ritual between Dylan and Judith. Check out the full interview below.

I loved the scenes when you were playing in your band. Did you have to learn to play instruments and sing for this? Or did you already have that talent coming into the show?

EMJAY ANTÔNIO: Well, Chiara already sang and I played drums, but we all went to a band camp. We flew to Atlanta three weeks before we started filming and all these professionals taught us our instruments. I learned guitar, then Chiara learned bass. And Kezii dominated the drums, because he already played.

KEZII CURTIS: I didn’t even really play.

CHIARA AURÉLIA: That’s not true. He played. He was incredible and only got better. It was crazy.

KEZII: What happened was that I had to learn to play the drums as if I were in a heavy metal band. I learned to play traditional drums from my older brother, but I had to learn new things like stage presence and how to turn the stick while playing the cymbal at the same time. Meanwhile, Chiara had already dominated our stage presence and Emjay increased his talent every day. We come back and he’s totally destroyed at the end. I’m like, “This is beautiful. How did we get here?

CHIARA: There was definitely a point where we were playing together without any kind of backtracking or recorded music. And I thought, “Oh, we’re in a band.” They said, “Yeah, we’re in a band together. We are all doing this together. What is that?”

EMJAY: It was a real band because we played for real.

CHIARA: Yeah, we do garage shows all the time, what are you talking about?

You guys need to release an album now.

CHIARA: We are in negotiations.

Emjay, one of the craziest scenes in the series is that sexual ritual between Dylan and Judith. Can you explain to us what it was like filming this? Have you worked with an intimacy coordinator?

EMJAY: Yes, we did. We had an intimacy coordinator and he was super professional. Everyone did a very good job.

Chiara, there’s a great scene where Jordy spits blood right in Tanya’s face. What was it like filming that? What was the blood mixture made of?

EMJAY: (Jokes).

CHIARA: Emjay also had blood in his mouth, fake blood. What I can say about this is that we have reached the end of the day. We were on a tight schedule. We didn’t have much time left. And our director at the time, Alonzo, came to me and said, “Listen, it’s going to take an hour and a half to do our lovely Tanya’s hair – Aline. And if you spit that wrong blood, we’ll pass it on, so you’ll have a chance. Find out. You’re going to have to do it.” And I said, “Oh, okay.” I don’t think I’ve ever spit out liquid like that before. It was a very thick textured blood that we were supposed to use. I think it was some kind of corn syrup with food coloring or something. But I know that Eileen and I realized, as I was doing this, that I had swallowed a lot of blood in my mouth during this process. I only had one take, so I had to commit and go for it. And we were both so shocked by how much blood there was. On the monitor, looking back, we were both looking at each other like, (shocked). But we had to continue with the scene because otherwise we would ruin everything. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.

KEZII: My and Emjay’s reactions were true.

CHIARA: I think everyone was shocked.

EMJAY: Nobody was acting.

CHIARA: No acting involved. We had to do strange things as actors. They said, “Hey, you can do it today,” and you said, “Cool.” In no other situation in my life can I say, “Today I’m going to spit fake blood at someone,” and that would be normal.

Kezii, you shared some great scenes with Bruce Campbell. What was it like working so closely with him? Did he give you any advice that you can share?

KEZII: Yes! Very. Bruce and I, our first scene together, talked for hours about the most random things. And during our awkward conversations, he would just talk, and I don’t know where that was in that scene. And I would say, “Okay. Legal. Cool.” (I) had so many moments with him. He’s such a nice, honest guy and I really feel like I learned how to behave on set around him.

We’re a site that celebrates all things streaming. Since spooky season is upon us, what are your favorite horror movies?

EMJAY: KrampusDefinitely favorite horror movie of all time.

CHIARA: One hundred percent.

KEZII: I will continue, since I just rediscovered it, Final destination.

CHIARA: I like the Scream series. I like, on the suspense side, too, a kind of Cape Fear– weird movie.

EMJAY: As Krampus?

CHIARA: Krampus It’s also my favorite. It’s my #1 movie, starring the one and only Emjay Anthony. He’s fantastic. And obviously the evil Dead series too, because Bruce Campbell is our Lord and savior, and he is the king.

I know none of us were alive in the 80s, but what was it like for you to go back to that time and do the hair, the music, the looks, everything?

EMJAY: Surreal.

CHIARA: Yes, it was incredible. We had an amazing team when it came to everything – hair, makeup, clothes, wardrobe. I wore mostly vintage clothes throughout the show, which was crazy. Our lovely costume designer, Debra McGuire, was bringing out the most insane pieces for all of us. I remember the first test I went to, the boys were there too, I was wearing Jordy from head to toe, which is a little different from the way I represent myself as Chiara. And there was the, “Oh, wow, these are the people we’re becoming.” And I also think there’s an idea of ​​what it was like to be a goth girl from that time. I think we wanted to create Jordy as more Victorian, more multidimensional, more of a representation of the self-expressive version of herself. So I thought that was really fun. Watching the boys’ transformation was also incredible.

KEZII: I want to say congratulations to our incredible, incredible (costume team). Everyone was great. They listened, they took it into consideration, but they were also very strategic about why they were doing things, like, “You have to use this in this episode because it means this.” So it was really cool to be able to pick and choose what they thought and be like, “What do you think of this?” The camaraderie of it all was what I liked.

EMJAY: And a big shout out to the crew too. Set deck, everyone like Tanner, Remi, all these guys. Props to everyone. They just did a great job with that atmosphere. It was really cool.

CHIARA: Definitely. It felt like being transported to a different time.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hysteria is currently streaming on Peacock.