Director's Notes – Episode 136 – The Mudstone Abyss Part 2

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

In episode 16 "Phone Call," I voiced Carlos. Later we changed that because Dylan Marron was available, and I wanted a talented actor (and one who is Latinx) to play that part. We started to realize that the role of Carlos would be a more frequent contribution to the podcast and our live shows, and I would be an asshole if I had the chance to give more Dylan Marron to the world yet did not.

So when we started down this 3-part series on Kevin, it made sense that there would be some mirroring of early Cecil/Carlos plotlines, except with Kevin and Charles. Joseph and I talked briefly about who would play Charles in this episode, and we decided it made the most sense to just put my voice on it. This scene, after all, is a parallel to Carlos's original phone call 120 episodes ago.

I don't consider myself a good actor. I am very good at reading things out loud in front of people or in front of a microphone, but actually diving into a character and making their body fully my own is not something I have any training for. I mostly play myself, even when I'm pretending to be a fictional person.

That being said, I don't have a child, and I'm not dating a man who is reluctant to join a family. I do however understand completely what it's like to feel ghosted, to project onto someone's silence that I'm undesired or unwanted.

I imagined that Charles's phone call to Kevin was pretty difficult. He's wanting to help out his new town by getting the word out about what he's learned about the shadows forming around the Mudstone Abyss, but he's got to go through Kevin to do that. Kevin clearly hasn't called Charles back after their last date, which ended passionless around a 5-year-old playing with toy planes.

Charles barely knows this man, but what he does know about him is positive, lovable even. So when that guy stops calling/texting, all Charles can do is assume the worst.

I'm putting a lot of anxiety onto Charles here in these directors notes, stuff which isn't explicit in the script. And I'm not even saying that Charles is as neurotic about interpersonal relationship as I am, just that it's the place I went to in order to think about how to speak for Charles.

Idk, maybe I'll give this acting thing a shot after all. If you're writing a fiction podcast with a character almost exactly like me, DM me.

- Jeffrey Cranor
October 15, 2018