An Interview with Chaske Spencer & Rob Morgan from ‘Teacup’

TEACUP -- Pictured: Chaske Spencer as Ruben Shanley and Rob Morgan as McNab -- (Photo by: Mark Hill/PEACOCK)

Chaske Spencer and Rob Morgan are a pair of accomplished actors that have appeared in some massive franchises, such as The Twilight Saga and Stranger Things. Currently they play Ruben Shanley and McNab in the new Peacock series, Teacup, and we sat down with both of them to discuss their work in this epic new series.
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John Betancourt: I would love to start by getting to know what attracted you to this project, as actors.
 
Rob Morgan: Oh man. Ian McCulloch, great personality, great energy, great vibe. James Wan’s name at the top of it, Peacock investing, as they do, in quality material, and the journey of my character, McNab, I thought it would be something fun and refreshing for me to play.
 
Chaseke Spencer: Same thing as Rob said, Ian pitched the idea and the character, and I was just hooked right then and there. But like he said, It's the writing, it's all that stuff, then you want to be a part of something special like this.
 
John Betancourt: I think what I one of the things that I appreciate most is actually all of your work, because it sells a lot of the raw terror in this series. And I'm curious, as actors, how you manage to sell it honestly so well. Because you tapped into something very special.
 
Chaske Spencer: It's the directors, it's Ian. It's also working with actors, working with Rob, Scott (Speedman) everybody, everybody, the kids, everybody. And you know, when you have material like this, you want to bring your A game, and when you're surrounded by actors who bring that to your level, you know you want to rise to the challenge, and also just to play along.
 
Rob Morgan: You know, one of the things you do is you erase your ego about you and your ideas and thoughts, and then really focus on giving truth to your character's voice. And as long as you do that honestly, everything else falls in line. You don't go there thinking, “Oh, I'm playing horror, I'm playing comedy,” I'm just playing real life shit. And that's what comes across when you see the project.
 
John Betancourt: I love how it is a very ambitious project. I love the fact that it goes so hard with the horror. And I'm just curious, since there's so many amazing moments and so many amazing ideas in here, what are you most excited for audiences to experience or take away from this when they watch it?
 
Chaske Spencer: I hope, they look at the humanity of it, yeah. I hope they walk away with these characters, the human aspect of it.
 
Rob Morgan: Yeah. I'm fortunate that those brilliant ideas and things you just alluded to are what's given to me. Like they say, “Hey, Rob, we got this brilliant script written. All you gotta do is come and play it. Come up with all these creatives.” All you just gotta do is fall in line and play. Thankfully, that's all I had to do. They came up with the brilliant ideas and the creativity. And then, you know, trusted us with the scripts. And then the directors. You know, we had various directors for various episodes. They had their own unique spins and ways of coaching or directing us.
 
John Betancourt: I’m also curious what you each enjoyed the most, working on this project.
 
Chaske Spencer: Working with the cast, yeah, working with all the cast and the crew, everyone, but I'd say the cast.
 
Rob Morgan: Working with the cast and catering. (Laughter from everyone.) Catering was tasty. Yeah, I said, damn, put more money in the food than me. Like all this good food? Yeah, the food was, I know that's something, that was good food on that set, man. (More laughter)
 
John Betancourt: Let’s dig a little deeper into it as well. Because I always find that horror tends to have a little bit of depth to it, and I’m curious if there is there a particular message that you kind of hope the audience takes away from this piece.
 
Rob Morgan: I hope, if anything they take away is that we're stronger together than apart.
 
Chaske Spencer: Exactly what Rob said.
 
John Betancourt: What are you each most proud of when it comes to your work in this season.
 
Rob Morgan: I haven't even seen it yet, just hearing, I think I'm most proud of Episode Five, because I haven't seen anything, but people literally stopped me and telling me how good episode five is.
 
Chaske Spencer: I'm just, I just love hearing yours and everyone’s reaction, that you all think it's a good show. And I just, I love that, so thank you.
 
John Betancourt: You’re welcome. It’s such a blast. The last question that I have you gentlemen today, if you had one word to describe this series, what would that word be?
 
Rob Morgan: Mind-bending.
 
Chaske Spencer: Psychological.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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