Dove Cameron Breaks Down the Picnic Scene from Schmigadoon! with Cinco Paul

I have to say,

this was actually the most technically difficult

part of the whole show for me,

was holding up these [beep] melons.

They're huge, and my hands are so small.

I was like, I'm barely handling this,

but it looks very smooth.

Hi, I'm Cinco Paul.

And I'm Dove Cameron.

[Both] And this is, Notes On a Scene.

Look, Betsy, I feel like it's a good time

to set some ground rules

in terms of what's going to happen between us tonight.

[jazz music]

[Betsy] Why, Dr. Skinner,

what makes you think anything's going to happen between us?

You know, I think you have the wrong idea about me.

Wow, the idea came when I was watching

American Werewolf in London, of all movies,

and it opens with the two guys

backpacking through the wilderness.

And I thought, Wow, the opening to this movie

is exactly like the opening to Brigadoon.

And I thought, What if these two guys,

instead of finding a werewolf, found a musical?

[both chuckling]

Look, Betsy, I feel like it's--

[Paul] In this scene,

there's just been a big picnic basket auction.

Keegan-Michael Key has bid on Dove's basket,

and so now they're off on their little date.

[Both] Let's press play.

[Dove laughs]

I feel like it's a good time to set some ground rules

in terms of what's going to happen between us tonight.

[jazz music]

[Betsy] Why, Dr. Skinner.

One thing we talked about in the writer's room early on

was; what are the rules about singing?

For me, I felt it was really important

that no one in Schmigadoon

knows that they're singing, right?

And that's what I've always felt musicals are,

that musicals just magically translate

what to the characters would be just normal dialogue

into song and dance and all those things.

And so music is playing and generally,

the Schmigadoonians don't notice it and don't react to it,

but Keegan, because he's an outsider, he knows.

He hears a little music there.

[Dove] Oh, cute!

[Cinco] What do you think about that?

Oh, it's sort of spread there.

That's so cute.

Yeah, he's hearing the little notes.

I love that.

What makes you think anything's going to happen

[jazz music] between us?

You know, I think you have the wrong idea about me.

I always thought of Betsy as more of an idea than a human,

because I think that the whole idea,

you know, that's that whole thing, like,

I was written by a man.

Like Betsy's whole aura is that she is like an amalgamation

of all of those sort of like early ideas about women in

musicals that weren't women, they weren't people,

they were ideas.

So many of these musicals, I think in Brigadoon,

there's this character called Meg.

Yeah, right. And in Oklahoma,

there's Ado Annie.

And it was always the secondary female character

that was allowed to be lusty.

It was interesting.

They never wanted the lead to like,

have any sexual feelings or be aggressive.

No, 'cause that's the princess that we married.

Right!

And then there's a fantasy that we fantasize.

Right. So we're certainly playing with that trope here.

And then also, yeah,

the fact that actresses who were not in their teens were

playing teenagers. Yeah.

Which could be very confusing to a Keegan [laughs].

Right. Who doesn't know, assume -

'Cause she's an actor in her twenties playing, yeah.

Who's playing someone who's potentially [laughs].

Much younger.

[jazz music] ♪ Other the girls flirt ♪

♪ and talk romance. ♪

♪ Soon as they see a pair of pants. ♪

I need to clarify something just for everybody because

Dove is singing live here. Awe.

This is live on the set.

And she is so flawless. Awe.

That you might think she's lip-syncing.

It was really important to me that

everybody sang live on the set.

And that's why we wanted people like Dove.

There is a lot of, necessity is the mother of invention,

in this.

Because to me,

it's a great joke that we just cut to her and suddenly

she's on the blanket. That's what I was gonna say!

That is so stupid, it gets me every time.

That's one of my favorite jokes in this scene.

And no one really comments on it.

And it's the funniest thing.

And it happened because

originally in the script it's like,

Oh, Betsy sets out the blanket as she's singing.

And Barry was like,

Nah, this is going to be too hard to do.

Yeah, yeah. He was like, we don't have time.

Yeah. We don't have time.

And then I said, well, let's just have it set up.

And it'll be...

Funny. Stupid. [both laugh]

Yeah, and it's so stupid funny.

Because it's like,

literally he looks up for one second

and then suddenly she has this like elaborate

picnic set out. And she's just laid out

there perfectly.

[jazz music] ♪ When the sun goes down, ♪

♪ they let their morals slide. ♪

♪ But I'm gonna wait till I'm a bride. ♪

Was that you?

Was that in your audition? Yes.

I have no idea why I did that.

And I can't believe you, let me keep it in.

It was perfect.

'Cause she's, you know? She's, she's a...

Church bells are ringing. Devout lady.

It's appropriate. Yeah, exactly.

I'm very much a stickler for when we're on the set

and the camera's rolling.

You should say what's on the page.

So I was a stickler in that way.

Although Cecily and Keegan would play around

a lot at the end, but of course, things like that, you know,

gestures and, and all those sorts of choices,

were totally open to whatever you wanted to do.

And that was a great choice.

[jazz music] That's great to hear Betsy,

'cause here's the thing. You are way too young -

♪ Other girls like to show their skin, ♪

♪ getting a boys mind, set on sin. ♪

[Dove] So that's a good place to pause.

Um... [both laughing]

There was discussion about like -

Is that too much?

Which direction that the melons,

which parts of the melons should be facing out.

I don't even remember doing that.

Someone from props came and adjusted them

and said like, Dove, could you perhaps face...

I don't know, what part of the Melon is that even called?

Whatever it is. They instructed her to do that.

Whatever it was, we did it. To great affect.

We did it to great affect.

[jazz music] ♪ Getting a boys mind, ♪

♪ set on sin. ♪

[Dove] When I first started talking to

our lovely hair, makeup, wardrobe department.

The inspiration was like a very specific photo

of Brigitte Bardot.

I chose that one.

It was this great one of her with the pigtails,

it's kind of this iconic picture.

Yeah. She's got the two little like ribbons right?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I think the amazing thing about

Schmigadoon is that these are all characters that,

are like in a zeitgeist,

like the cultural zeitgeist of all of our minds.

So when I read it,

the vision was clear

and I think that was the same for everybody.

So then, like, the more that we, like,

leaned into these, like, super broad,

over the top, like, characters that we all know and love.

It just became more and more brilliant.

Well, I think you have to embrace the tropes

before you smash them. Yes. Agree.

And so that was really what this show was all about.

Betsy went to 11. Right.

And then we ripped her apart.

Yes. Yeah.

[jazz music] ♪ Willing to do things ♪

♪ that I have never tried. ♪

You know,

I didn't know this was going to happen

until I showed up for rehearsal.

No, but I just remember him being like,

Chris being like, okay, so we're gonna,

this is what you're going to be pulling out.

And I remember dying laughing.

Like up in the little, like,

production room upstairs as he was like,

what do you think about like, just like a big sausage?

This is Chris Gattelli, the choreographer.

Yes, yeah, our choreographer.

Who's brilliant.

And I remember that morning, you know,

you have props come in

and they've got all this produce.

So I had the job of choosing the melons.

Yeah And choosing the salami.

The salami.

We had so many different we were like, is it,

is it like sausage links?

Like as she was pulling out like an endless, like,

clowns pull out like scarves that just like never end?

And then we like, nah,

it's gotta be like a massive, just ludicrous.

The most suggestive possible

to make Keegan's character as uncomfortable as possible.

[jazz music] ♪ I have never tried. ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm gonna wait till I'm a bride. ♪

This just kept getting more and more ridiculous.

We would shoot it

and then you'd hear Barry go take longer.

But from like the very back,

like - this was a practical hill that we were on by the way.

And it's a very steep climb actually to get up there.

[Dove] Yeah.

[Cinco] It's a little scary up there.

Were on like a football field sized soundstage.

Yeah, yeah.

Huge, with like a real forest behind us.

And a stream.

All that is just for so much of these scenes,

Barry would be like miles away

and you'd hear his note be like take longer, slower

and Keegan was like, I'm so sorry.

I was like, it's okay.

Just don't look me in the eyes when I'm doing this.

Yeah. I felt, I felt bad about that.

Oh my god. No it's fine. Listen. I'm an adult now. Listen.

Okay. Yeah.

Also the pie was like so tasty [laughs].

Oh it was. Was it good? It was so good.

They did bake. I mean, these were real pies.

Yeah. All the baked goods

were real and delicious.

And all the meat was real.

I will say.

[jazz music] ♪ Willing to do things that ♪

♪ I have never tried. ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm gonna wait till I'm a bride. ♪

I never wanted to write a song that

actually wouldn't have been sung

in one of those old MGM musicals.

I didn't want to put modern jokes in, you know,

for the sake of getting the laugh.

So I really wanted all the songs

to sincerely feel like they were real musical theater songs.

And they do.

But as far as performance wise.

The one thing in a comedy, as you know,

specific as our show,

is that you have to play the character straight.

Like you have to play them with levity

and with joy to bring that sort of level of fantasy.

But you can't play them

like they know that they're a character.

'Cause then you're not watching real people.

And that's funny, is that these people

are really in this town. They really are these character.

Yes. And also this.

that's right.

Don't give us markers.

[jazz music] Okay. I'm kind of getting

some mixed messages.

You sort of have this picture

in your head of what you want it to be.

And then you bring in people like Dove

and then, like, the rest of our cast.

Like Kristin and Alan and Jane and all these people that

elevate everything they touch, you know?

Yeah. And, and it becomes

just beyond what was in my wildest dreams.

I have to say.

That makes me so happy that you feel that way,

because it was so important to all of us

that we executed your vision

in a way that you saw it because you know,

the reason that so many amazing performers

were drawn to this project is because of what you wrote.

It was this amazing sort of magic environment

that you and Barry created

and that we all just kind of like jumped into,

and you can really see how much we loved it.

We loved the project. We loved each other.

Like, I think that's really the joy that,

that you see on the screen is how happy we were to be doing.

Yeah. I mean,

the terminology that you hear in the industry

is everybody knew the assignment.

And we, yeah. Yeah.

I think we're very proud of this.