‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’: Vaughan Murrae on Joining the Family, Tackling Comedy, and More [INTERVIEW]
Twenty years later, we’re still saying life is unfair, but what isn’t unfair is the way Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair brings us right back into the thick of the dysfunctional family we loved for six years onscreen in the early 2000s. The revival is one part nostalgia, and equal parts the same commentary that it has always been about middle America. Basically, it all comes together in a delicious way that savors what made us love the original while also setting itself apart just enough for a bit of nuance.
We were able to sit down with star Vaughan Murrae, who plays Kelly, the newest introduction to the family. In case you had forgotten, the series ended with Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) finding out that she was pregnant once again. In Life’s Still Unfair, we get to see how this new addition has been fitting in with the family over the last twenty years.
We chatted with Murrae about the cultural influence of the show, how comedy acting is so much different from dramatic acting, and being around legends like Bryan Cranston (Hal). Read our interview below!
TMS: I grew up watching this show. It is one of my absolute favorite shows that still holds so much truth, even in today’s society. Tell us a little bit about your character and how all of that came to be.
Vaughan Murrae: Absolutely love the show as well. I hadn’t actually seen it until after I did the audition, but it was something that my mom grew up on as well, and it’s honestly become one of my favorite comedies. I was super excited to be on it. It was really important for me, because Kelly is a new character. I mean, in the OG series, they were a pregnancy stick in the final episode. That’s all we really get of them. So they’re a new character, and it was really important to me to approach them in a way that felt natural and like they had been a part of the family their whole life. I wanted fans to feel like they didn’t stick out in a way that was like different from the rest of the family. I really wanted them to feel like a part of the crew. And, you know, they’re a really fun character to play. I’ve never done a comedy before, so it was very interesting to sort of slip into that.
TMS: You had some great people to have a first time comedy with. Did they give you any guidance? Especially Bryan Cranston, [who has] absolutely been one of my favorite actors since I was a kid, seeing his leap from comedy to drama back to comedy. Did you get any good bits of advice from them?
Murrae: Oh, for sure. I mean, especially Linwood [Boomer] and Ken [Kwapis]. Ken, who, you know, directed the revival, and Linwood, who was always on set to kind of like, provide guidance and stuff, they were very, very helpful in directing me, because dramatic acting is very different from comedic acting, and you really have to let loose in a way that I’d never really done before. So it was a very fun experience, but they were both so amazing and wonderful guides, and obviously working alongside some comedy legends like Bryan and Jane and everybody from the original cast, you definitely learn a lot from them just being in a scene with them in general–if you can hold it together, though, because they’re really, really funny. I think that was my biggest challenge, not laughing during a scene, because they’re all so hilarious.
TMS: I love seeing you in there and your dynamic with them, because this is an entirely new character. So now we get to see Kelly actually being a person, and it’s got to be a little intimidating to hop into a revival like this.
Murrae: For sure, it was, I think, very intimidating, especially at first, just because, again, I’m working along people like Bryan and Jane and everybody who has had been doing that like series for like, seven years, and then, you know, coming back 20 years later, and they slip into it like that, right? So my biggest concern was I didn’t want to feel like Kelly felt off from the rest of the family, or not as lived in. I really wanted them to feel like a character that had been in this family. So that was my biggest goal. I remember being really nervous, though, specifically during the audition. That was the biggest thing for me, was having never done a comedy before. I was in a zoom call back with Linwood and Ken, and I remember going into the scene, like, quaking in my boots, and I say a line, and they start laughing. And for a brief minute in my head, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they’re laughing at me. The world’s ending. This is awful.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, this is a comedy. They’re laughing. That’s a good thing.'”
TMS: It’s been like a minute since I’ve watched through the series, and when Kelly showed up they felt so natural and such an extension of family that I was like, ‘Am I forgetting somebody? I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the show. I’m not missing somebody.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh yes, the finale.’ I only ever watched the finale one time because this is one of the shows where I didn’t want it to end.
Murrae: Yeah, but you know, they’re back. So that didn’t really end, I guess.
TMS: Do you have a favorite moment from filming this?
Murrae: I would say all of the scenes at the banquet were a lot of fun to film. It was great too, because we got everybody there as a group. Where a lot of my scenes prior, I have a lot of scenes with, like Reese and the parents briefly, but being able to get everybody together and just kind of be there, like I was on set quite often, even when I wasn’t needed, just because it was a lot of fun to just talk with people and watch what was going on. So I would say a lot of my favorite scenes fall into the banquet. I also just really love any scenes I have with Reese as well, specifically the scene where he’s on the couch, and I’m, you know, catching him on stuff, and we start this rivalry together.
TMS: I loved that because I was like, ‘Oh no, Kelly is a mini Reese.’
Murrae: Almost like, in an opposite way, though. I find that Kelly is a character that prides themselves on justice and doing good and not being a bad child. But then Reese is very much the opposite of that. But Kelly’s not above vengeance. They’re not above getting back.
TMS: There’s so many things about this that I cannot wait for fans to see. I was worried when they originally announced [it]. I was like, ‘I’m excited, but there’s so many revivals and reboots that I’m like, do we need to do this?’ And then seeing everybody come back together, the original creators, the original cast, everybody coming in to do, essentially, just a miniseries, yeah, I think probably the smartest decision that they could have made.
Murrae: Yeah. And it feels almost like a 20-year anniversary gift to both the fans and the cast and crew who worked on it originally, because they got a lot of those people back … And I really do think I remember watching the show while I was in Vancouver filming this, and then reading the script and filming it on set. And it felt like I was just filming an episode from the original show … So that, to me really says how good of a job they did on the episodes, and the comedy of it all, and just the general energy they captured.
TMS: Absolutely. And since you hadn’t watched it before you started filming, and you’re watching it while you were doing that, how did that kind of help influence your approach to the character?
Murrae: I think it really, it helped get me in the mood for it. And, you know, not every show you have like source material to go off of. Sometimes it’s an original show, so you have to find your own things that can help put you in that zone. But I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the show while in Vancouver and just kind of enjoy it. And it definitely helped put me in that headspace. And obviously it helps that, you know, the the four episodes are so much like the original show that it just kind of gave me the blueprint to just go into it.
TMS: It feels like we never left off from where we were. That’s that’s the beauty of it. Do you think you’ll do some more comedy after this?
Murrae: For sure. I would definitely love to, I think I was so nervous before, but, you know, being on set with everybody and again, Linwood and Ken were just so amazing, directing and giving advice, and it helped me, because when it comes to comedy, you really have to let go. I find that it can be more vulnerable than dramatic acting sometimes, because you have to allow yourself to just look stupid. And that’s a lot of something that a lot of actors fear. I know that I fear looking stupid sometimes, but that’s what makes it good. You know what I mean? That’s what makes it relatable, and that’s what makes comedy so much fun to watch.
TMS: Yeah, you’re absolutely right, because comedy is comedy is something I don’t think I could [do] if I was an actor … And then Malcolm is a lot of physical comedy, there’s a lot of crazy things that these characters have to do, so you really kind of do have to let go of that part of yourself that’s afraid and just go with it and trust the process.
Murrae: And I find that especially Bryan is a really great study for that. I remember specifically, we’re shooting the scene where Reese and I are arguing with each other in Kelly’s room, and Reese says something that upsets Hal and he’s in the hallway, and he just, like, crinkles his whole body into this wilted flower. And he just uses his body so expressively, like in the original show and and especially up front, like it’s something else to see it in person. I feel like the energy is very infectious where you’re just watching this, it’s hard not to laugh, and it’s hard not to, like, learn from that too. As an actor, I’m sort of like, well, how can I use my body like that? So he was, he was a great person to study in terms of, like, just the physicality and how willing he is to just kind of humiliate himself on camera. My first scene with him was the the first scene that we shot, and the first scene that I had with him was the kitchen scene where Lois is shaving his back, and he’s, like, in a thong, and I’m just kind of there. And that was my introduction to Bryan Cranston. So that was a that was a fun experience.
TMS: I always make the joke, ‘Listen, if there’s not one scene in anything he’s in where it can’t be in his underwear, he’s not gonna do it.’
Murrae: The energy that all the cast have together, I find Bryan and Jane in a room together is impossible not to laugh. But I didn’t have a lot of scenes with Frankie [Munez]. But like, actually watching the show he is Malcolm. He’s so freaking funny, like that tantrum in the car, and everybody just riffs off each other brilliantly, you know what I mean? They understand. And it’s like capturing lightning in a bottle.
TMS: Was there any sort of improv that made it in that wasn’t on the script?
Murrae: There wasn’t a lot of improv on my end. But in terms of what was unexpected for me was I would read a scene and envision it a certain way, and then the actors would come in and completely knock it out of the park. I don’t know if you remember that scene where Reese walks in [and] he’s like, ‘Who’s ready for re-caulking day?’ Bryan kills me, and you have to whip out the chair, and he’s all distraught. And I remember reading that scene in my head, and I kind of just pictured us all standing in the kitchen together, but the way they use the space, the way that they use their bodies like that, to me is the improv. That, to me, is sort of like the interpretation that they bring, and what they bring as actors is so phenomenal.
TMS: I’ve asked everybody this that I’ve talked to about the show: Do you have a favorite scene from the original series?
Murrae: I have a couple. I really love the one with Dewey’s purse. That one will forever live in my heart, where he has the brick in the purse. I also love if girls were boys, where they put Chris [Masterson] in drag at the end of that episode. That was really good. And then there’s a scene, where they have the golf cart. [It’s a] really popular one, but it’s so good. I love it. And the clown scene, I can’t believe I forgot that when they beat up the clown. There’s so many of them.
TMS: It’s hard to pick just one, when you think about it, because this is a show that I watched 20 years ago, and I can still recall very specific scenes because I have grown up quoting so many of these scenes, just because there’s so much of it that is memorable. And you get that in this revival too. There’s a lot of memorable stuff in it that I think people are really going to latch onto, and that fans especially are really, really going to enjoy.
Murrae: Yeah, I really can’t wait for them to see it. And there’s a lot of returning gags. There’s enough new stuff to bring the revival to life, and even for new fans. But there’s also a lot of Easter eggs and nods to the original that I think OG fans are really gonna appreciate.
TMS: In my head, I was like, ‘It would be so funny if they brought the hamster ball gag back.’ That was one of my favorite reoccurring bits.
Murrae: Yeah, it’s a very memorable show,
TMS: I am super, super excited for fans to see the revival. You are amazing in it. I love Kelly. They are perfect addition to the family, just as ruthless and wiley in their own way. [A] little less destructive, but I feel like they’re like a nice mix of Malcolm and Reese. They’re smart and they know when to plan and when to make their move, but they also have, kind of, like the petty, vindictive side that Reese has, but they use it for good, which is nice.
Murrae: I think they take after Lois in a sense of like they’re responsible, but they’re also not above the vengeance. And I do really think they like to sit back and just watch the chaos unfold. They won’t get involved with it unless, you know, they need to give some payback, but they will definitely thrive off of their brothers’ self destruction.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
(featured image: Hulu)
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