Staying In

As the lovable Math on the CW’s Life Unexpected (Tuesdays at 9 p.m.), Austin Basis often has to play the voice of reason. His friend/roommate, Baze (Kris Polaha), is a bit of a manchild, who recently discovered he has a teenager daughter, Lux (Britt Robertson). Math also happens to be her high school English teacher. And he’s got a bit of a crush on Lux’s mom, Cate (Shiri Appleby). No one ever said Life was easy. Last Thursday, Basis took time out to chat with me about the cast’s Facebook adventures in Vancouver, getting out of Baze’s shadow, the One Tree Hill crossover episode, and why someone named Math is teaching English. (It all relates nicely back to Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar’s previous job.) We also talked about his involvement in Supernatural‘s Ghostfacers web series, and whether the Ghostfacers might be making a return to the show.

It sounds like you guys are having a blast in Vancouver judging from the cast’s Facebook page and all your videos.

Oh yeah. We definitely try. It’s a really cool city. We just get along really well. We thought it’d be a fun thing to share with the fans and a way to just expand what fun we were having behind the scenes and literally share it with the fans. So we put that Facebook page up. We have fun doing that stuff. It provides us some stuff to do off set too.

So the Facebook page was the cast’s idea? I know sometimes networks or showrunners try to encourage their stars to Twitter and be more social online.

No. We sat and we were trying to think of just ways that we could help out the network promote the show and what we could do from our end. Honestly, we’re in Vancouver; we can’t do appearances in LA a lot. And we can’t do different things that you’d be free to do if you were, one, in the country and, two, in LA. So that was one of the things. It was actually, I think, Shiri [Appleby] that thought of the Facebook page because she was in contact with someone that works at Facebook. So it was made easy through that. He helped her set up the page. The thing about it was we want to do videos. We just want to share and kind of continue the stuff that we did last year on the CW site with the themed videos. But we want there to be more and we want it to be a more direct contact with the fans because that’s the kind of cast that we are. So we felt like why have an in-between and have someone professionally editing them when — We just had our flip cams to Kerr [Smith] and he just puts little videos together.

What’s the dynamic like between the cast off-set?

Even though we’re all basically in our 30s except Britt [Robertson] and the high school kids, we act younger than Britt. [Laughs] I think the main culprit is Kerr. Although, we were doing a couple scenes the other day and it was Kerr and Kris [Polaha] that were acting like kids in a playground. Literally, Kris was like swinging off things and jumping around and running around and kind of misbehaving. [Laughs] The first A.D. had to be like, “Kris, come back! We need you soon.” Like he’s running off into the woods. [Laughs]

You’re in Vancouver for the next two months. It sounds like we’re getting more Math then.

Yeah. I have a minimum contract for the episodes that I appear in. But the writers and producers, their plan for this year was to try to expand my character’s storyline. Episode three and four definitely — four is probably my biggest episode in the two seasons. You see more of Math and his dynamic with Baze, a little more dissected than just the one kind of pep talk scene that you usually see.

I think of Math and Jamie almost as like the angel and the devil on Baze’s shoulders. Except I think Reggie [Austin] has been written out because he’s going to be on Desperate Housewives.

Yeah. He’s actually coming back. … They were able to bring him back for episode eight, which is what we’re starting. They’re starting it today. I don’t work until, I think, Monday or Tuesday. He’ll be in those scenes in episode eight with me.

I agree totally with you with the devil and the angel. It’s like the kind of cool, fun, no responsibility devil. There’s the kind of badgering, slightly judgmental, annoying angel that has your best interests in mind, but doesn’t always express it in the perfect way. But sometimes does and, hopefully, Baze listens more. [Laughs] And he does this season, I think. Essentially, because it opens up a dynamic with just Math and Baze without Jamie to see more of what their friendship was and is without that third person joining it. The way we saw it early on when we were figuring out when these people met and how long we’ve known each other, obviously, Baze and Math had been friends since elementary school, junior high school and Jamie was more of a college buddy of Baze. So when Baze got this building and this bar and the loft, he basically invited his childhood friend, Math, and his best college buddy, Jamie, to come and join him. Obviously, Jamie didn’t have a career like Math did, so he worked in the bar.

That makes a lot of sense because they’re all very different, but Math and Baze, especially. If they’re childhood friends, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. It was fun to kind of think about what that storyline was and to come up with a backstory. I mean who knows what Kris did as an actor. But I thought of different encounters and experiences and dynamics of how that friendship evolved. Because if my character was like an overweight linebacker or like a defensive lineman on the high school football team and Baze was the quarterback… Let’s say I was the center and I was hiking him the ball, it’s not like a hero’s position. It’s like kind of a tag-along position. And to explore the dynamic of living in someone’s shadow and kind of getting a grasp on your own identity and coming out of that is what my, I think, character’s process was from high school, through college. Because they went to different schools and he lost most of the weight. He’s kind of finding himself as a different person. He’s, in my mind, kind of developing his sense of himself gradually and still developing. Just like Baze is taking responsibility for his mistakes of the past. Math is kind of, I think, correcting or trying to form his own past without the help or the guidance of Baze.

Is Math going to get a love interest this season? I heard he has a crush on Paige.

He definitely has a crush on someone. In episode four, Baze encourages him to act on his crush. And hilarity and hi-jinx ensue. [Laughs] And drama, of course, because it is a drama. It’s not a sitcom. We just watched episode four on Sunday as a big group, which we like to do. We like to watch as soon as the edit’s done, which is kind of, a lot of times now, close to when it’s going to air. Like a week or two. … We watched episode 204 and I think it’s one of those episodes that really addresses the core group of people affected by Lux coming back into Cate and Baze’s world. It’s a big episode for everyone. But I think, specifically for Ryan and Cate’s relationship and also Baze and Math’s relationship. It all revolves around Lux now being in that world and all of the other characters being in that world.

Are you going to have a part in the crossover episode with One Tree Hill?

I’m actually not in that episode, but I read it. It’s actually a really cool episode. One, it’s at a music festival. You get some cool acts like Sarah McLachlan, Ben Lee, and the woman that sings our — Rain Perry performs at the concert too. I think [creator] Liz Tigelaar made it a point to try to get people like that that were contributors to our soundtrack to make an appearance on the show. Obviously, the two characters from One Tree Hill cross over into this music festival. I don’t know how much I can say about it, but it’s seamless. I really think it’s kind of seamless with what our show is. It just happens to be two new characters on the show and the obviously convenient coincidence that they’re on another show. But if you were just watching our show and you never watched One Tree Hill, I don’t think it’s going to be — It’s going to be better if you’ve watched both, but I don’t think it’s going to jar anyone that’s a fan of our show that’s never seen One Tree Hill.

Is Math going to find out Lux cheated on his test? Living with your teacher seems like it could be very problematic..

It’s an interesting dynamic that they explore a little in episodes to come. Obviously, if she keeps cheating, it’s going to be hard to ignore it. I don’t think he knows. I don’t think he catches her on the midterm. But if she keeps doing it, I think he’s going to catch her. You just have to watch it. I’m in until episode four and then I have a couple episodes off, so it would have to be in the next few episodes. But you’ve watched TV. You tell me.

There’s also another storyline with Lux having a crush on her teacher. Is Math maybe going to get caught in the middle of that and offer her some guidance?

I don’t know exactly how they’re going to play that out because it’s an ongoing thing. Well, one, she only kissed the dude. It’s kind of that innocent. I think to a degree it stays that innocent. I don’t know the future of it and I can’t really reveal too much of it.

I loved your scenes with Lux in the first season. Will we be seeing you share more scenes with her?

I believe there is a scene like that in the next episode. But so far that’s it. You know, there may be more. There’s a lot more group scenes, which is kind of cool. It’s harder to shoot as a crew and then a director, but there’s a lot more scenes with a lot of characters in them. Group scenes where you’re seeing all these characters interact, which I also think is fun for our show because it becomes more of like a play. You don’t have to watch one particular actor or actress or character. You have a choice of different characters to watch in the scene. You see a lot more of Math and Lux and Cate and Baze and Ryan in addition to some of these new characters. You see them all in kind of these situations where they’re all in the same room or the same place. It starts to be this new dynamic. You didn’t really see that last year.

There’s some photos out from the CW that look like Math’s teaching gym now too. Is that true or am I misinterpreting?

I think he’s coaching girls JV basketball. You find out in one of the first scenes of the next episode. He’s not doing gym by any means. [Laughs]

I find it very amusing that your characters name is Math, but he teaches English.

Yeah. I think that’s funny too. [Laughs] I thought it was a nickname. Like he’s a nerd. You know, he wears glasses. He was good in math so they call him Math or he knows statistics. And then the producer is like, “No. It’s short for Matthew.” Most people that are Matthew that have shortened names are Matt, A-T-T. But I guess she knows a Matthew that people call Math. It was the guy on Brothers & Sisters, Matthew Rhys. [Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar worked on Brothers & Sisters.] Maybe it’s because he’s not American that people call him… [Rhys was born in Wales.] It’s a different way of shortening. It’s a cool thing though. It’s unique. I mean I’ve never heard of another character with that name.

I have to ask you about Ghostfacers because I love Supernatural and that looked like so much fun to shoot. What was that like?

The original episode, we did it a little over two years ago. From the first day we got on set, right after we finished the table read of the episode, all of the Ghostfacers were there. They take us for kind of an orientation of how to work the cameras. I was like, “Wait, what’s going on? We’re actually filming it?” And they’re like, “Yeah. We made 360-degree sets that we’ll put you in, close off, and give you these cameras.” We’d all be filming and we’d kind of decide who was the main shot. … Where we were filming everything that happened, plus each person had like head cams. There was probably, on any one take or any one scene, there was probably anywhere from like three to five or six cameras going at once, which was awesome because it gave us a lot of time free to do improv because we would get the scenes pretty quickly.

But after each take, we would take the HD cams to the video village, plug them in to the monitors and they would go to the beginning of the file and watch each one, check it and then we’d do adjustments within the scene of saying you have to get him more in this line and then good reaction stuff. Dealing with the characters, how they would work the cameras and who they were going to film and what they were going to film.

The director, Phil Sgriccia was totally awesome. From the beginning, he was, “We want this to seem like it’s like a real show. Almost like a reality show. So without violating the text too much, feel free to throw in your own dialogue because it’s that type of show and we’re filming it.” … So we were able to improv. We did all of our confessional interviews. He gave us a list of questions and said, “Go off and answer these. When you’re ready, we’ll bring the camera and we’ll film you answering the questions.” I said to him, “It would be really funny if Spruce,” which is my character, “was the guy who drove the golf cart at a driving range that collected all the golf balls.” He was like, “Perfect.” He had a whole team go out scattered around the golf course of this driving range and put a camera on one of these carts. Basically, we went to the golf course one day and I went out, sat in the golf cart. They turned on the camera. I rode around. They turned it off. We’d just keep on riding around in this golf cart with PAs throwing golf balls at me as if I’m being hit by guys driving the balls. We had so much fun that we just continued it into a web series.

Have you heard anything about maybe the Ghostfacers returning to the TV show or more webisodes?

AJ Buckley, who plays Ed, and Travis Wester, who plays Harry, were put in contact with Chris Valenziano and Patrick Doody who run this company called Two Jerks. Basically, together they created this 10 episode web series, which at this point has been aired and it’s on TheWB.com. They’re in talks right now with the Supernatural writers and Phil and Ben Edlund, who wrote the original episode. I know they’re pitching him ideas for an actual Supernatural episode. The question is whether it’s going to translate into us being on the show again or more webisodes. You know, there’s nothing in stone right now, but I think it’s all positive potential.

It certainly helps that you Life Unexpected and Supernatural are both filming in Vancouver.

I know it helps me. It helps me so that I don’t have to worry about flying. … Hopefully, if we get the opportunity to do another episode, which we’d love because the Supernatural crew has really been helpful … We filmed everything in Phil’s house. We filmed it at his house, in the garage. Every time we would film these webisodes, there was no money exchanging hands either way. He would get all the props, all the wardrobe, everything we had from the show to his house. And they had people that were there to reset, to make his garage look like Ghostfacers’ headquarters and the Eagle’s Nest. We used his fireplace for the fireplace where Harry and Amber have their little intro and conclusion.