Randy Tepper/ShowtimeIf you happen to be one of the fortunate souls who caught last month’s outrageously mind-blowing second-season finale of Weeds—in which our leading lady, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) appeared to have lost her "husband," her entire stash/business and quite possibly, her life—you know that this show just might be the best damn thing on television. So. Freaking. Good.
So, when Showtime asked me to host a screening and Q&A with the cast and SAG members (in the hopes that SAG might give Weeds the award-winning lovin’ it so deserves), I, of course, jumped at the chance—and pushed little old ladies and orphaned children out of the way to get to the theater.
Good thing I did. ‘Cause the night afforded more than a few lip-smacklingly delicious—and revealing—moments. And since I know many of you Weeds fans are distraught over the idea of waiting nearly a full year to see what happens next (oh, the horror!) I figured you could use a fix. So, here are the highlights of what I learned...
1. Peter might not be dead. At the top of the Q&A, I asked the cast about the jaw-dropping season-two finale and mentioned that "Nancy’s husband is dead," referring to the scene in which the scorned Armenian drug lords appeared to drag Peter (the DEA agent Nancy married so he couldn’t testify against her) into a garage and shoot him. Mary-Louise let out a little laugh and then did air quotes as she repeated "husband" and then another set of air quotes as she repeated "dead." Whoa. "Are you saying Peter might not be dead?" I asked her. M.L. just smiled and said, "Well, we were all happy to see that they showed the dog also going into the garage, because I’ve loved working with Martin [Donovan], and I’m hoping that wasn’t the end of him." So, the Armenians may have shot the dog. Huh. Fancy that.
2. The Weeds house was whacked! When asked how much of the show is shot on location, Justin Kirk (Andy Botwin) replied, "One day we go up to Valencia. We were shooting in a place called Stevenson Ranch, and it’s Agrestic, really." To which Nancy’s youngest son, Alexander Gould (Shane), interjected: "The really funny thing is that we got kicked out and a couple streets over we found the exact same house." Mary-Louise then leaned over to me and added, "It’s really funny. We’ll be shooting in that new house next season, and honestly, you cannot tell the difference."
3. Mary-Louise isn't sure there’s any long-term hope for Nancy and Conrad. When asked about the chances that Nancy and Conrad (Romany Malco) will find long-term happiness together after their kiss this season, M-L replied: "I don’t think she [Nancy] could do anything long term. She only thinks of what’s going to happen in the next seven minutes. It would be a really hot seven minutes with Conrad [laughs], but I don’t know." Still, Mary-Louise adds that she is a fan of Nancy and Conrad’s dynamic. "It’s one of the few places that she can be honest, and he’s really honest with her to the point that it’s almost punitive. I think [executive producer] Jenji [Kohan] created a really great dynamic between the two of them, and I really like them together. I like to seem them in each other’s orbit."
4. Everyone loves Snoop. The cast all raved about having Snoop Dogg on set for his hilarious "M.I.L.F. Weed"-rappin’ guest spot this season. And it turns out Romany Malco (Conrad)—who FYI, began rapping when he was seven and at one time had a number one hit on the rap charts—has an interesting connection. "Back in the day, when I moved out here from Texas," he explained, "I happened to live in the same neighborhood as Snoop, and we would cross paths. He’d come to my show; we used to hang out at his place. He’s a good cat, I swear." Then his face lit up, and he exclaimed, "Ooh! But I have the best story! Little Will..." "That’s my little boy," Mary-Louise explained. And Romany continued, "He’s like, ‘Snoop Doggy is gonna be on the set?' And Mary-Louise comes up to me and is like, ‘How cute is this—Will wants to see the dog. He wants to play with the dog.’ He thought Snoop was a real dog!’"
5. Mary-Louise finds her character very different from herself. "I don’t feel like I relate to [Nancy] very much at all," Mary-Louise admitted. "She thinks entirely and completely immediate. She’s just entirely emotionally disorganized. I mean, there is a lot of chaos in my head, but I feel like I try to sometimes sort it out. And I think she doesn’t. Not that she’s bad for not trying to but, I think it is just too painful for her to go there. She’s too busy running around putting out fires."
6. There's a reason Nancy is drinking something in every scene. It's the most frequently asked question about this show, believe it or not, so of course I had to tackle it: Why is Nancy sipping on a beverage in every scene? "The substances I’m drinking, you’ll notice, are highly caffeinated," Mary-Louise explained. "I thought that she needed to drink a lot of caffeine to stay at a normal stimulation. I felt she was numb and that she likes that feeling of adrenaline and the feeling of adrenaline is sort of soothing to her. Some people don’t feel happy in their skin when things are calm and quiet, because if they are calm and quiet, she can hear herself think, and she doesn’t want to hear that, so that is why I usually have Diet Coke at breakfast scenes and ice coffee and caffeine." Now, here’s the hysterical kicker: "It’s all fake, because I, Mary-Louise, don’t drink caffeine," she added. Ha! Love it.