Heather Morris and Luke Cook Talk The Bystanders, Future Of Podcasting, and Icon Jane Lynch
The Bystanders is a scripted, dark comedy podcast that explores the bystander effect — and now it’s back for season 2! The bystander effect is a social psychological theory that individuals are less likely to help a victim when in the presence of other people. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with writer and producer Heather Morris and actor Luke Cook, who you may know best from Glee and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina respectively, about the new season.
Morris has been a producer on The Bystanders since season one, really believing in the future of scripted podcasting. “My good friends Ash Lendzion and Jaclyn Hales came to me with this idea years ago and had talked about making this a film and I just latched on. I was like, ‘Listen, podcasts are so popular right now. We could totally manage this ourselves and make this a podcast.’ So we did that,” she told me. “We got together, us three. They were the creators, the writers, and I just basically jumped on being a producer for that first season. It was Covid, so it was just wide open. Everybody was like, ‘Yeah, let's do this.’ So cut to season two, we got some wonderful producers as well and then we got a great cast.”
This show takes advantage of new podcasting innovations with Dolby Atmos to really bring the story to life. “What really stands out about this podcast is we actually travelled to Nashville and mixed this in the Dolby Atmos studio, so we [got] to make it this 3D surround experience. We are so hopeful for the future of podcasting to make this Dolby Atmos available for listeners because right now it's available on like Apple Music and Spotify and such, but for podcasts it's kind of new,” said Morris. “We were one of the first innovators. There's a few other podcasts who have done it and I think we're all really excited for that. You can definitely tell when you're listening to it, just the world that's created. You'll hear birds fly by. They go from above you and around you.”
This second season finds Morris adding writer to her list of duties on the show. “It was hard. It was very difficult for me. This was my first time kind of writing and getting into that whole world. Ash and Jaclyn had a flow established. Then they became the head writers and had myself and then Nick Blair Wilfong on as well to write. It took us a while we went through a lot of different story lines,” she explained. “There was a cult at one point, which was hysterical and amazing. There was just so many different versions of this and we took it so far that at the very end we kind of had to sit back and go, ‘Wow, we really have to reel this in,’ because I don't know if the audience can get this on board with us and how far we took it. I mean we took a far, but it was such a fun fun learning experience. I really enjoyed it and I'm excited for future seasons.”
She continued: “What's great about it too is it's different story lines every time, so we can just take it wherever we want. There's so many different ways to explore [it] because, the bystander effect, it's studied worldwide about how you react in situations where something of emergency is happening or something is happening to another person and will you or won't you help. The more people that are around the less likely people are to help and so we explored a lot of that in the first season. [The] second season we tried to delve into like if people weren't helping, how do other people take that? There's so many other ways we could take it where there are reasons why you can't help or you could be sued if you do help. So it's interesting how you can spin that in different ways. “
Morris and Cook explored the idea of how they’d react if placed in a situation like the one in the series. “I always think about that when I'm driving on the freeway,” said Morris. “If something were to happen, what would I actually do? Would I step up and get in there? Or I have kids in the back I can't pull over and put them in jeopardy. I don't know. It's literally moment by moment. I like to think that I would do something, but it's hard to say.”
Cook added: “I always spring to action when something goes wrong, but nothing really has ever gone massively wrong. So I don't know if I really would or if I'm just fake brave. Convenient brave.”
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star takes on a hilarious but sinister role with a moral compass in the podcast, which he found quite enjoyable. “I'm the evil one, I'm the bad guy. He's a complex being. He’s hilarious and funny at the same time. I didn't really have to act. He's menacing and evil and very funny. You have to listen to it to understand how absurd it is but also how funny,” he shared. “I just like to have fun and I think evil people are having fun without morality. This guy has morality, but evil is a mix of people having fun with no rules.”
He was also thrilled to be working on a project with Jane Lynch. “I did a voice over audition for it and then I had no idea really what it was. Then I saw the cast they had alongside me. I couldn't believe some of the names that I saw. Like Jane Lynch. I was like, ‘Wait, you guys actually got Jane Lynch? They really got Jane Lynch. Jane Lynch is in this.”
Morris worked alongside both of her former Glee co-stars Lynch and Darren Criss in this new season. “When I reached out to Jane last season, I just shot her a text, and I was like ‘Hey, you want to come join this really convenient podcast where we send you a microphone and then you only have to record in an hour?’ She was like, ‘Absolutely, I'll do this,’” said Morris. “That was an easy sell for her and it was definitely a role — I don't want to speak for her — but she's mentioned it a couple times that she has always wanted to play [in] this very 1930s crime investigation podcast. We wanted to flip the switch and it not be a male who was doing it because in that time there was always like a male narrator. She felt so empowered that she got to play it and being a female.”
When it comes to the future of The Bystanders, they have ideas for many more seasons to come and hopes to turn it into a feature. “Absolutely, that's always on our mind and we're striving for that. We know it's gonna happen, putting that positivity out in the world,” said Morris, with Cook adding: “Part of why I want to be an actor and why I like doing stuff like this is so that I can be around people [and] listen to them and feed off them what they want, what they're looking for. I’m praying that at some point we can do this in person all together… and also I really want to meet Jane Lynch.”
Listen to both seasons of The Bystanders on Apple Podcasts.
