(Spoiler alert: Please do not read on unless you’ve seen the Season 2 finale of “Speechless.”)
John Ross Bowie plays the patriarch of a close-knit family on ABC’s “Speechless.” A close-knit homeless family, after that cliffhanger of a Season 2 finale.
Wednesday’s episode saw Jimmy (Bowie), his wife Maya (Minnie Drive), and their kids — Ray (Mason Cook), Dylan (Kyla Kenedy) and J.J. (Micah Fowler) — camped out on the lawn because they had been evicted from their home. Bowie told TheWrap during a recent interview just how important that house is to the family, even though it’s a real dump.
“The house is — and I know this seems like such a cliche actor thing to say — but the house really is a character on the show,” Bowie said. “The house is such a s—hole. And I love that about it. We shot the pilot in a teardown in Altadena, Califoria. This like dumpy, little, not safe, not up-to-code house that was — if someone was going to buy it they were going to have to completely gut it and start from the ground up. So we shot in this teardown and they just reproduced it on the Fox lot when we got picked up to series.”
Bowie says the place is so “rinky-dink,” that the “high-def viewers” might notice the rat trap that is always hanging out in the living room. (Don’t worry, it’s not for real use. According to Bowie, the 20th Century Fox lot is clear of rats.) But that’s part of its charm.
“And with all due respect to shows like ‘Black-ish’ and ‘Modern Family’ and their aspirational kitchens, I think we have a very realistic home,” Bowie added. “And this side of maybe the Conners on ‘Roseanne,’ I can’t think of a crappier house on network TV. And we’re really proud of that, and I’d hate to lose it. But yes, in the season finale we are evicted and spending the night out on the lawn and it’s quite a cliffhanger for a comedy.”
Watch the clip above to see Bowie’s take on where “Speechless” is headed in a possible Season 3.