Fresh off the release of Wednesday Season 2, we link up with breakout star Owen Painter to unpack all things Slurp – from prosthetic mayhem and Tim Burton masterclasses to finding a makeshift family in Dublin.
Owen Painter is in his LA apartment when our Zoom connects. “I’m trying to move to New York soon though, so this is kind of like a temporary sitch. Should be headed over soon,” he says with an easy grin. It’s the kind of move that comes with momentum – the restless, city-hopping pace of a star right on the cusp. And while you might not have clocked him at first glance, that’s exactly who you were watching in the latest season of Tim Burton’s cult Netflix hit Wednesday – buried beneath 11 hours’ worth of prosthetics that transform the Connecticut-born actor into Slurp, Nevermore’s newest zombie and latest ghoul with secrets to spill.
But why play just one character when you can double down? In the second drop of Season 2, Painter peels off the zombie-esque shell to reveal Isaac Night – a telekinetic scientist with Renaissance-man brilliance and a touch of Burton’s trademark gothic flair. With the new chapter now out in the wild, we sat down with Painter to talk breakthrough moments, the not-so-glamorous joy of a role wrapped in prosthetics, lessons from the legend himself, and the kind of friendships that last long after the cameras cut.
We loved the new season of Wednesday. How did it feel stepping into the role of a zombie, and what was the audition process like for this role?
Well, it’s mostly just embarrassing, [laughs]. I loved the audition process because it was so unique. I got a movement piece in my email basically that just said, “You woke up from a thousand years of being asleep. Your voice doesn’t work right and water is going to fix that. So put a glass of water across the hall and you should have some stuff in your way.” And so I did these Frankenstein-y, like Buster Keaton-y joke gags, you know, where your neurons don’t fire the way that they’re supposed to. I had the apartment to myself and I kind of felt like I was in a rut before that and that felt like being a little kid again or something, just like flopping around pretending to be a creature. And then I got lucky, I got to do that for nine more months.
Were you in the role from the very first time we see Slurp on screen?
Yeah. The first day coming out of the tree was my first day of work. We were still deciding what he would look like a little bit. So Tim [Burton] would get feedback and then costume would come in and you’re like throwing cement onto your robes to give it a broken down look, you know? I think by the time we shot that scene, it had been like 11 hours of makeup or something. It was crazy. Most days were a lot of that, but it was so fun. The prosthetics team is incredible and everybody on the crew was so fun to hang out with, so I kind of just got to party for a bit before.
What was going through your head as you sat in the makeup chair for 11 hours a day preparing for such a big role on such a huge project? Did you have any expectations?
Well, I don’t know about expectations. I just wanted it to be like a focusing experience and kind of I guess it’s a bit like a sensory deprivation tank. You know, like you’re out. My eyes were covered, my ears were mostly covered, people were like guiding me around on set, and you can’t even really eat out of it. And so it was very meditative. But as it was applying for initially, I was, I would just read the scripts over and over again. And then at a certain point when you’ve read them, like, you know, a hundred times over, I kind of relaxed a bit and, I don’t know, we would just hang out in there. We would blast music and chat. I would have visitors, like Noah [Taylor] and all those guys would pop into the trailer and check in.
How much did you know about the character before flying to Dublin to start filming?
Absolutely nothing, it was crazy. The sides I read for my callback were dummy sides from a different movie. I didn’t know the character name even until I got my visa document from the government of Ireland and it specified that I would be in the country to portray “Slurp” and that’s all it said. And then I got there and I had a meeting with the showrunners, where they broke down the season arc a bit. But even then there was a lot of details, fine details that they didn’t tell me until the scripts came along. It was all very secretive.
Were you already a big fan of the show before joining the cast?
I was a huge, huge fan, especially of Tim. I just adore his work. In terms of getting to do something new, I was pretty excited. I felt so lucky. Working with total experts in their craft, the hair team, the costumes, prosthetics, Tim, we were designing this thing, you know, we were designing the teeth, we would have sessions where we would fix different dentures and see how that affected the way that I could move, or the way that the silhouette of the character like hung or something. And that was a level of creative fulfillment that I think is pretty rare. And also just to be working with such nice people that are really open and collaborative, it felt very, very special.
What was your creative upbringing like?
I was one of those kids where I didn’t want to do anything, [laughs]. Not out of a fundamental laziness, but shyness, maybe. My parents basically just kind of forced me to do everything. They were like, ‘he’s got to like something, you know?’ So they cycled me through every sport. I hated that. They put me in like this academic thing, I just hated it. And then eventually they were like, ‘go do the musical’. And even by that point, I didn’t fully get on board. I remember I did Hairspray in the seventh grade, but my leg was broken so they brought in a camera guy extra role where I would just sit on the news camera. And I would hide from the rehearsals in the school library. But then a couple years later, I met a bunch of really welcoming and talented kids who were going to college for [theatre] and then I realised like, ‘you can actually, this is a career, you know?’
It seems like the cast really became a family on the Wednesday set. How was the bonding experience and how do you reflect on those friendships now?
[They have] immediately become really important to me. I don’t know, we bonded pretty quickly. I sat behind Hunter [Doohan] on the plane ride over. And I didn’t want to be like, ‘I know you, let’s sit together for 13 hours.’ But when we went through customs, we both pulled out the same document from Wednesday and he kind of pointed through the glass, like, ‘are you [part of the show]?’ And then we were out at a pub that night. I just love all of them.
Were there any parts of the role that intimidated you at first, or did you just dive in and find yourself through the process?
Pretty much… I mean, I guess all of it felt that way. But it was so exciting that I didn’t have much brain space to be frightened, I guess, or to be anxious about it. I felt like I kind of got back in touch with a more playful and pure part of myself, you know. Maybe that sounds silly. And there were so many technical things that I got to learn about. And to learn from the great filmmakers we had and the amazing cast. I don’t know. My life felt so full for so many straight months, which is just a total blessing. That just doesn’t happen very much. I think it may be the high I’m chasing in this profession, but it got to happen. It was pretty cool.
And moving forward, do you have any dream bucket list roles?
I really want to do theatre work. That’s always been really meaningful for me. And, I don’t know, when it’s done well and done for people, I think it’s a really beautiful thing. But other than that I feel like I have no clue what is best for me until I’m halfway through it, you know, and then I realise all the things that I’ve been learning. So yeah, I really have no clue on it.
Words – Sofia Ferreira
