The TV series “Peacemaker” is known for its action scenes and over the top dialog, not to mention its very unique opening sequence. In the opening of each episode, the cast performs a nicely choreographed dance number to the song “Do You Wanna Taste It” by the Norwegian band Wig Wam.
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Steve Agee is a member of that cast, playing agent John Economos, a role he created in the James Gunn movie “Suicide Squad”. WUWF’s Bob Barrett spoke to Agee and asked how he liked being a part of “the greatest opening sequence for a TV show ever!”
Steve Agee:
You're right. Well, not shockingly anymore. But when the show first came out, that was the number one thing we were asked about, to the point where all of us just started just giving up all our praise for Charissa-Lee Barton who was the choreographer, who literally just like, ‘yep, that's all Charissa Barton.’ It feels great. It was very weird when I got my first script and saw in the script that there's a cold open. And then we cut to this opening dance number. And I called (director/writer) James (Gunn) and I was like, what is this dance number? And he's like, yeah. I mean, James from the start, wanted to make an opening that was hard for people to skip through, like you can on so many streamers now. And it looks like he really did it.
Bob Barrett:
Anyone who hit 'Skip Intro' to that is just not a human being.
Agee:
It's pretty bizarre. And, yeah, I love it. It's just so far out of left field.
Barrett:
When making "Suicide Squad,” did you know early on there was going to be a follow up series or did that come after?
Agee:
No, there was no plans. There was no talk. James didn't even have that in mind. We started shooting in September of 2019, and we finished in February of 2020, just before the Pandemic. I remember flying to Panama, where we shot all the exterior stuff and getting on a plane and you'd see one or two people with masks. And then by the time we left Panama to come back to the United States, everyone was wearing masks. I mean, it was great timing. And then the lockdown started. And James is a person who doesn't do good with downtime. James likes to be busy. He's a workaholic. And he just kind of had the idea to do kind of a backstory. Well, it's not really a back story, although it does flashback. He wanted to do a separate story for "Peacemaker" because in the movie, everyone has an arc. Idris (Elba)'s character, Margot (Robbie)'s character, Dave Dastmalchian. Everyone has an arc except for Peacemaker, who starts off the movie as a jerk. And when the movie ends, he is a jerk. There's no growth. We don't know why he is the way he is.
And so James wanted to explore that more. And he literally wrote eight scripts in, I think, eight weeks. Like, it took him two months. And he wrote the whole series. And then I believe that's when he took it to HBO and said, 'would you guys be interested in this?' And they said, 'yeah.’ I literally didn't know about it. I didn't know he had done that. In about September or October of 2020, I got a call from James saying, ‘hey, I wrote a series, a Peacemaker series. You're in it. We start shooting in January.’ So I didn't know this was even a thing until just a couple of months before we started shooting.
Barrett:
It's got to be nice that James wrote something for you that actually involves using your own face.
Agee:
Yeah. It's always a pleasure. Although doing the motion capture for King Shark (in the movie "Suicide Squad") is one of the easiest jobs ever because there are people showing up 4 or 5 in the morning to have prosthetics put on, and I just have to show up literally ten minutes before we start shooting and put on a spandex body suit, and I'm good to go. Yeah, John Economos (Agee’s character in “Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker”) was an absolute joy to play.
Barrett:
When you were doing the body capture for King Shark, how much of a challenge is that as an actor?
Agee:
It's weird because it's still acting. It's still the same. It's just that at the end of the day, there's a bunch of geeks with computers who are going to turn me into a cartoon shark, basically. Other than that, it's the same thing. I'm standing there with Margot Robbie saying lines to her, and she's giving all her lines to me. So it wasn't that much of a challenge. I think the challenge would have probably been for the other actors. It wasn't bad for me because I'm looking at them, they're all in costume, they're all in character, so it's really easy. They're looking at a six foot seven guy wearing a weird bicycle helmet with the outline of a shark's head on it. So it would be much harder for them acting wise, as opposed to me.
Barrett:
I want to go back a few years and just ask you about this. You spent some years in the writer's room at Jimmy Kimmel. What's the atmosphere like on a daily comedy show like that?
Agee:
I got to say that's one of the hardest mentally, one of the hardest jobs I've had, because the key word you said there was daily. It's like Groundhog's Day. You have the same routine. You wake up 8 o’clock in the morning, go right to your computer, look at the news, what's huge in the news, what can I make fun of? What can I write about? You write down some ideas, and then you go to a meeting, pitch them all to Jimmy, and then an hour later, he's like, this is what I like. You guys write sketches or desk pieces for this. And it never ends.
With 'Peacemaker,’ we shot for seven months. We shot January through July, and now we're on, like, a really long hiatus, waiting to shoot season two. I mean, I've had a lot of downtime. With a talk show, a daily talk show, you'll get, like, a week off for Christmas, a week off for Halloween. I mean, Halloween, a week off for Thanksgiving. that'd be great if they gave you a week for Halloween.
Barrett:
Absolutely, yeah!
Agee:
So you get, like, a couple holidays, and that's really it. So it's a great environment. Like, everyone's super nice. Jimmy is, like, the greatest guy to work for. He's really loyal to his employees. But job wise, it's really repetitive. And like you said, it's every day.
Barrett:
Is there turnover? A lot of turnover in those rooms.
Agee:
You know what? There really isn't. I haven't worked there since like, 2007 or 2008. If I were to go back there, there'd still be like a large amount of people who were there when I was there. I started off there as a researcher. My job when I started at Kimmel was to watch TV for about 10 hours a day and find clips for him to make fun of during the monologue. That was really brutal because you're not watching funny shows like Seinfeld and stuff. You're watching the 700 Club with Pat Robertson and ‘The View,’ and you're watching like, Home Shopping Network. And that's your job. And it's just mind melting. And I stuck around for years because I wanted to be a writer. And Jimmy does a lot of hiring from within, so I knew that my best chance of becoming a writer was sticking around. And it took a while, people weren't leaving. It's a good paying job and it's a good room to write in. So the turnaround isn't huge and it isn't fast.
Barrett:
You also did some time on the ‘Sarah Silverman Program.’ Do you think Steve and Brian are still together?
Agee:
I think so. In fact, Brian Posehn and I, about five years ago, four or five years ago, we went out again and pitched a sequel for our characters. We are now married. We've adopted an actual kid who's about eleven or twelve years old. And it's just the weird adventures of these two idiots raising a kid and dealing with parent teacher conferences and babysitters and just everyday stuff. But nothing came out of it. But in our heads, yeah, they're still together.
Barrett:
I'd watch the hell out of that show.
Agee:
I would have loved to have made it.
Barrett:
When you got involved with 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2,’ was that your first time working with James? James Gunn?
Agee:
No. I had previously worked with James on a movie, ‘Super,’ that he did with Rainn Wilson. I had a really small part that was my first time working with James, and then I think Guardians was the second thing I did with him.
Barrett:
Seems like James has his favorites and he likes to bring people back.
Agee:
Yeah, absolutely. He completely does. But when you think about it, most directors have their favorites. Like, Christopher Nolan loves working with Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine and he works with a lot of the same people. Adam Sandler, every single movie of his is like David Spade and (Rob) Schneider. So it's not uncommon, but yeah, absolutely. James likes working with his friends. And a large part of that is he knows what he's getting while he's writing it.
Barrett:
Well, I think the thing I will take out of this interview that will make me the most happy is that there will be a ‘Peacemaker’season 2.
Agee:
Absolutely. It's in the works. It may be a little while, because James’ new job at DC has got him planning out a lot of stuff for the DC universe over the next ten years. But it will happen.
Barrett:
Well, I hope you get to do a new dance sequence.
Agee:
I mean, look, people from that opening dance sequence are dead now. (Their characters have died) in the TV series. So I think that's a pretty good bet.
Barrett:
And I did note and this was the funniest thing about that was that that song went to number one on the download chart.
Agee:
Oh, let me tell you, that group (Wig Wam) had never broken up. And, in fact, two or three weeks before our show premiered, their management company dropped them, and then our show started, and they skyrocketed. And like you said, number one, top of the charts and are back out on the road with huge crowds. And, I'd like to think of the guy who whose job it was to fire them was just kicking himself two weeks later.
Barrett:
Timing is everything. Timing is everything.
Agee:
It is.
Steve Agee will be a celebrity guest this week at Pensacon 2023.
