WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!
BuzzFeed spoke with the show’s creator, Mike Schur, and actress D’Arcy Carden (Janet) about this week’s episode of The Good Place, and here are all the juicy facts they spilled!
1.
This episode took one year of planning to come to fruition.
NBC
Michael Schur and company have had the idea since back in Season 2, but it wasn’t executed until now.
2.
D’Arcy found it challenging to play Chidi, Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani because she didn’t want to be over the top.
NBC
The entire cast filmed their scenes so D’Arcy could study their mannerisms in order to become them more accurately.
3.
The multiple Janets were partially inspired by Orphan Black, a series that features a bunch of clones.
4.
D’Arcy felt Tahani and Jason were easier to play, but Eleanor was a challenge because she’s “so subtle.” Will Harper (Chidi) was also hard because he has “a very distinct voice.”
NBC
Ted Danson gave D’Arcy advice during different bits she had to do of Jason, Tahani, Eleanor, and Chidi.
5.
Mike Schur knew they wanted Stephen Merchant early on for the role of Neil in this episode.
NBC
Schur spent 45 minutes explaining the role to Merchant on the phone and he was sold.
6.
There’s a reference to Michael Scott’s “World’s Best Boss” mug from The Office.
NBC
Schur said the way the mug was held when filming hid the text, so “Existence’s Best Boss” had to be added digitally.
7.
The accounting office that seemed to go on forever was filmed in what Michael Schur called “a ghost building” in Simi Valley.
8.
D’Arcy also recorded the table read of the episode and listened to it over and over for a month to get into each character. “I lost my mind,” she said.
Rachel Luna / Getty Images
Although D’Arcy said the episode was stressful to film, she also stated it was the best week of her life.
9.
Mike said the show had to pay “around fifty grand” to use a brief snippet of “Believe” by Cher.
10.
The cast wasn’t on set that much during the shooting of this episode but they were on call in case D’Arcy needed them.
11.
For this episode, and others, the show’s writers consult with two philosophy advisors (Todd May and Pamela Hieronymi), who try to break things down in a digestible way for the audience.
DISPUK Uddannelsescenter / Via youtube.com, Rose Lenehan / WikiMedia Commons / Via commons.wikimedia.org
One of the philosophy advisors would get an early draft of the episode and “grade it,” which means sending back small tweaks and changes.
12.
The kiss moment was filmed on a “kissing rig,” which D’Arcy described as a “pole with lips on a Lazy Susan.”
NBC
She had to kiss Kristen Bell and Kristen had to kiss Will Harper, but the challenging part with that was getting everything to match identically so it could come together in edits.
13.
The Chidi/Janet/Eleanor speech was so heartfelt that D’Arcy teared up while performing it.
14.
As for what we can expect to come in future episodes, Mike Schur said, “Michael has more information now than he’s ever had before. And they’ve finally made it to the REAL Good Place, so we’ll see where that leads us.”