JT Neal from 'Bless This Mess' says Dax Shepard was 'the best for all of us' during the show's shooting
'Bless This Mess' is one of ABC's new comedy series that was released recently. The series is a Lake Bell comedy from Elizabeth Meriwether ('New Girl').
The series revolves around a married couple — Rio (Lake Bell), a therapist and Mike (Dax Shepard), a music journalist — who decide to ditch their life in New York and move to rural Nebraska to live a simpler life in Mike's late aunt's home. Apart from Bell and Shepard, the cast also includes a welcome, yet not so welcoming, family. The family has a son called Jacob who is a loveable boy. The role of Jacob is played by JT Neal.
JT Neal is no new face to hit our screens. Acting ever since he was in middle school, Neal has now made his way to well-known series and movies. His most recent role was in Netflix's 'Sierra Burgess Is A Loser'. In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Neal spoke about his role on 'Bless This Mess' and how it was to work alongside Dax Shepard, Elizabeth Meriwether, and Lake Bell.
Starting off by talking on how he landed the role in 'Bless This Mess', Neal said, "Usually before starting out, you get to do a pre-read. So for the pre-read, I had Seth Yanklewitz, he liked me and he called me back to do a read with Lake Bell. And so I went in, I read with Bell and she was hilarious and she's such a good improviser that she would throw things at me in the middle of the scene that wasn't scripted just to see how I would react to it and respond because there's so much improvisation that happens on the show because everybody's so good."
He added, "I think they wanted to make sure that somebody was capable of handling that so I did that callback. And then from there, I had a network test and that was with Lake and Dax and Liz Meriwether and I went in and I did the same steps I could and they kind of worked with me in the room a little bit and gave me notes. After that, they were like you're the kid. It felt like I waited for like seven years but in reality, it was much lesser."
On working alongside Dax Shepard, Neal said, "Working with Dax was excellent. He was so kind and patient. Only the other night when the show was on, I recollected when we were shooting the pilot, there was this one scene where I couldn't get a line right and Dax kind of noticed that I was struggling with that line. It wasn't on him at all right? But he knew that I was kind of struggling with the line and getting frustrated so he just came over to just me and kind of pulled me aside. He said, 'As I came in I noticed you kind of struggle little bit, you know, don't worry. I've been through too' and he gave me some advice on how to restructure the line and structure the character so that it was funny. And completely put me at ease with it. And that was the moment that I was like, okay this guy obviously is the best for all of us."
Neal also spoke about working alongside Elizabeth Meriwether and Lake Bell. He said, "It was a dream come true. Since I started acting in film and television, I've always wanted to be on a show like 'New Girl'. So when this audition came up and I heard Merryweather was the creator I was so excited. I was like, this is it, this is my dream. I'm only going to be on a network like 'New Girl', and so now to be working with Liz it's exactly what I had always hoped for."
He continued, "She and Lake make the perfect team because they complement each other so well. And Lake is so funny and she does everything on the show. She directed the pilot. She's an executive producer who stars in it. I mean, she was part of the casting process. She's so involved with this show that it's just fantastic to get to see how a master works because she's so good at all of it."
'Bless This Mess' airs every Tuesday on ABC. Check your local listings for more information.
