Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (2024)

Ted

Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (1)

By Grant Hermanns

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Ted

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Summary

  • Ted is a prequel TV series to Seth MacFarlane's movies, showcasing the bear's high school years and his friendship with John.
  • Max Burkholder and Giorgia Whigham talk about their unique casting process for the show and the challenge of acting alongside a puppeted character.
  • The actors hope to explore John's personal life and Blair's college journey if the show continues for a second season.

Everyone's favorite talking teddy bear is back on screens with Ted. The Peacock show takes audiences back to the high school years of the eponymous bear and his best friend John, with the duo's formative years seeing them become the characters seen in the Seth MacFarlane movies with their heartwarming friendship and pot-smoking habits.

Max Burkholder and MacFarlane lead the ensemble Ted cast alongside Alanna Ubach, Scott Grimes, and Giorgia Whigham. With MacFarlane also back as director, creator, and writer on the show, it proves to be just as raunchy and hilarious as the movies that preceded it.

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In anticipation of the show's Peacock premiere, Screen Rant interviewed stars Max Burkholder and Giorgia Whigham to discuss Ted, the unique casting process for the duo, and the insanity of working opposite a CGI and puppet character.

Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham Talk Ted

Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (6)

Screen Rant: I'm very excited to chat with you both for Ted. I actually loved both of your episodes in The Orville. Giorgia, your character especially is such a fascinating one.

Max Burkholder: Yeah, you especially. [Blows raspberry] Cool, dude. [Chuckles]

Giorgia Whigham: Thank you! [Laughs]

Max Burkholder: Her stuff is way more interesting than mine, there's no doubt about that. [Laughs]

I love that you get to reunite with Seth for this. What was it like when you both were approached by him to get to be a part of this show?

Giorgia Whigham: Yeah, it was one of the coolest processes that we get to go through as actors is when Seth — the thing about Seth is when he knows he wants something, he knows exactly what he's looking for. So, I think one of the coolest things, and this doesn't happen ever, is that we did one tape, both of us, just sent in one tape, and we got hired off of that tape. That was the whole casting process, and we got a phone call from Seth personally saying ["You're hired"], which also doesn't happen. It was so special, so I think just having him trust in us so much, so quickly —

Max Burkholder: It's a confidence booster.

Giorgia Whigham: It was huge, yeah, because we're both guilty of having impostor syndrome. So, getting on set and knowing that we kind of booked it off one tape, that was really cool.

Max, you have the opportunity to fill Mark Wahlberg's younger shoes in this movie. What is it like sort of laying the groundwor for John as he grows up?

Max Burkholder: Yeah, honestly, so much of it is in the material already. So, it wasn't that much of like, "Oh, God, how do I play this younger part? What do I do?" We see a lot of his firsts, but he is very similar to how he is as an adult. He's kind of an idiot, he follows along with his best friend, whose instincts are almost solely disruptive, whether of other things or self-destructive. The challenging part was definitely the accent, that was tough. I had a dialect coach going into it, but got to a place that I was comfortable with. I can kind of pull it out anytime I need. Filling his shirt, I think, would be harder, his muscles are huge. [Chuckles]

Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (7)

It must be an interesting experience to act alongside a puppet teddy bear. I'm curious what that experience is like for you both, given you have so many scenes with him, and you have to imagine that this is a real-life figure.

Max Burkholder: Hard in the beginning, for sure.

Giorgia Whigham: Yeah, it's wild, you feel a little bit psychotic at times, because I can literally look at the ground right now, and if they said, "Okay, we're gonna roll, we're gonna call action, and you have to yell at Ted." I see Ted, you know what I mean? You start to hallucinate and be able to visualize him in space, and having Seth there doing the voice and bringing that energy for us was just so helpful.

Max Burkholder: It also was really funny. Whenever there's a moment where you have to interact physically with the bear, like handing him a bong or something, there was a woman named Ali who — shout out to Ali — would be like hiding under a bed.

Giorgia Whigham: She was like a contortionist, she would like hide under a bed.

Max Burkholder: Yeah, or like out back, or in between some bushes, and she would have a Ted glove on her hand, and she would reach out and contort. You would hand it to her, just to give reference to the animator.

Giorgia Whigham: Yeah, shout out to Ali, so that was funny too, because we would all of a sudden see a hand come out of the bed, and you're like, "Whoa, I forgot she was there."

I'm hopeful for a season 2, but what is something you would both like to explore with your characters if you were to continue?

Max Burkholder: John's got to get laid. It's about time. He's such a dweeb, he needs to step it up and, I don't know, do something to make himself a little more appealing. He's a geek, maybe get jacked. Maybe he could do that. That could be fun.

Giorgia Whigham: [Chuckles] I think it'd be really cool to just kind of explore Blair's personal life a little bit more. We get to see a little bit in this season — I can't give too much away — you do get to see a little bit of her personal life and who she surrounds herself with. But, I think getting into her college life, maybe a little bit, would be cool. Also, just continuing her journey with the family, and trying to bring John up, and have him stop making such —

Max Burkholder: Rehabilitate us.

Giorgia Whigham: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Exactly.

About Ted

In this comedic prequel event series to the Ted films, it's 1993, and Ted the bear’s (Seth MacFarlane) moment of fame has passed. He’s now living back home in Framingham, Massachusetts with his best friend, 16-year-old John Bennett (Max Burkholder), along with John’s parents, Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach) and cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). Ted may be a lousy influence on John, but at the end of the day, he’s a loyal pal who’s always willing to go out on a limb for friendship.

Check out our other interviews with:

Ted begins streaming on Peacock on January 11.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (8)
Ted

Comedy

Ted is a prequel TV series to the comedy franchise of the same name by Seth MacFarlane. The TV show brings MacFarlane back as the voice of the talking teddy bear Ted, who is growing up in the '90s withJohn Bennett and his family. Ted is a Peacock original series that premiered in January 2024.

Release Date
January 11, 2024
Cast
Seth MacFarlane , Max Burkholder , Scott Grimes , Alanna Ubach

Creator(s)
Seth MacFarlane

Writers
Seth MacFarlane , Brad Walsh , Dana Gould , Jon Pollack , Julius Sharpe , Paul Corrigan
Streaming Service(s)
Peacock
Franchise(s)
Ted

Directors
Seth MacFarlane , Brad Walsh , Dana Gould , Jon Pollack , Julius Sharpe
  • Interviews
  • Ted
  • Ted

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Ted Interview: Max Burkholder & Giorgia Whigham On Unique Casting And Puppet Acting "Insanity" (2024)

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