18 August Selena, Steve Martin & Martin Short posing in the new photoshoot together and talk about Only Murders In The Building with EW!

Steve Martin, Martin Short & Selena posing in the new promo photoshoot, and talks about their new Hulu series “Only Murders In The Building” in the new interview for Entertainment Weekly!

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You know why you’re here and what you did. You’ve made a promising and dangerous comedy—

STEVE MARTIN: Comedy-drama? What would you call it?

SELENA GOMEZ: I’d say dramedy.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: and the other is a huge pop star. Selena, you’ve starred in comedies, but what was it like to enter the orbit of these two? How did it meet or subvert expectations?

GOMEZ: I met with everybody on a Zoom and I told them that I have this morbid fascination with crime/murder shows, podcasts. It actually happened very organically. But I was very, very nervous at first. [To Martin and Short] I don’t even think you guys really know that, unless I showed it.

SHORT: Not remotely.

GOMEZ: I watch the first episode and think, “Wow, I felt so meek and new.” And now I feel more open to just saying whatever.

MARTIN: Well, there was a shift during shooting. But I think you’re fantastic in the first episode. It’s that thing of acting where some people can just do nothing and there’s something on their face that’s happening. [Points to own face] Yes. [Points to Gomez’s face] Yes. [Points to Short’s face] No.

GOMEZ: I was very intimidated. It was such a blast, and I realized I am in a time in my life I will never forget, working with these legends. They have taught me so much and make me laugh constantly. They have a sense of humor that’s just classic—I feel like it doesn’t exist anymore.

MARTIN: I remember backstage in the makeup, thinking, “Oh! We’re going to meet Selena!” When you meet somebody, especially a pop star, you have no idea. [To Gomez] Well, we really liked you on Zoom [in our first meeting]. We talked after, and [Short] said, “She is perfect.” We were comfortable within hours, I’d say.

SHORT: Whatever you were feeling, you masked it perfectly. You seemed totally friendly, lovely, open, in the moment, excited—you carried nothing other than that. We all just laughed and liked and trusted each other. We shot in a restaurant, and Steve kept pretending to send texts to [Hulu parent company] Disney about how it was going, and that he would get texts from Disney saying, “Yeah, can you tell Marty to calm it down a little?” And you said, “I’ve been getting those since I was 7!”

GOMEZ: No, I said, “Disney can own my firstborn child.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you sum up the dynamic of your three characters? There’s a generation divide or two, and trust seems to be a huge issue…

MARTIN: My favorite moments in the scripts are when Marty and I say something commensurate with our age and Selena will go, “No, no, we don’t say that. None of that.” And we go, “Oh, okay.”

SHORT: There’s a great exchange when we’re texting her, and Steve and I are trying to figure out: “Do we phone her? Do we write her?” [To Martin] And you say, “Maybe text. Phone calls seem to upset them.”

GOMEZ: That sums it up. What I enjoy about the characters coming together is there’s this sense of we’re all alone in our own worlds…

MARTIN: I was just thinking that.

GOMEZ: We share that bond of being lonely. Our characters have their own story, but what brings them together is they’re lonely people.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What does this show aim to say about our true-crime obsession? Charles talks about how these podcasts fill the holes in his life. At one point, he lectures Oliver, “Every true crime story is actually true for someone.” Did you want to explore the absurdity of true crime obsessives, and also that they sometimes lose sight that these are real people?

MARTIN: Well, I am a true crime obsessive. The latest trend in true crime is to really get into the victims and who they are. And I always go, “No, no. I just want to know how they solved it.” Because it’s too tragic if you look at it personally. It’s horrible. But the scientific solving of it to me is very interesting.

GOMEZ: It’s kind of like video games. These kids — I’m a kid! — they’re desensitized to what they’re doing. It’s weird. It’s teetering on the line of, yeah, you’re interested in figur[ing] out those points, then on the other end, you do kind of forget. There’s parts of the podcast where you chuckle, and it’s like, “Well, that’s not really appropriate to do.” So I guess it’s a weird balance, because sometimes I feel weird listening.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Selena, you went to CrimeCon, where an unsolved murder investigation was crowdsourced and you helped try to crack it…

MARTIN: What’s CrimeCon**?

GOMEZ: It’s been around for a bit. There’s a case that’s actually open…

MARTIN: You mean it’s a TV show?

GOMEZ: No, no, it’s just an event.

SHORT: Did you do this recently?

GOMEZ: No, this was before the show. It was fascinating, we’d get the forensics, we got all of it…

MARTIN: It’s a real crime? Wow.

GOMEZ: We met their family and they can’t find the murderer, but we get to help as much as we can.

SHORT: You were into true crime even before this project? Wow.

GOMEZ: The First 48. I grew up with…

MARTIN: First 48 is really good. I was into Forensic Files. It’s not about the personality of the victim. It’s about DNA and the dog hair under the mattress, and searching down the tread mark in thousands of tires. I listen to Casefile. It’s from Australia, and it’s very good. When I was home last summer, I’d go on my bike rides and listen to Casefile, and I realized I went through 180 of them.

GOMEZ: My God. [I’m listening to] these two girls…what’s their name?

MARTIN: Oh, I know who they are. Crime Junkie***?

GOMEZ: Yes!

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This show features such guest stars as Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, and Sting as… Sting. Sting doesn’t do a lot of comedies.

GOMEZ: It was surreal being on set.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Selena, after working with these guys for a season, what’s one surprising thing you can reveal about them?

MARTIN: We’re smart.

GOMEZ: You are smart.

SHORT: [To Martin] Is your name Selena? Go ahead.

MARTIN: Well, I’m trying to help out. It’s a hard question!

GOMEZ: It is a hard question.

SHORT: I can answer about Selena: Really smart.

GOMEZ: I didn’t know how humble they were. They make me feel humbled.

SHORT: Oh, I have another thing for Selena!

GOMEZ: Oh, good grief.

SHORT: Way more humble than I thought she’d be. [They laugh]

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Which of you three would make the best investigator?

GOMEZ: Me. Because I’ve had the gift of social media, unfortunately.

MARTIN: Also, you’re willing to leave the house. We’re too tired to leave the house.

SHORT: Don’t lump me in with your sore back!

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Now that you’ve jelled as a trio, what’s your dream project?

MARTIN: Three Amigos!

GOMEZ: A dream would be to do some comedy sketches.

MARTIN: What’s the standard life for something like this? Three, four years? Some are six years. We’ll be like [moans geriatrically]…

GOMEZ: Oh my gosh, I’m going to be 30! [They laugh.]

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We may need to bring you in for further questioning, so don’t leave town. Let me pretend to turn off my recorder and ask: What’s the biggest crime you’ve gotten away with in real life?

MARTIN: My career? [They laugh.] Whew, got out of that one.

GOMEZ: What’s dangerous about being so young and exposed to so much, you’re actually getting away with things that you shouldn’t. I mean, people would offer you wine and you’re going to parties…

SHORT: Yeah, but that’s their crime, not yours.

MARTIN: If she took it…

SHORT: If you’re 9.

GOMEZ: Well, I wasn’t 9! When I was younger, I stole ChapStick and we got home and I told my mom and she made me go back to the store and apologize.

SHORT: That’s a good mom… I went through a phase—I’m not proud of it—I’d occasionally lift a bathrobe from a hotel if I liked it, knowing they were going to put it on my bill. I’d put it in my suitcase…

Source: ew.com