Reaper's Tyler Labine: Season 2 Is "Dripping with Sex"
Tyler Labine, Reaper
Reaper's returned and it's looking to harvest more laughs — at the expense of Sock (Tyler Labine). The wisecracking sidekick is back for a lot more action this time around that doesn't exactly include demon-hunting. What does it include? Him, his sister-in-law, a steamy shower and a whole lot more. See what else Labine has to say about the scandalous new season, his apparent new "addiction" and why Reaper (Tuesdays at 8 pm/ET, the CW) is better than Lost. Wait, what?
TVGuide.com: You have a few new faces this season.
Tyler Labine: We do. We got bunch of people to liven up the show and they really did: Sean Patrick Thomas, Jenny Wade. We have Army Hammer. I think he's the heir to the Arm & Hammer throne — I'm not even kidding! Eriko Tamura played my [stepsister].
TVGuide.com: And you have a thing for her.
Labine: [Laughs] Oh yeah! I'm not gonna say too much, but she's extremely attractive. I meet her one day and she comes and lives with me and one thing leads to another. It's pretty risqué. There's some almost-nudity.
TVGuide.com: But you're on at 8 pm now. It can't be too much.
Labine: It's about as far as we can go with the show without Standards & Practices stepping in. I've got a couple of three-quarters nude scenes. [Laughs] There's a shower scene. They're good. They're hot — steamy.
TVGuide.com: Were you nervous at all shooting them?
Labine: No, no, no. I'm very comfortable with my body. I just shot a movie last year where I actually f--- computers in the movie, so I got pretty comfortable walking around in a banana hammock.
TVGuide.com: So there's a lotta sex going on this season?
Labine: It is dripping with sex. That's the idea. [Laughs] I will say that any sexual content was strictly for comedic purposes. It wasn't trying to, like, flash it up or make it seem more "tween-y." It's, like, Sock's naked — that's funny.
TVGuide.com: Does Sock realize it's not OK to go after his stepsister?
Labine: It starts out very taboo, I guess. I have some slightly internal struggles, but they end up being very external. [Laughs] At one point, I actually consider chemical castration so that I would stop lusting after my own sister. After I exhaust all my options, we make it happen. And it's beautiful! We actually forge a pretty neat relationship and I end up trying to seek the approval of her father, aka my new stepdad, so it gets a little weird there too. He's, like, a strict, staunch Japanese man.
TVGuide.com: That's a pretty big step for Sock to take. Is there gonna be some character development with him?
Labine: It's huge. It's definitely a lot of character development for him, but is very in the realm of Sock. It got to the point where last year I didn't know how much more ridiculous I could get with him and the writers had a very clear idea of how ridiculous they could get with me — and they took it there. I committed some things to film this year that I never thought you could do on a network television show.
TVGuide.com: What else is in store for him? Is he gonna help capture more souls?
Labine: Ben [Rick Gonzalez] and I help with a few here and there, but we have a pretty strong B-line and Sam [Bret Harrison] is busy doing stuff with Army Hammer, who is another son of the Devil, so they share a lot the demon-hunting responsibilities. We kinda broke out of the monster-a-week formula a little bit. Some weeks are just dealing with the mythology and the characters, which is cool.
TVGuide.com: The Season 1 finale ended with questions surrounding Sam's paternity. How much of that are we gonna explore?
Labine: Oh, a lot. There's the implication that Sam's dad is probably the devil and Sam's other dad looks to be a demon, so there's a lot of things left open that we picked up immediately. We also start thinking about the fact that Sam's mom had sex with the Devil. [Laughs] You know how shows pose questions and never answer them? I think we're not guilty of that. We answer all of them. Some don't. I'm a big Lost fan, but there are definitely things in the show that I'm convinced now are not coming back. Honestly, I don't even care anymore, but it's like, "There was a big thing you left unanswered there." It is kind of a pet peeve of mine.
TVGuide.com: Do you raise more questions in the Season 2 finale?
Labine: Definitely. It's a cliff-hanger, but it's not too big of a cliff-hanger because we're on the bubble and you don't wanna leave your audience hanging. It's a cleverly posed scenario at the end that kind of wraps up Season 2, but it leaves you with a whole new path and mythology that almost directly relates to [demon lovers] Steve and Tony. If we come back, we can move into it and if it doesn't, hopefully people will be satisfied.
TVGuide.com: What else do you have going on?
Labine: I have a movie coming out with Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis and Leslie Bibb called A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy.
TVGuide.com: What's with you and sex?
Labine: [Laughs] I like it! Call me crazy, but it feels good! My family's like, "What's going on? Maybe you should join a sex addiction group." But this is the most inappropriately named movie for what the actual content is. I imagine that title will probably change, but the orgy isn't the focus. It's about friendship and how far you can push your boundaries. It's an orgy movie with heart.
