DAYS Exclusive: John-Paul Lavoisier Says ‘I Was Really Scared’ During Hilarious Shoot
A hilarious video of actors John-Paul Lavoisier (Philip) and Paul Telfer (Xander) in character as brothers and the co-CEOs at Titan Industries has taken Days of Our Lives social media by storm. The project was the brainchild of Heather Smith, DAYS’s social media manager. Titled “Two Men, One Job,” the snappy montage of clips show the pair going through a typical work day together, performing tasks — some mundane, some absurd — in tandem.
Double Trouble
Smith approached Lavoisier with the concept, and it didn’t take much convincing to get him on board. The actor reports, “She came up to me and said, ‘J-P, I want to do this thing with you and Paul. It’s called ‘Two Men, One Job.’ She sort of explained what it is: two people in this quick montage of videos doing the exact same thing. ‘You’re both doing something that only requires one person, but you’re doing it simultaneously.’ Then she took out her phone and showed me this video of two very similar-looking girls closing a locker and opening a laptop while looking at the camera.”
Lavoisier saw the comedic potential immediately. “Within four seconds, I was imagining Paul and I doing something like this,” he says. “I was like, ‘This is hilarious.’ I got very excited. Heather and I were both laughing and tearing up.”
Things came together quickly once Smith informed Telfer about the project, and the trio began exchanging emails. “I remember asking Heather, ‘Would you like me to come up with ideas or is this all you?’ ” recounts Lavoisier. “She said, ‘No, no, no. Feel free.’ So of course I sat in a chair for nine and a half hours thinking and came up with a few things.”
To actually record the sequence, Smith had to figure out a day when she, Lavoisier and Telfer were all at the studio and their schedules aligned, which proved to be tricky. “Paul was really cool, because he wasn’t shooting any scenes that day,” notes Lavoisier. “It just so happened that we had a lunch, sort of an all-hands meeting on the studio floor. Paul came in for that and just stayed around. He hung out for hours, because I was working that day. He waited and said, ‘Whenever you’re ready, we’ll do it.’ ”
So, when Lavoisier wrapped up his work day, it was finally time to shoot. “It was very fast,” the actor recalls. “It almost felt like we were filming on a street without a permit. ‘Okay, lets go over here and shoot this real quick.’ Then, ‘Okay, now let’s go over there and shoot this.’ There weren’t a lot of outtakes. It was kind of a one and done thing. We had just enough time to block and for Heather to get her phone angled in a way to shoot it, because we didn’t use [additional] lights, it was all just natural lighting.”
Although Lavoisier, Telfer and Smith were serious and no-nonsense while filming, “We were laughing and enjoying ourselves in between, while walking to the next set,” notes Lavoisier. “But when it came time to actually do the moments, it was like, ‘Let’s nail it and move on.’ Within each moment it was business, then we chuckled before we went to the next spot.”
Tall Order
The moment from the shoot that most stands out for Lavoisier is when he and Telfer “headed to the Kiriakis study to adjust Victor’s portrait above the mantle,” says the actor. That particular bit was Telfer’s idea. “When we got there, Paul told me to get up on his shoulders. I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.’ I don’t really have a fear of heights, but it might be a control thing,” Lavoisier muses. “I’ve never been on somebody’s shoulders before — not since I was a baby!”
Lavoisier eventually agreed to climb atop his co-star’s shoulders. “I put one leg over his shoulders, then the other leg over. It was something I’d never experienced before, [perching] on someone’s shoulders with this guy holding my legs. I had to put my hand on the mantle to give myself some stability.” Telfer offered constant reassurance. “Paul was like, ‘You can trust me!’ He was slapping my thighs going, ‘I’ve got ya, I’ve got ya.’ ”
Nailing the dismount presented its own challenges. “After we shot it and it was over, I didn’t know how to get off of his shoulders,” Lavoisier continues. “Paul squatted down and I was like, ‘I don’t know how to undo this!’ I was shaking and my hands were sweating. We can laugh about it now, because everybody’s fine, but in the moment I was really scared.”
If Lavoisier and Telfer are asked to do a “Two Men, One Job” sequel, don’t expect this particular element to be replicated. “I don’t want to do that again in my entire life,” the actor declares. “That was a one and done thing for me. I don’t even think we rehearsed it. When we turned our heads to look at the camera, my suit jacket was over Paul’s head. He had to push it away from his face, which was not planned.”
While Telfer was responsible for coming up with the memorable “brother on the shoulders” bit, Lavoisier also suggested a few things that made the final cut. “The ideas that I had were brushing my teeth and [Paul] spitting, the flushing of the toilet, the blowing the nose and the tissue,” chuckles Lavoisier.
Despite their successful collaboration on the “Two Men, One Job” video, neither Lavoisier nor Telfer have been asked to lend their expertise to the show’s future social media endeavors. Teases Lavoisier, “I haven’t been offered a promotion of any kind!”
Check out the full video below.
Conversation
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