JPI
Did Holly’s overdose story and the character ending up in a coma catch you off-guard when you first saw it in the script? “I had no idea that that was going to be happening. When I read the episode, I was a little confused, because I didn’t know that Holly had a drug problem or even was taking pills at that point. It wasn’t really established, so it caught me off-guard. I didn’t know how to process it at first. [I had] a lot of questions and was confused about what was going to happen to her. Was she going to get better? How was she going to be [if] she wakes up from the coma? And then also navigating what it would feel like to wake up from a coma. There was a lot of prep work I had to do for it and also the overdose [scene] itself.”
Does anything stand out about filming the scenes where Holly overdosed? “I had to [take] these tablets that made me foam at the mouth. So that was a new experience for me. I’ve never had to do that before on camera. That was interesting.”
Did you practice with the tablets ahead of time? “Yes, my lovely makeup artist, Karen [Dahl] gave me the tablets, and we tried it out. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what it’s going to feel like. This is weird.’ It was like a sweet. salty taste. too. I had to swish it around and then spit it out, and it naturally just foamed. During the take, I was on the cold ground and also seizing. We were able to do it — get the foam and get the seizing — all of that in one take, which was great. It was interesting to do that, since I’ve never experienced it before.”
Was it helpful playing these scenes with Jamie Martin Mann (Tate) and having his support, since you’ve worked together a lot and built a strong rapport? “Yeah, and he was very scared during the scenes, too. So seeing how he reacted — obviously, in the scene my eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see anything, but [hearing] him screaming [Holly’s] name and crying and breaking down… It helped a lot. Tate had no idea what was even going on with Holly. He didn’t know what the pills were, what she took. Nothing.”
XJJohnson/jpistudios.com
Pill Factor: Puzemis says that co-star Jamie Martin Mann (Tate) helped her stay in the moment during Holly’s overdose ordeal.
Was it challenging to play something of this magnitude? “Yes, it was, because, personally, I’ve never experienced an overdose, thank God. And none of my friends have, either. So I didn’t really have anyone one-on-one I could talk to and ask what it feels like or what it looks like. I had to Google what an overdose looks like, how people respond to it, what your body does during it. [I learned that it’s] like you’re not in control of your body. It’s just shaking and you’re unconscious. During the scene, I had to get into that whole space and do whatever my body did on camera and hope that it looked real. Thankfully, it did look pretty real, and it was honestly kind of scary. I know that when my parents watch the episode, it’s going to be tough and scary for them. [It’s going to be scary for] a lot of parents in general to watch a kid overdosing on screen. It’s awful.”
Were you pleased with the way the whole thing turned out, when you actually got to see the finished product? “I was pretty pleased with it, honestly. I was like, ‘That looks freakishly real to me.’ I think the foaming helped a lot with it. It was a little fun for me to do, because I didn’t know how it was going to be. And I was like, ‘Well, there’s a first [time] to try everything and see if this is something I could act and do.’ I think everyone was pretty pleased with the performance too, which was nice.”
You mentioned going online to gather information. What were the most interesting things you uncovered through your research? “It was was painful to see [videos of] people going through overdoses and what happened to them. A lot of the research I did was when the paramedics get to the scene and what they have to do — tipping the [person’s] head back and making sure they can breathe. All of it was just scary and something I never want to ever experience in my life. Also with my research, seeing how common this is… I live in LA, and there’s a lot of stuff that goes around that’s laced with fentanyl and things like that, that I’ve heard about from my friends. After the research, I actually went online and got NARCAN certified. I got a kit sent to me. So in case I ever go out, see somebody, and think they might be overdosing, I am certified to administer [the opioid overdose reversal drug] and then call the cops. I have 90 minutes to call them and have somebody come, and it could save their life. So that was a big takeaway from the research I did, too.”
