Hysteria! Star Emjay Anthony broke down Dylan’s journey in the eventful first season of Peacock's recent series, including a fun story about how God himself may have intervened.
The new series, which its showrunner Michael Scott Kane hopes will run for four seasons, takes place in the late 1980s during the height of Satanic Panic—a mentality amongst people that the introduction of heavy metal music and satanic imagery was causing literal devil worship and supernatural occurrences.
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for Hysteria! Season 1.
By the end of the season, Anthony’s Dylan, whose band capitalized on the panic to become more popular, had been having a rough time. The town turned against Dylan, his legitimately crazy crush buried him alive, and his mom was possessed by a probably real demon.
Hysteria! Star Emjay Anthony Reveals God Tried Interrupting Their Big Ending Climax
While speaking exclusively to The Direct’s Russ Milheim, Hysteria! star Emjay Anthony broke down Dylan’s journey in Season 1 and revealed a funny story about how they had trouble burning down the church in the finale.
After the exorcism of Dylan’s mom, Tracy riles up the crowd so much that they turn against Dylan, Jordy, and Spud—leading to complete chaos.
In the commotion, the church catches on fire, leading to the place of worship going up in flames.
“Funny enough, God had other plans,” Anthony joked, revealing how it “rain[ed] for two days in a row,” making it incredibly hard to properly burn down their church set piece:”
"Actually, it was pretty much all real... They built a full-scale church, and they tried to burn it down at the end of the day. But funny enough, God had other plans. He did not want the church to be burned down. He made it rain for two days in a row, which was hilariously horrible... It was a total cluster f... They're all trying to push it back, and we're about to wrap, and they're like, we having to shoot this, and it was super humid and stuff. So they had to really pour a lot of gasoline on that church. It did not want to burn. But, of course, it actually did and ended up looking really cool."
Dylan Campbell had been through the wringer at that point in the series. He’d formed a fake Satanic cult for clout and love, only to have his heart crushed just before finding out his mother is possessed by a demon.
“It was definitely a lot [for Dylan],” the actor explained, noting how there “was a sense of guilt” for everything happening:
"It was definitely a lot. And as an actor, there's a lot of stuff you have to do to play all of that emotion. My character was having his whole world shattered, seeing his mother like that in that scene. There was a sense of guilt because it was almost my fault in a couple of ways. I definitely didn't help. It might not have been my fault entirely, but I definitely made it worse. I brought evil into the home, and I amplified it, and I let it take over my mother."
On top of the guilt, there was “a lot of fear” for Dylan, who initially couldn't accept that his mom was possessed:
"There’s a lot of guilt, a lot of fear, and mainly fear too, because she's possessed, and I'm actually seeing it that she is possessed right in front of me. Because I think at first I was trying to just say, like, 'Oh no, she's not.' But that's pretty strong evidence of actual possession. Kind of hard to close your eyes when you see your mom over there with the whole exorcist thing going on..."
Dylan eventually convinced his dad to trust Tracy, the local religious zealot, to help them organize an exorcist to save his mom. Obviously, she had her own plans, including throwing Dylan under the bus in front of the whole town.
Tracy told Dylan to stand front and center on the top level of the church, where his mother and the whole town could see him.
“He thought that he was going to be the anchor,” the actor admitted, adding that Dylan is “very naive:”
"He thought that he was going to be the anchor. He thought that he was going to pull his mother through, and he trusted [Tracy]. Dylan is naive. He's very, very naive. He just kind of does whatever. He doesn't really think for himself very much, which I think says a lot for teenagers. People just want to be accepted and all. They're willing to go to great lengths to be accepted. That definitely shows for Dylan."
Large chunks of the season for Dylan revolved around his crush, Judith, who fell hard for his Satanic Cult act. But eventually, their relationship fell apart—so much, in fact, that she even buried him alive.
Emjay Anthony explained how “the attempted murder” is the “moment [Dylan’s] crush for her ended:”
"I think the moment [Dylan’s] crush for her ended was--I think there were a couple of little signs early on with her wanting me to kill a cat. And I think during the Okay, you know what? This is it, you know, she's crazy. I have to do this.' And then she's like, 'Come follow me into the basement.' And then, of course, as a teenager, you know, I just shut everything out, and then 80s music starts playing... I think I still loved her at that point, but the part where I stopped was when she tried to murder me. I think the attempted murder is where I started to come to my senses a little bit."
“I was actually buried alive,” the actor emphasized, “they put me in a coffin in the ground:”
"I was actually buried alive. Like there was no faking in that. They put me in a coffin in the ground, and they put dirt on me, and I literally got buried alive. And the creepiest part is I had like a flashlight and the mirror too. So it was full-on. I barely even had to act because that was definitely so scary. It definitely helped a lot."
When asked if he ever had to take pause as an actor to justify all the crazy stuff that Dylan does, Anthony declared, “Absolutely:”
"Absolutely... Having a conscience and being a Christian, it's hard having to say, Hail Satan, you know what I mean? And all that crazy stuff I have to do, but I just have to tell myself, it's just make-believe... I had to find a way to disassociate."
On how Dylan grew from the start to the end of the season, Anthony noted how the character “starts thinking for himself:”
"I'd say he starts thinking for himself. Stops doing things blindly, just for love, you know? I also think that his relationship with his friends has grown a lot. I think I could learn to lean on my friends more. And I think that's a very important lesson in general to learn."
While the actor hasn't heard any official updates on the status of Season 2, he shared how he’d love to “do more band stuff” and explore relationships outside of Satan:
"I would like to explore a relationship that isn't based on the devil, something like that. I would love to do more band stuff. Because the one thing that bummed me out was when I first started the show, I didn't know how to play guitar at all. And now I can actually play pretty decently. I'm not like, I'm not like Randy Rhoads, but I could play a couple of songs. So, towards Episode 8, I felt a lot more comfortable with the instrument stuff. So, I would love to have some more band stuff."
Anthony also revealed that he’d love to have scenes with his Improv coach, who helped him on the series, who previously appeared in the first episode and might return for Season 2 if greenlit:
"There was the talk show host in Episode 1, I believe. His name is Craig in real life. He was the host during the hallucination scene where Linda saw Dylan as the Satanist. He was actually our improv coach... he was an amazing improv coach. And before we started filming, we would get together. We'd do the band camp for five hours a day and then two hours of improv. And that was a great thing for us to do, so we could kind of build up our relationship as a band and as friends. I would love to have some scenes with him. And I heard that... He might, hopefully, be a part of Season 2, and that'd be cool to have some scenes with him."
See the full interview below:
All episodes of Hysteria! are now streaming on Peacock.
