Sneaky Pete is an Amazon series that has returned for its second season with more complexity, crime, and character. The second season aired on March 9th with 10 episodes out that you could watch right away. This is a show full of secrets, crime, and danger and through it all there are questions and explorations of identity and self.
We caught up with Shane McRae, who plays Taylor on the show. In a conversation full of humor and light-heartedness, McRae opened up about his character, experiences and let us into some behind the scenes bursts-of-laughter on set.
The Knockturnal: What was your favorite episode from season two of Sneaky Pete?
Shane McRae: I really had a special time shooting episode four I believe, where the scene – where Taylor talks to Carly about the death of their parents. It was really an important scene to me and meant a lot. So I would probably say that that was one of my favorite episodes.
The Knockturnal: Do you feel that there are any similarities between you and Taylor?
Shane McRae: Absolutely, I do (laughs). You know, it has been interesting being able to sort of grow up in a certain way. Taylor and I are about the same point in our lives, and I used to joke with Graham and Fred and those guys about how much Taylor and I were sometimes alike. Taylor is a little bit like me times ten. I mean, I don’t thankfully have the same issues as him but I can relate to a lot of him. Taylor starts out as a guy who is kind of a man-child and has gotten away with a lot of things in his life through charm, and he is kind of a big guy and doesn’t realize his own size and strength which I think I can be accused of. And he also loves joking around, but he also may struggle a little with impulse control sometimes. Thankfully, I don’t struggle with that as much as Taylor but that is an aspect of my personality. I don’t think anyone would think of me as a wilting flower, or whatever the phrase is. That’s the wrong phrase. Shrinking flower? What is it – I can’t remember.
So, even in the last two years, I have been able to sort of grow up with Taylor, Taylor has really been able to, through the crime of the family, find himself. I think it is normal when you’re in your early thirties when you start to go from man-child to man. That’s a big step in everyone’s life and becoming fully yourself, and that’s what Taylor is doing, and he’s sort of saying ‘who am I and how can I embrace that and become the most whole version of myself?’
The Knockturnal: How do you feel like his character has evolved from season one to two?
Shane McRae: Well, you know, I think that the seventeen days that season one and season two encompass are kind of a turning point in Taylor’s life. When season one starts, he is really just a self-involved guy who has got a lot of issues and is winging it through life. And because of the crime of his family and because his fake cousin comes in and challenges him, he realizes that he has to step up. There is a scene in episode seven of season one where he and Marius are arguing and Marius, as Pete, says who are you? And it really hits Taylor hard, and he has to go back and reevaluate himself and think about the death of his parents and think about his relationship with Shannon and start to own all those things. So the Taylor that we see at the end of season one and the Taylor that we see at the end of season two are drastically different. They are still the same guy, but it’s a very different place in his life even though it’s only really, half a month has passed.
The Knockturnal: What is one message you hope that the audience will take away from Sneaky Pete as a whole?
Shane McRae: What hits me about it [Sneaky Pete] is how complex all of these characters are. They are all, I think everyone for the most part of the show, are good people. But they are put in extraordinary situations and they’re forced to protect their family. I think that if there is a message of the show…hmm, that’s such a good question, I am trying to think about how to articulate it. It is that all of us as humans are really complex and we are not easily – particularly for someone like Taylor who I think people can write off as a bro, or frat guy in the beginning, he finds himself. I think that’s something that I hope people can take away and be able to go through life and to realize how complex we all are.
The Knockturnal: Finally, do you have a favorite or funniest memory on set while you guys were shooting?
Shane McRae: The one that comes to mind: Me and Margo [Martindale] and Peter Gerety were in a car in what I think was the last episode of season one. We’ve all been together for several years because of the way Sneaky Pete happened, with it being CBS, then Amazon. So we’ve all really bonded, and it is just a wonderful group who genuinely, are more than work friends, they’re people I really love.
So one of things about that: we are all in the car together, and we must have been in the car for four or five hours, and it was raining, and Margo and Peter they do this thing where they start signing these old show tunes. I don’t even know where these show tunes come from, but Peter starts singing this old Irish song about a clock. And he’s kind of forgotten all the words to it, and for some reason, in that moment I just started joking with him about how he can’t remember the words, and I start doing an impersonation of him. Margo started getting into it. And pretty soon all three of us are crying. I was crying with laughter like tears streaming down my face, Margo saying: “Stop, stop, we have to stop because I am going to pee my pants. I’m laughing so hard.” All of us just hysterically laughing. It was one of my favorite memories; there are times when you become unglued because you are laughing so hard. There has been a lot of those moments actually on set. It’s a really fun group of people.
