Television fans are no strangers to David Schwimmer. The Emmy® Award nominee is well known for both his comedic and dramatic chops, and in Goosebumps: The Vanishing — which hits Disney+ and Hulu on January 10 — Schwimmer can be seen balancing both of those divergent styles along with what the Goosebumps franchise is best known for: horror.
The new chapter of the anthology series begins with fraternal twins Devin and Cece adjusting to life with their recently divorced dad, Anthony (Schwimmer). When the duo discovers a threat stirring, they quickly realize that dark secrets are among them, triggering a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, Devin, Cece, and their friends — Alex, CJ, and Frankie — find themselves entangled in the chilling tale of four teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.
The cast is rounded out by Ana Ortiz, and up-and-comers Jayden Bartels, Sam McCarthy, Elijah M. Cooper, Francesca Noel, Galilea La Salvia and Stony Blyden.
We spoke with Schwimmer about balancing the variety of tones required for the series, appealing to the whole family, and why Disney+ and Hulu was the perfect place for Goosebumps: The Vanishing.
Why did you want to do Goosebumps: The Vanishing?
The main reason was I’m a major fan of horror and I’ve never been able to act in a horror film before. I was just excited as an actor to try my hand at this, this action-comedy-horror-drama genre, which I’ve never been able to do before.
And then, of course, knowing Goosebumps and this big, incredible, beloved book series and franchise, frankly, I was like, “Oh my god, it sounds like so much fun. I would love to be a part of it.” I knew my 13-and-a-half-year-old kid would be really excited, too.
In the performance, how did you balance all those sort of divergent elements — like you say, action, horror, or even some comedy as well.
I had several conversations with [Series Co-Creator & Executive Producer] Rob [Letterman] and [Showrunner & Executive Producer] Hilary [Winston] before we started about tone. My instinct was to ground the character in as much real emotion and drama as possible. Because my favorite horror films growing up were those films where the characters were just regular people going through kind of a tough time, whether it’s Rosemary’s Baby or The Shining, you know, grounded, real people.
As the series unfolds, you realize that the big mystery of everything that’s going on, all the havoc and horror has to do with something that happened 30 years ago to my character as a boy. So it was important to me to start really understanding how we can find the tone of grounding the series in this real emotion of loss and pain.
The next thing to me was to find out, “How do you make these characters in these situations in a horror film funny?” And I felt like the best way to do that was to kind of underplay everything. Because everything else is so big, so action packed and horrifying that I thought the nice counterbalance to that was to just throw a line away, have a reaction, underplay everything. And I relied on Rob’s direction, and he was very collaborative in terms of me pitching some lines and things to try to find the funny.
This is also a series that has to balance multiple generations of viewers. How do you think that it’s going to appeal to both a 13-year-old and then someone your age?
That’s the goal, right? I think all of us on the creative team, we’re following the vision of Rob and Hilary, and we just had to trust that. I think we got it. I think we nailed it. I find it hugely entertaining. I find it scary and funny, and I only hope it’ll translate to a much younger audience as well. I think one of the keys to that, as I said, is the comedy and the action.
Casting the way they did was brilliant. They have a really diverse, wonderful cast of young talent. I think that’s going to help in a big way because I think people want to see themselves on screen. Young adults and teenagers are going to hopefully find themselves represented on screen, which is important.
And then what I love about the horror here is that it’s never gratuitous. It’s not gory. So while there’s some genuinely frightening moments, you also feel kind of safe watching the show. It feels like you’re being taken care of. And I think that’s super hard to do, but I think they nailed it.
What are you most excited for audiences to experience when it does premiere?
I’m most excited for the people in my life to see it, and I want to see how the younger generations respond to it — the fans. I got a taste of it at New York Comic Con when we all went. People love these books and the fan base is huge, so I’m really hoping that the fan response is going to be as positive as I believe it will be.
Why is Disney+ the right place to for the fans to find this series?
Because I think only Disney+ could have nailed this specific tone of these books, which is action comedy grounded in real character and emotion and the kind of fun frights that you get where you’re genuinely kind of startled, even scared. But it’s done in a way that you feel taken care of and safe. And I think Disney+ is the only place that can do that.
