Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Save Me’s Mikey Murphy

Mikey Murphy has always known that he wanted to create content and shape narratives, and that passion has never once wavered. It’s seen him transition his career as one of YouTube’s most talked-about creators to one of the most exciting new voices in Hollywood. This February, he teams up with Snapchat, the social media platform that reaches over 218 million people in the US daily, for the must-see new series Save Me.

Starring Matt Sato, Daniela Nieves, and Darius Marcell, the scripted drama follows isolated homeschooler Jason (Matt Sato), who discovers his online classmate and crush has gone missing. While trying to save her, his search leads him to an off-the-grid “conscious community” that promotes human connections over digital devices. Pop Culturalist caught up with Mikey to chat about the show and his career.

Career

PC: You’re an actor, director, editor, producer, and writer. How did you discover your passion for storytelling? Is there one that you naturally gravitate towards?
Mikey: It started when I was really, really young. At around two and a half years old, I was adjusting my dad’s shot for his Christmas video of us opening our presents and me telling my sister where to stand so it looked normal. [laughs] That carried over to when I was five and got my first camera. I started to film everything. I have so many videos of so many different things. I would ask everyone to do different things on camera. I was a crazy six-year-old running around with a camera. That was my mom’s worst nightmare.

That carried over into an opportunity to create a video project that I had to do for science class in sixth grade. They were like, “If you can make a video about something you learned this year, we’ll boost your grade.” I really needed that little boost. My friend and I got together and made a video about velocity and paint ball. We showed it to our class, and they loved it. From there, we were like, “We should make YouTube videos since we really like doing this.” That’s where it all started.

From eleven to now twenty-one, basically ten years on YouTube, I’ve had the opportunity to create and create and I’ve had the chance to strengthen that muscle. That led me into the direction that I always knew I wanted to go into. I wanted to direct, and I wanted to write. YouTube became that stepping-stone to where I wanted to be. Now, I’m in a place where I can create a show about a cult and call it Save Me.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Mikey: My parents have played a huge part in it. I know that’s everyone’s go-to answer. From the very beginning, I was like, “Hey, Mom and Dad. I want to go to school for film.” They were like, “You can minor in film.” I kept on my journey of making stuff, and my stuff started to get better. Then I told my parents again, “I really want to go to school for film.” Then they were like, “Okay. You can go to school and major in film.” Progressively, once my YouTube career starting to pick up, around sixteen or seventeen, it was at a point where it was a self-sustaining thing. I told my parents that I wanted to move to LA and start working on my career now. That was a big decision for them, but ultimately they decided to let me go and move in with my friend. To this day, they still say it’s the best decision that they’ve ever made. So definitely them.

As far as outside influences, I’ve grown up watching movies. My grandmother, my “mema,” would always show me movies whenever I went to her house. She showed me Jaws when I was six. [laughs] She’d show me all these movies that would give me nightmares, but I really loved watching them. We’d go to Blockbuster, and we’d pick up the next thing that we wanted to watch. There were no restrictions. I got to experience all these cool movies. My mema would be like, “This is Steven Spielberg. These are the movies he made.” She showed me all these different directors, filmmakers, and actors that she grew up watching in the ’80s and ’90s.

Career-wise, I look up to David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, and Dani Deville—basically any filmmaker who knew what they wanted to be and never gave up, making the movies that they want to make.

Save Me

PC: You have a new series out, Save Me, which you co-created, co-wrote, and co-produced. Tell us about Save Me and how you all came up with the initial concept.
Mikey: Save Me was a great opportunity to work with Asher [Levin]. We met years ago but never had the chance to work together. We reconnected and were like, “Let’s do it.” We started coming up with ideas.

We started working on the first draft of this show in Denver in 2018. I remember on New Year’s Day, Asher called me, and we were talking about how the show wasn’t where we needed it to be at. I was up at a cabin in Sequoia with some friends. I started wandering around the house wondering what we should do. That’s where the cult idea happened. It was the little boost of darkness that the show needed. I’m always attracted to that sort of thing. The show felt clearer after that. We started bouncing ideas and the treatment for the show back and forth.

Once Snapchat picked it up and wanted to make it with us, it became very easy. We put together a writers’ room with two other writers who I love dearly. It was so much fun working with them. It was interesting because the whole process was such a learning experience for all of us. Writing for Snapchat is definitely something that’s new. Of course, the script writing follows the same set of rules, but there are a few things that were different, like how much space we had. We had to ensure that these scripts were very short. They’re very quick episodes. It’s a lot of information being broken down into sixty or eighty pages. That was definitely a challenge.

We also learned new ways of formatting things. Sometimes if there were multiple things that were paneled on screen, we had to write in each panel to show what’s being shown on screen. Not only that, but we had to represent text messages on screen. We had to make sure it was clear whose screen we were looking at. It was a huge learning experience, and it was cool that we got to do it together.

From there, we cast the show. I love these actors dearly. They’re all super great people. It was a ton of fun to get to work with them on set. It was a quite interesting shoot. It was quick. We only had so many days to film. Because we were shooting out in the middle of the desert in September in LA, it was so hot. There were some days where it was 102 degrees. We were all sweating, tired, and getting through the days, but we really enjoyed it. It was a great bonding experience. I really enjoyed being on set and getting to make this show. We all agreed though if we get the opportunity to do Season 2, we won’t do it in the hot desert. [laughs]

PC: The first season leaves things pretty open-ended. Have there been any early conversations about a possible Season 2?
Mikey: Yeah! We started joking about it in Season 1 after we shot the final shot. Matt [Sato], who plays Jason, and Darius [Marcell] who plays Marcus, were like, “What’s next?” At that time, Asher, Zack [Imbrogno]—another writer on the show—and I had already started discussing where we’d like to see the show go. We ran through random ideas, and we were like, “Damn. We have so many options on where we can go.” If Snap gives us the go, we’re ready.

PC: With the series out now, what do you hope audiences take away after seeing it?
Mikey: There are a lot of really powerful scenes in the series. In the first four episodes, Jason is in his house and doing everything through his phone. The show is supposed to feel small and claustrophobic. We wanted to make the audience feel like they’re in this entrapped place. When Jason is able to escape and get to the cult—which is hilarious to say [laughs]—the world really opens up. We start to see these aerial shots. It shows that he was in this cell from the very beginning.

When he was able to escape that and become part of the real world, that was an amazing thing. But both sides of that have a healthy balance. He went from one extreme to the other. We wanted to show that technology is great. We’ve gotten so much from it. It’s opened up communication, how we’re able to view the world, and it’s allowed us to see things that we normally wouldn’t. It’s allowed us to connect with people.

A big part of the show is Jason gets really close with his friend Marcus. His dad asks, “How do you really know someone who you’ve never met?” For me, someone who grew up on YouTube, most of my friends that I have in LA I met through the internet. My best friend that I’ve known for years, Luke Korns, we met through YouTube. All those scenes between those two characters, I felt really attached to. That’s been a huge positive.

The cult has a point too. You have to find the balance of getting away from your devices and going outside. It’s healthy for your mental health. The show is about balance, but our character hasn’t found it yet. Watching him go from one extreme to another is a great way to learn about him and what it’s like growing up in 2019/2020.

To keep up with Mikey, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Binge-watch Season 1 of Save Me on Snapchat today.

Photo Credit: Avid Eghbali