Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Shepherds’ Erica Bardin and Christopher Mulkey

Writer-actress-producer Erica Bardin and actor Christopher Mulkey are taking audiences on a trip with their must-see dramedy Shepherds. After a dedicated pharmaceutical researcher Madison Shepherds (Bardin) is fired from her job, she opens an underground psychedelic therapy with her terminally ill father (Mulkey) and hippie best friend.

They run the Shepherds Clinic from the attached garage in her parents’ home in Tucson, unbeknownst to her mother, a Republican senator heavily financed by big pharma.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Erica and Christopher about Shepherds, how they approached the dynamic between their characters, and what they hope audiences take away.

PC: Erica, could you share the inspiration behind Shepherds?
Erica: I’ve always been interested in psychedelics. It’s definitely a topic that comes up if you’re in any creative community at some point in your life. On a more personal, real note, my partner’s brother has battled opioid addiction for quite some time. Other members of his family have battled some pretty intense addictions as well. In doing research into psychedelic therapy and personally watching this unfold while the country deals with the opioid epidemic, I thought, “Wow. There’s something there between these two worlds of substances. You find out one, which is legally being prescribed to people, is highly, highly toxic. The other (mushrooms and other psychedelics) is actually very, very low on the toxicity scale.

After that, I thought, “Wow. It’d be really cool to see someone that was completely absorbed in the world of pharmacology (and specifically opioids) have her eyes opened to an alternative form of medicine and healthcare that all her life she never would have thought was a legitimate option.” The best way to do that was through self-experimentation. Then I mainlined a bunch of mushrooms. [laughs] Every day, I actually put it into an IV bag and I was pretty much gone for a whole year. [laughs]

PC: Chris, you’ve done it all in your career. What was it about this particular script and character that caught your eye and made you want to be a part of this project?
Chris: Well, a long, long, long time ago, I opened the doors of perception, and to have a project about opening the doors of perception was really interesting to me. The script is great because these characters take a journey. At first, they don’t think this could possibly work, but then there’s this great arc. Erica came to me and said, “Could you play my dad, please?” This father and daughter take this journey to alternative medical solutions. It’s so smart. There’s nothing else like this out there.

PC: There’s great chemistry that comes off the screen between the two of you. How did you both prepare to tackle this family dynamic?
Chris: Well, we mainlined mushrooms. [laughs]

Erica: Nice callback, Mulkey.

Chris: As soon as we met, we had instant chemistry and shared excitement. There was a huge creative circle of energy going on. We hit the ground running. It was great.

Erica: You know, again this is on a personal note, but my dad passed away unexpectedly during the writing process. I had just started it, but that really helped shape some of my ideas. Casting is such an interesting process because it doesn’t always work, but in this case, it worked so well. I’ve said this before, but Chris brings so much love onto a set, and this character needed to embody unconditional love for the world around him and the people in his life because that’s such a contrasting energy to Barbara Shepherds. Almost immediately in talking to Chris, he exuded that. It was easy to find that chemistry.

PC: Erica, not only did you co-write this series, but you also starred in it. Did you know that going into this project? Was that always the plan? How challenging was it to wear multiple hats?
Erica: It was extremely challenging. I could not have done it without my partner, Susan. We have been writing and producing content together for over a decade. It helped to have a conversation with her. It was a decision made by both of us. At one point, she was like, “Why don’t you play Madison?” I said, “Okay.”

Based on a lot of ideation around the character that we had, there was a lot that I resonated with Madison, particularly with the things that I was going through and what she was going through in her own identity crisis, and being torn between the elements in her that were like her mother and the elements in her that were like her father. That’s how we landed there, but from a practical standpoint, it took a lot of prep and pre-production. Then a lot of prep with Susan and Lauren to find those boundaries for when I was on set acting, I was not producing. Then when we wrapped and certainly leading up to production, I was heavily producing.

Chris: I must say that when we were shooting, I would watch Erica change hats during the day. I would sit there and we’d be waiting for setup and I’d watch her be the producer, writer, or actress. It was seamless.

PC: The series does a fantastic job balancing comedy and drama. Is one more difficult than the other?
Chris: I go back and forth between comedy and drama. I sometimes joke that I’ve killed more people on screen than Mussolini. [laughs] But then I’ve done some really great comedies too. They let me go back and forth. This is a great mixture between the two; it’s a great balance. There’s a lot of what you would call gallows humor in this as my character is terminally ill but he’s not dead yet. I don’t think he’s going to die for a long time.

Erica: This is true in writing and in performing. Whenever I am too much in one genre, I feel unsatiated. When I’m living in too much drama, I just want to let the air out of the room. Certainly, there are straight dramas that are fantastic. There are straight mockumentaries that are perfect the way that they are. But I would still argue in both of those cases there are elements of the opposite that elevate whatever genre it’s largely adhering to.

PC: The pilot has made its way around the festival circuit. It’s been incredibly well received. What do you both think is resonating most with audiences? What has that response meant to each of you?
Erica: We’re now healthily in the world of comedic dramas, dramedies, and dark comedies. It’s finally been accepted over the last five to eight years. The climate is warm for something like this. It echoes shows that we love, but it’s not quite exactly anything we’ve seen. It has a bit of familiarity but a fresh take to it. We certainly haven’t seen enough content on mushrooms. That’s for sure.

Chris: For sure.

Erica: It’s done in an honest way. We have these hyper-realized, wacky versions of trip scenes that are a lot of fun, but then we have a real honest look.

Make sure to follow Erica (Twitter/Instagram) and Chris (Twitter/Instagram). Learn more about Shepherds here.