“The Righteous Gemstones” star Danny McBride said Season 2 of his HBO comedy did not deliberately borrow from recent real life church scandals — including Justin Bieber’s former Hillsong preacher Carl Lentz getting fired for “moral failings” including cheating on his wife.
“It actually stresses me out when these stories come out,” McBride, 45, told The Post from the show’s South Carolina set.
“Because I’m like, ‘People are going to think we’re copying them – and they’re copying us!’ It is kind of crazy when you’ll see headlines and you’re like, ‘Wow, this stuff isn’t too far off [from the show].’ But I try to stay away from what’s in the headlines, because people already got that when they read that news article. So, I try to find new ways to shock people.”
“The Righteous Gemstones,” (returning Sunday, Jan. 9 at 10 p.m.), has already been renewed for a third season and follows a famous and wealthy family of televangelists and megachurch pastors in the Bible Belt living on a lavish compound. They regularly travel via private jet.
There’s widowed patriarch Eli (John Goodman); his arrogant oldest son Jesse (McBride, also the series creator); people-pleasing youngest son Kelvin (Adam Devine); and daughter Judy (Edi Patterson), who bristles at the sexism of this world. Other family members include Jesse’s oblivious wife, Amber (Cassidy Freeman) and Eli’s brother-in-law “Baby” Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins).
“Any time we have to do a church lunch scene, it’s one of the few times where you have everyone in the cast there,” said McBride. “So those would be the times we end up cracking up the most. Because there’s so many funny people sitting around the same table, and sometimes we try to f–k with each other and make each other laugh.”
Season 2 is also adding several new characters, including Junior (Eric Roberts), who is an old friend of Eli’s; Lyle Lissons (Eric Andre), a new friend of Jesse and Amber; and Thaniel (Jason Schwartzman), a journalist from the East Coast.
“Eric Roberts is a legend [and] I always love getting to work with people that have so much experience under their belt,” Freeman, 39, told The Post. “He was fascinating to work with. What I love is that everyone always comes to our show stoked to be there.”
McBride, who lives in Charleston, SC with his wife and kids, and grew up in Virginia, drew inspiration from his own childhood experiences for Season 1, because his mom was heavily involved in the church, he told The Post. He continued drawing from his own experiences in Season 2, he said, particularly for Kelvin Gemstone’s plot.
“Kelvin has this ‘God Squad’ this season. He has this army of muscle men,” he said. “And when I was a kid, there was a traveling group of these Christian muscle-men who would rip up phone books and stuff, to show their strength. And so that was finally brought to life in this show.”
However, McBride said he doesn’t base his characters on anyone particular from his own life.
“When I play Jesse, I always try to imagine who Jesse thinks he is – and I think Jesse thinks he’s like Elvis, or something,” he said. “So it’s always trying to play a character who thinks he’s coming off in a different way than he really is.”