It’s no longer unusual to see an actor eating spicy buffalo wings or going on an awkward date at a chicken shop as part of a press tour these days.
What may seem a little jarring? Actors like Jack Quaid or Kumail Nanjiani lying in a casket, talking about life and death, and even their own funerals. But that’s the premise of Grave Conversations, a series hosted by David Dastmalchian, an actor known for his penchant for the macabre.
“My dream is for the audience to have a bird’s eye view of watching two people, almost like two kids laying on a hill, staring at the clouds and just shooting the breeze,” says Dastmalchian, who lost both parents in recent years.
There are laughs, but also poignant moments, such as a tearful Nanjiani reflecting on visiting the graves of his grandparents, or an emotional Matthew Lillard discussing death being on his mind as his parents and in-laws get older.
“It’s the one thing we can all 100 percent guarantee is going to happen to each of us at some point, and it’s going to happen to every person we love. And it is sad,” says Dastmalchian, adding of saying goodbye and honoring those we lose: “There’s also so much joy and beauty in that process.”
Now in its second season, Grave Conversations films in the San Fernando Valley, with Dastmalchian booking people in his social circle for the outside-the-box show. (Soon, he’ll need to get buy-in from people he does not know as guests.) Like an old time radio program, it’s got a sponsor —Titan Caskets, which supplies the caskets.
Dastmalchian relies on a team of writers to help him map out where the conversation can go. “They really get my voice, they really get me,” he says. “There’s a lot of thought that goes into each of these, including how we set up the caskets, which urns we put on the little table in between them.”
The actor is known for work in major projects such as The Dark Knight and The Suicide Squad. So it was a bit of a surprise earlier this month when someone approached him at an airport as he tried to get home to Los Angeles after working on Dexter: Resurrection. Rather than asking him about his dozens of screen credits, this person wanted to thank him for Grave Conversations.
Recalls Dastmalchian: “She was so emotionally telling me how much Grave Conversations means to them, and I’m like, ‘That’s why we do this.’”