Actors Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore visited the Philippines on Monday to promote the second season of their Netflix original series Santa Clarita Diet at an event in SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.
This isn’t their first time here. Barrymore was last in the country to promote her cosmetics line in 2016. Olyphant, however, said that he hasn’t only been here, but used to live in the country when he was younger.
“I used to live here. I lived in Davao. When I was young, my father worked for Del Monte and we lived here for a little bit. It was a very short time,” he said.
Davao is in the island of Mindanao and is the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Olyphant added that other members of his family had connections to the Philippines too. “And my great-grandfather, he was the head of engineering at the University of the Philippines,” he said.
Santa Clarita Diet is a horror-comedy about a woman who Sheila Hammond (Barrymore), a wife and mother who becomes a zombie after a medical transformation. Olyphant plays her husband Joel Hammond.
The official synopsis of the show reads: “In Santa Clarita Diet, Joel and Sheila are husband and wife realtors leading vaguely discontented lives in the L.A. suburb of Santa Clarita with their teenaged daughter Abby (Liv Hewson), until Sheila goes through a dramatic change sending their lives down a road of death and destruction…but in a good way.”
“Picking up right where it left off, season 2 of Santa Clarita Diet finds the Hammonds trying to adapt to Sheila’s now-advanced undead state — even though she’s desperately working to hold on to her suburban lifestyle and not be defined as just another monster. Unfortunately, while the family has become markedly better at murder, the number of missing people in Santa Clarita is starting to pile up and it’s no longer going unnoticed.”
Despite the outrageous plot, Barrymore said the show is simply about a family that fights to stay together and make things work.
“I think that is relatable to any couple on the planet whatever the circumstances are. It’s an optimistic and funny and happy show about this couple who has such crazy circumstances going on around them. They are just trying to live their normal daily life. It’s a fun show,” she said.
Olyphant echoed Barrymore: “If you put aside the blood, it’s really quite a lovely, heartwarming show.”
Barrymore said of her visit to the Philippines, “a moment like this, this is not like real life when you wake up every day and try to take care of your kids and you’re in sweatpants and all of a sudden, this crazy dream happens. It’s surreal and it’s beautiful and it’s overwhelming. I know a moment like this will stay with me forever.”
with a report from ABS-CBN News
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