Stephen Root Convinced Dodgeball Costar Alan Tudyk to Cameo in Praise Petey
When a script in the upcoming Freeform animated series Praise Petey called for a very specific, very odd cameo, star Stephen Root was right there to help, asking his old friend Alan Tudyk to make it happen. Speaking with ComicBook.com ahead of tomorrow's premiere, Root said that he has been friends with Tudyk since they appeared in Dodgeball together, and that he jumped at the chance to rope Tudyk into the cameo, shooting the Doom Patrol and Resident Alien star a line as soon as he finished the script.
Tudyk will play himself in the series, which centers on a New York socialite who "inherits" her father's small-town cult and becomes a messianic figure to its oddball group of adherents. Root, best known for roles in King of the Hill and Office Space, plays Petey's cult-leader father in the series.
Spoilers ahead for the series premiere of Praise Petey, by the way.
"I think when we did Dodgeball, he had done a couple of films before that, but that was his first really big character-y role," Root told ComicBook.com's Chris Killian. "He loved it, I loved him, and we've been buddies. When they first mentioned in the script that we'd like to kill a character actor, and that it would be Alan Tudyk, I immediately got on email and said, 'You must do this. I love you, you have to do it,' and he did, which was huge, because he is a busy guy. He's got his own show and movies and everything else."
Here's the show's official synopsis:
Freeform makes its animated debut with Praise Petey, premiering on Friday, July 21st at 10:00 pm ET with two back-to-back episodes. Episodes are available next day on Hulu.
In the series, Petey (aka Petra, voiced by Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy) begins the series as an NYC "It Girl" with everything figured out, until her well-curated life comes crashing down. As luck would have it, a mysterious gift from her deceased father gives her a new lease on life – taking over as leader of his small-town cult New Utopia. As Petey leans into her new role as a "girl boss," she discovers what it means to be a leader and how to find her voice as she tries to modernize her late father's small-town cult.