In the critically acclaimed comedy drama, Only Murders in the Building, three strangers (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime suspect that a killer might be living among them employ their knowledge and their podcast to investigate the truth.

On July 31, DGA members gathered online for the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s event, Dying Laughing: An Evening with the Directing Team from Only Murders in the Building. In a conversation moderated by Director Sam Hoffman and illustrated by clips from show, Director/series co-creator John Hoffman, Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, UPM Kristin Bernstein and Location Manager Brendan O’Rourke took the audience behind the scenes to unravel the mystery of what goes into the making of this Emmy-nominated comedy-drama that is now in its fifth season.

During the conversation Director/series co-creator John Hoffman revealed how he came to collaborate with Steve Martin on creating the series. “I had known Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal who thought I would be a good fit to co-create. I had also presented a couple of ideas on [Steve’s murder mystery, true crime] story, which was how to take that ‘classic meets modern’ so a true crime, murder mystery matched up with true crime podcasting. It was not a hard leap for me to see Steve Martin and Martin Short as Actor and Director around producing a podcast together. Then, the miracle of Selena Gomez joining and being completely unexpected as a trio for the world to figure out, and for them to make perfect, symphonic comedic alchemy together.”

Directors Berman and Pulcini shared how they worked with the crew and actors for a fight scene between Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy’s characters. Berman stated, “Chris Barnes our Stunt Coordinator worked really hard and got great stunt doubles, and our 1st AD Becky Chin was prepped to handle this safely. We all show up on set, and Meryl says, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m doing this!’ It was unbelievable. When you shoot, there’s normally people up in the office doing their jobs. Everybody came down. We had a huge audience, standing ovation. I turned around and someone was crying.”

UPM Bernstein spoke about how the clip she shared from the season four episode “Once Upon a Time in the West” exemplified what the show is and what is so great about it. “Obviously, there’s great writing, a great cast, the guest cast is insane, we have great Directors, but I think sometimes you can forget with all of that that the obvious gift of our show is our trio, and you put the three of them together in a scene with or without people, and you’ve just got gold. No matter what they do, there’s no bad scene when the three of them together.”

Location Manager O’Rourke talked about a fun day on set shooting the season four episode “Adaptation” where there were several Actors dressed alike. “John wanted a location that had reflections to tie in with everybody dressing as each other, so it’s doubles and triples of everybody. On top of that, behind the scenes, everybody came to set dressed as each other. I think that was instigated by Jessica Yu who directed that episode. They put out a memo to team up with someone and dress the same. It speaks to how much fun we have behind the scenes, and what a joy it is to be part of it.”

See video from this event in the gallery below.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

Director/series co-creator John Hoffman In addition to his work on Only Murders in the Building, Hoffman’s directorial credits include the feature Good Boy! and episodes of Grace and Frankie. Hoffman has been a DGA member since 2002.

Directors Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini In addition to their work on Only Murders in the Building, Berman and Pulcini’s directorial credits include the features American Splendor, Girl Most Likely, Things Heard & Seen and The Nanny Diaries; the documentaries Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s and Hello, He Lied & Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches; and episodes of Fleishman Is in Trouble, Night Sky and Shameless. They were nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for their 2021 episode of the series Succession, “Succession: Lion in the Meadow.” Berman and Pulcini have been DGA members since 2006 and Berman has served as an Alternate on the Eastern Directors Council.

UPM Kristin Bernstein In addition to her UPM and producing credits on Only Murders in the Building, Bernstein’s recent resume includes episodes of Evil, The Politician, The Good Fight and BrainDead. Her UPM credits include episodes of Instinct, The Good Wife and The Sopranos; and her Assistant Director credits include features such as Kevin Lima’s Enchanted, Mira Nair’s The Namesake and Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind. Bernstein has been a DGA member since 1995.

Location Manager Brendan O’Rourke In addition to his work on Only Murders in the Building, O’Rourke’s Location Manager credits include features such as Michael Sarnoski's A Quiet Place: Day One and Todd Strauss-Schulson's Isn't It Romantic; and episodes of Evil, The Politician, Billions, Time After Time, Shades of Blue and Daredevil. O’Rourkehas been a DGA member since 2015.

Director Sam Hoffman (moderator) Hoffman’s directorial credits include the feature Humor Me and episodes of Madam Secretary, Elsbeth and Evil. He has also worked as a Second Unit Director, UPM or an Assistant Director with credits including features such as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums, Susan Stroman’s The Producers and Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco. Hoffman has been a DGA member since 1991.