Dropout’s “Dirty Laundry” returns for an all-new season of delicious secrets and even tastier cocktails. Hosts Lily Du and Grant O’Brien continue to share scandalous secrets from their guests’ past and slip in a few of their own. Although one might believe they have no more dirty laundry to air out.
Season five of “Dirty Laundry” includes a truly impressive lineup with “Critical Role,” Team Starkid, and Dropout regulars, including “Dimension 20” alumni. In the season five premiere, Siobhan Thompson, Emily Axford, Izzy Roland, and Danielle Radford learn even more about one another as they share hilarious stories from their pasts. A new addition to the show includes Du reading fan secrets submitted by the audience.
In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Du and O’Brien teased the new season. They explain how they cast “Dirty Laundry” and their dream guests. O’Brien also revealed his favorite drinks and ones he hopes to make in the future. Du broke down which guest setups are her favorites and shared her frustration about being unable to trick the first episode cast.
Lily Du & Grant O’Brien Explain Why Dirty Laundry Will Always Feel Fresh
Temple of Geek: Going into season five, what had you learned from the previous four seasons that you wanted to bring into this one?
Lily Du:
“I think what we’ve learned over the seasons is that so much of the work gets done in casting and pre-production. Once we get the right mix of people, the right chemistry, you can also rearrange that a million times and come up with something new. If we had four people in one episode in season two and truly we switched out one person, even in the future, that creates a brand new energy, a brand new dynamic.”
Grant O’Brien:
“What works I think so well about the show is it’s good hang vibes and the secret of it is figuring out, ‘Okay, what’s this hang with these four people going to be?’ And that never gets old. That’s just, that’s money in the bank. That is fun.”
Temple of Geek: It’s so much fun to watch. I was curious about the casting process. Do you guys kind of have it where it’s like you’re casting each episode or is it more you have a list of people you want to have on the season and then you build the couches from there?
Lily Du:
“I think we do it all. In the very beginning we do a casting meeting months before we actually get into it and we talk about dream cast. We’re like, what if we had a “Survivor” episode? What if we had a “Critical Role” episode? What if we had the guys from “Lord of the Rings?” We dream big! We’re like, what if we had some of the biggest Hollywood stars you’ve ever heard of?
And then we actually get to casting and we do all kinds of things. We will cast around one person. We’ve had people express interest in doing stuff with Dropout and we’ll put them on the list. We come at it from all directions and we have an amazing casting director, Jazzy Collins, who helps us put it all together.”
Grant O’Brien:
“Yeah, it’s this very impressive puzzle that I’m so glad I don’t have to do.”
Grant O’Brien Reveals How He Decides Which Drink Fits Which Episode
Temple of Geek: Grant, I’m curious how you decide which drink fits the vibe of each episode.
Grant O’Brien:
“Actually, that is something we kind of figure out on the fly. We record all of the drink segments first. A lot of times what we’ll do is I’ll go in and meet the cast and they’ll see the menu and if there’s a drink someone’s excited about, we can kind of start ticking off the list. So, don’t go 12th because then you’ve got to drink whatever I am making for you.”
Lily Du:
“You want to go first, and that’s why we filmed the espresso martini first.”
Grant O’Brien:
“It is, legit. It’s like, well, we’re shooting in the morning. When are we going to drink this? Kind of, when do I feel like drinking this espresso drink? And it’s very early. I’m very caffeine sensitive.”
Lily Du:
“That was day one, our first episode we filmed with StarKid. I remember being like, well, I’m not going to drink on our first episode of our first day, I got to save it, but it was an espresso martini and I said, that looks delicious and it’s caffeinated. Why not? It’s caffeinated. It’s caffeinated. It’s good for you. I have two of them at 9:00 AM.”
Temple of Geek: I’m not going to drink at all. I had two.
Grant O’Brien:
“I’m a terrible influence”
Lily Du:
“It’s coffee. It’s coffee, coffee. It’s good for you!”
Temple of Geek: Grant, do you have a favorite drink that you’ve made or one that you haven’t had the chance to make yet but you want to?
Grant O’Brien:
“A favorite drink that I’ve made all time, man, gosh.”
Lily Du:
“You make a great Pina Colada.”
Grant O’Brien:
“That question shouldn’t have taken me by taking me by surprise, but it did. You know what? The Pina Colada is great. I made a drink a few seasons ago called Grant the Beachcomber with macadamia nut liqueur and aged rum. That might be my favorite just because I love rum so, so much. What I’d like to make that I haven’t had the chance to make yet…you know what I haven’t done, only because I don’t, my goal is to learn more about Sake cocktails and put some sake cocktails on because I just haven’t played with them much. And I think it sounds like fun.”
Lily Du:
“Wow. I love sake. It goes down so smooth.”
Grant O’Brien:
“It works super well. It’s such its own flavor, so I just need to learn more about it. I think it’d be fun.”
Lily Du:
“I’m always shocked because I only know 10 drinks. I’m like, surely Grant will run out of drinks to make, but that’s just not true.”
“I Like A Lot Of Times Being People’s First Step Into The Dropout World”
Temple of Geek: And then you guys have a couple episodes this season. You have a “Critical Role” episode, you have a Team StarKid episode. What is the difference between episodes like that where it’s a group of people that are coming in that all know each other super well versus maybe an episode with people that are friends but not as well known to each other?
Grant O’Brien:
“Well, I think that I’d frame it a little bit differently in my head where I think there are couches of four people that are kind of outside the Dropout universe, and then there are couches where we bring people in from inside the known Dropout cast for people.
I like a lot of times being people’s first step into the Dropout world. I think this is a really good show for that, and I feel some responsibility. I know Lily does too, is like, oh, well, let’s make this fun for people. The more fun we can make it, especially for people who are new to the world, the more they kind of become part of that stable, which is a lot of fun.”
Lily Du:
“I think something that’s hard when you bring on a group of people that all know each other really well is it’s hard for them to submit secrets. I know this happened in previous seasons with Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel from Critical Role are such good friends. They know all each other’s stories, so they have to dig really deep and maybe it isn’t their juiciest story because their best friend already knows that. So, I actually think it’s really fun when we bring in a mixed group of people who all know each other but aren’t lifelong best friends. Then you get those grade a juicy secrets.”
Temple of Geek: It totally makes sense. Yeah, I was cracking up with the first episode because obviously Siobhan and Emily know each other very well, but we learned some fun stuff about Emily from her past that even was surprising Siobhan. So that was a lot of fun.
Lily Du:
“But it’s fun with a group of close friends because then you have to dig really deep and pull up stuff that you maybe even forgot you’ve experienced.”
Temple of Geek: Do you guys have a favorite episode from this season?
Lily Du:
“How do you pick a favorite child?”
Grant O’Brien:
“Gosh, favorite episode from this season. I mean, no, I’m really excited to see some. We did an episode with a bunch of people from Team StarKid and those are just charming folks. Mostly, I’m like, ah, boy, that’s going to be good. Isn’t it?”
Lily Du:
“Any thoughts on having one of your closest friends, Nick Kocher on an episode?”
Grant O’Brien:
“Yeah, I didn’t like it at all. That’s going to be a really bad episode. I think if we don’t put it out, that’s fine. I mean, we will talk offline a little bit about it, but maybe if we cancel the Nick episode entirely, that would be fine.”
Lily Du:
“Oh my God. You know he’s coming with some Grant stories.”
Grant O’Brien:
“I think there’s no real reason that we need to put that on Dropout.”
Lily Du:
“Famously, Nick wrote the true facts about Grant Anthony O’Brien “Breaking News” episodes, part one and two.”
Grant O’Brien:
“They’re not that famous. I don’t think it’s that famous. I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”
Lily Du:
“Well, there’s a pin that they sell in the store that says 50.”
Lily Du & Grant O’Brien Have Endless Secrets To Mine For Dirty Laundry
Temple of Geek: You guys have had to have a lot of your own secrets revealed over the past five seasons. Do you guys still have stuff that you’re able to bring to the table that you don’t think people are going to guess? Because they definitely were able to clock which secret was yours in the first episode, Lily.
Lily Du:
“You know what? It’s honestly rude because when I submit some of those secrets, I’m really rubbing my hands together thinking this could be anybody here. So to get clocked immediately feels like a read. I think people joke and we joke that we’re out of secrets, but if it’s really just stories about your life, I can dig deeper. I’ll find more stuff. Grant’s out though.”
Grant O’Brien:
“Every season starts with a big email thread of us and Paul Robalino. It’s like, okay guys, shoot me some secrets and we’ll get this going. I always start like, I’m out. I don’t have anything. And then after I sit and think for a minute, I’m like, oh, well yeah, that’ll be one that’ll work. Oh wait, this one has a video with it. Okay, good, good, good.”
Lily Du:
“But this season Grant did email a few weeks later and he said, oh, I have a good one. I pissed myself at a Blue Man group concert, and Paul was like, sorry, are you joking? You already submitted that. And I said, no. Grant has forgotten that he submitted that.”
Grant O’Brien:
“Not only submitted it, told it on the show, it’s just gone from my brain. Oh, well look, I’m drinking while we film those. I don’t have to remember.”
Temple of Geek: What is your favorite part of hosting the show and working on this show that you didn’t anticipate going into it?
Lily Du:
“I never knew my outfits would factor in, in such a big way. When we filmed the first season, it was kind of a trial run. It was like Dropout’s first new show in a long time coming out of COVID. They were just like, oh, just dress how you do. We know you like to dress up, so that could be fun. I just did it for fun and now it’s an integral part of the show and I love it.”
Grant O’Brien:
“That’s a great answer I think across the board is just the look and style of all of it. I didn’t know how great those drink segments would look when I was coming up with dumb ideas. And we have such good crews. We have Jackie, our DP, who just makes stuff look fantastic.”
Lily Du:
“Those drink segments are so sexy. The smoke, the slow mo.”
Grant O’Brien:
“Don’t they look great? I take no credit for it. That’s 100% lighting.”
The Lord Of The Rings Stars Are Lily Du’s Dream Dirty Laundry Guests
Temple of Geek: You guys said you dream really big at the beginning in the pre-production. When you’re thinking of guest stars, is there anyone that is a really big dream guest that you’d like to have or a group that you’d like to have on?
Lily Du:
“I want those “Lord of the Rings” guys. Those movies are such an integral part of my childhood. Come on. What are they successful Hollywood actors? Come on the show.”
Grant O’Brien:
“You know who I think it’d be great. This is so specific. There’s a standup named Stavros Halkias who I think would be really, really good on the show. And so now I’ll just speak it into existence.”
Lily Du:
“Alright, come on. The show Stav. Wait, I also love Jamie Demetriou from Stath Lets Flats, but he lives in the UK. I want him on.”
Grant O’Brien:
“There’s a lot. I mean, there’s a lot of fun people who should come on the show.”
The season five premiere of “Dirty Laundry” is available now on Dropout with new episodes every other Tuesday. The first four seasons are available on Dropout now.
