Among the many dead souls who populate the mansion on the CBS comedy “Ghosts” is a Viking named Thorfinn. Or Thor, as he’s simply known. He’s played by Devan Chandler Long as a good-natured lug who is perpetually baffled by modernity.
A former football player, Long’s career on screen began as a henchman in an episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles.” His roles since have included appearances on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Bosch,” “The Rookie,” “Doom Patrol” and the movie “Ambulance.”
“Ghosts” came into his life because a friend was auditioning for another role on the show, saw there was a Viking character and suggested Long to producers. “I’m part Norwegian, so that’s part of my alter ego,” Long said. “Sometimes when we’re out having drinks, I’ll do this Viking thing. It’s just part of my DNA.” The description for Thor was “something about a cod-obsessed Viking who is gregarious and outgoing and thinks he’s hilarious. And I stopped reading because I was like, I know this guy — I’ve got this guy.”
The show has been a high point in his career. When asked about a low point, he said: “I’ve got plenty of terrible audition stories and things like that. We all do. But I’m going to tell you a different story.
“Back in 2015, my brother Rien and I had a TV pilot in 2015 for Animal Planet called ‘Going Native.’ We were the hosts of a show where we travel around the world and learn about the right-of-passage rituals for different cultures.”
My worst moment …
“Our first episode took place down in the Amazon in Colombia. We were invited to visit the Tatooya tribe. So we hopped on a bush plane into the jungle. There was no runway or airport, so we just landed on a piece of grass. Then we jumped into a canoe and went down the river for about an hour. We had a guide. He was a fixer, who is really a go-between.
“We arrive at the village and there are probably 200 people there. They’re all waiting along the river’s edge for us. It was a real fish-out-of-water moment, because they saw me and my brother — my brother’s 6′7″ and I’m 6′4″, we’re both big guys with beards — and they’re just staring at us like, who are these people?
“And right away we are greeted by a shaman. As part of the welcoming ceremony, first he has to purify us. Get rid of all of our baggage so that we could be available to receive the wisdom of their culture.
“Part of that ceremony is him sussing out if we are of true intent: Are we there to exploit them or actually take part? And if he doesn’t like where our energy is at and what our intentions are, he’s going to say no.
“We’re kind of nervous. We can’t really talk to anyone because of the language barrier. So we sit down on this log and the shaman begins the ceremony and he’s chanting. And then he pulls out this implement. It’s like a pipe. And he puts it up my nose and I’m like, what is going on? And the translator’s like, ‘Hey man, just go with it.’
“So he blows this substance up my nose, which is called rapé, which is something like tobacco and burnt bark. It’s a powder. It felt like having cayenne pepper blown up each nostril. My head’s on fire, it’s exploding, and I’m like, what’s going on? But I’m trying to keep it together. I’m trying to stay composed because I want to show I can handle their ritual and I respect their culture.
“And then the shaman hands me this giant caldron and it has this murky water in it. I’m kind of out of my mind at this moment. This is in front of the whole village. And we have the cameras on us.
“So I take this caldron and I’m assuming they want me to drink it. It’s a lot of fluid. It looks like brown muddy water. So I lift it up and I just start drinking it. And I drink the entire thing. And it’s a lot. And it’s running down my face. But I don’t want them to think that I don’t like it, so I’m gonna finish this thing.
“Probably after two gulps, I start to get queasy. Because I have to be honest, it tasted absolutely terrible (laughs). But I’m trying not to gag. And it’s just pouring down my face, but I drink it all.
“And there’s this pregnant moment where this entire tribe is staring at me and I’m staring back, and then everyone just bursts out laughing. And my fixer’s laughing. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m trying not to vomit (laughs). And the shaman’s laughing and I have no idea what’s going on. I’m thinking I messed up big.
“And the fixer goes, ‘Hey man, you weren’t supposed to do that.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean? You guys handed it to me!’ And he’s like, ‘You were supposed to just take a sip of it.’ And I was like, ‘What?!’
“And what I drank was basically this kombucha they make by taking yucca and chewing on it, and then they spit it into this big barrel. And they leave it for a couple days and it turns into this kombucha — this fermented yucca spit — and you take a small, tiny sip at a ceremony.
“And instead I drank an entire village-worth of it. No one’s ever done that. It had never been seen before and everyone’s losing their mind.
“And I was like: Is this a good thing or a bad thing? And when I saw the shaman laughing, I realized it was OK and just joined in on the laughter and it actually turned out to be a wonderful thing.
“But for a brief moment, I almost vomited and got kicked out of this tribe.”
What happened when it was his brother Rien’s turn?
“He watched this all unfold and he was like, if Devan drank the whole thing, I have to drink the whole thing too. So my brother then also drank the whole thing, and they loved it even more. If you know me and you know my brother, we’re together on everything. The tribe was like, these guys are crazy — they’re in. Who are these giants, we love them. It broke the ice. Let’s party.
“So here’s the wild thing: The TV pilot did not get picked up! It wasn’t a bad pilot, it turned out pretty well. But the president at Animal Planet who greenlit the pilot got fired. And the new head of the network wanted a clean slate, so we got lost in the shuffle.
“It was probably for the best because the episodes that we had lined up going forward, we weren’t going to survive those. So it was a godsend they didn’t pick it up.”
The takeaway …
“These embarrassing moments when things happen that aren’t planned, those are my favorite moments because you’re not in control of them. They’re the most honest moments.
“When something embarrassing happens as a kid, you want to run away and hide because it’s so raw. But I’ve learned that when they happen, it’s best to just embrace them and welcome them and laugh at yourself and enjoy them.
“If you beat yourself up, it just makes things worse and it doesn’t solve anything and you get rigid. But if you learn how to match the frequency of the moment instead of fighting it, it turns out to be the best moment.”
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