‘Percy Jackson’: Lotus Casino Was Star Trio’s Favorite Scene to Film
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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 Episode 6, “We Take a Zebra to Vegas.”]
The sixth episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians featured another fan-favorite scene from The Lighting Thief book: the Lotus Casino. Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri tell TV Insider that it also happens to be their favorite scene they filmed together.
The episode debuted on Disney+ on Tuesday, January 16. In it, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover made it to Las Vegas and found Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda). They hoped the messenger god would help them get to Santa Monica in a jiffy. Time was of the essence; Percy needed to reach California in time to meet his father, Poseidon, and they had only days left until Zeus’s summer solstice deadline passed. Once they arrived at the casino (which featured a fun needle-drop in the form of Dua Lipa‘s “Levitating” — not Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” like in the 2010 movie), the trio split up to find Hermes. Percy and Annabeth went off together, and Grover set off alone.
Grover wasn’t alone for long. He found a fellow satyr, Augustus, in the casino, but his memories of Grover and their past together were gone because the power of the magical lotus blossoms wiped his memories. Even though he didn’t eat any of the dangerous snacks, Grover’s memories also started slipping away. The flower’s powers were emanating through the air in the casino.
By the time Percy and Annabeth got the information they needed from Hermes (and the keys to his magical car), they had started to forget their purpose as well. Hermes, who exists “outside of space and time” and is therefore unaffected by the lotus blossoms, made the demigods realize days had passed since they entered the casino. They missed the summer solstice deadline but still continued on the important quest. Their escape from the casino involved driving Hermes’ taxi out of the hotel with the still-foggy Grover adorably confused in the backseat.
In a group interview with TV Insider, Scobell, Jeffries, and Simhadri say the Lotus Casino filming days are some of their favorite memories from filming. Of all the scenes filmed for the episode, Simhadri says they had the most fun filming their departure from the venue.
“The scene in the taxi!” Simhadri says with excitement. “Where [Percy is] driving the taxi out of the parking lot — that is a stunt that was really fun.” Jeffries responds with a big, “Oh, yeah!” recalling the fun day of filming. “That was funny.” Scobell smiles in agreement.
Simhadri goes on to tease his co-star as he looks back on that day on set. “Walker was in the driver’s seat of a taxi. He wasn’t actually controlling it, thank god. It would’ve gotten a lot worse.”
“Whoa!” Scobell replies to the teasing.
Disney/David Bukach
“Our stunt team was controlling it remotely, and the taxi scrapes up the side of the parking garage and blows out a bunch of lights and posters,” Simhadri continues. “That was a really fun day. He backs it up into a pillar, which was really fun.”
Another highlight for Jeffries was Episode 5’s Tunnel of Love when she and Scobell jumped out of a boat into the water. “That was a lot,” she says, “and it was fun.”
Their other favorite stunts all come in future episodes. As the Percy Jackson Episode 6 credits scene revealed, the trio will make it to the Underworld in Episode 7. Their ticket out of Hades’ (Jay Duplass) deathly domain is four magical pearls gifted to Percy by the underwater spirit that visited him in his father’s place at the end of Episode 6. The trio will confront the three-headed dog, Cerberus, when down below. Jeffries says that running away from the giant canine was an exciting challenge.
“I was sprinting for my life when they said go,” Jeffries shares. “I had this bag around me and my jacket and another jacket under that. I had these heavy boots on, so I was sprinting in the wet sand. It was so funny, though. And it was cold in there, so it got me pumped up also.”
One scene in that sequence required Simhadri to be pulled back by wires and fly across the stage. It also required being covered in special effects makeup products. “We’re all sprinting down a beach, and I get pulled along these wires, and I go flying back like 10, 20 feet,” he says, adding that “for two or three days, all the time I was covered in almond oil, hair gel … No shower I took was long enough on any of those days, but it was pretty fun.”
“It was a great look for you,” Scobell says, as Simhadri replies, “I think so, too.”
Revealing the details of Scobell’s favorite scene would spoil what happens next, but it involves Adam “Edge” Copeland’s Ares. As the Episode 6 credits hinted, there’s a storm brewing between the son of Poseidon and the God of War.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Disney+
