The fictional Arconia, which sits at the center of all the mayhem in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, is home to some… very interesting characters. You have your run-of-the-mill nosy neighbors, your power-hungry HOA board members and, of course, the chatty doorman.
Not only do these characters prove to be valuable entertainment alongside the main trio of Charles Hayden-Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), they also happen to be the most perfect murder suspects a true-crime satire show could ask for. Seriously, can we get a Clue-esque board game for Only Murders with all these lovely characters? I, for one, would play.
Over the first two seasons—the Season 2 finale is now streaming—one particular character transcended the nosy neighbor trope and became a true MVP of Only Murders. I am, of course, talking about everyone’s favorite sweater-wearing, cat-loving, yodeler Howard, played to perfection by Michael Cyril Creighton.
Audiences may have at first been taken aback by Howard’s affinity for taxidermying his deceased cats, or the just fact that he named them all Evelyn. (That is, all except his first cat Barbara—she was a bitch—and his newest cat, who is named Sevelyn because she’s the seventh Evelyn. Yes, really.) But ultimately, it was those hysterical quirks that really set him apart from the ensemble.
“I made some bold choices from the get go,” Creighton tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “It’s not always written that he has these extreme emotional shifts, but that just seems so right to me for him for some reason. I just feel like he’s someone who really desperately wants to connect with people.”
Connection is at the heart of Howard’s story this season, played out in a beautiful love story with his chorus-boy neighbor, Jonathan (Jason Veasey). This adorable little respite from the murderous mayhem of the show may have came as surprise to viewers, and it also took Creighton by surprise as well. “I knew there was something that was gonna happen in the blackout where I made a connection with someone, but I didn’t really know what that connection was going to be,” says Creighton.
A romance of this caliber for a character he plays is something that Creighton has long wanted. “During Season 1, I had mentioned to [co-creator] John Hoffman offhandedly that I never have really had the chance to have a love interest on screen. Or, if I have, it’s either been someone who played my husband that I had no scenes with or someone who played my husband that I killed. Or someone that I had an unrequited crush on,” he says, laughing.
When Creighton got the script for the eighth episode of the season and saw that Howard got to have this sweet, candle-lit moment with Jonathan during a city-wide blackout, he got choked up. “It feels like such a gift to have such a beautiful little love story written into a show that’s about murder [laughs] and to have that story written for my character.”
Through this scene, audiences and Creighton got to learn more about Howard, particularly how he flirts. Even that, it turns out, is a little bit unconventional: It’s yodeling! To be fair, Creighton knew that his yodel would always debut this season, but he wasn’t aware that it was going to be his “secret weapon of flirtation.”
“Before we started this season, John Hoffman called me and said, ‘Crazy question. Do you think you have a yodel in you?’” Creighton recalls. “And I would never say no to him. So, I was just like, ‘Yes, absolutely,’ and immediately started Googling how to yodel. I learned a very, very basic yodel.”
The yodeling scene, while obviously amusing, also turned out to be a really gorgeous moment that accentuated the camaraderie of the building, as everyone throughout the Arconia started to sing along to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” For Creighton it also highlighted some of the best parts of living in New York. “That’s such a New York moment and that does happen,” he says.
Sadly, Howard’s date takes a bit of a turn at the end of the yodel, when Jonathan suddenly starts sneezing and reveals he is allergic to—you guessed it—cats. What a blow for our beloved Howard and Sevelyn! Ironically enough, this exact story played out in Creighton’s real life. “I don’t think I ever mentioned this to John [Hoffman], but when I met my husband, I was allergic to cats. I didn’t know it, but the first time I went to his apartment, he made me dinner and I broke out in like the worst hives ever. And it was because he had a cat,” he recalls.
Creighton took some Benadryl and eventually got used to the cat, but his cat-loving character was willing to go to much more extreme measures for Jonathan, including offering to send Sevelyn to a friend. Thankfully, Jonathan nixed this. And, for the record, Creighton would never ever give away a pet for a significant other. “No, no way. And I don't think Howard would either.”
The two love birds did eventually work out their allergy issues, because we got to see them again together in the finale at the killer reveal party. (Warning: Spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Only Murders in the Building ahead!).
Before unpacking the details of that glorious scene with Creighton, I had to talk to him about the elevator fight between Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane) and Oliver that Howard was unfortunately dragged into in the penultimate episode. “Oh my God, it was one of the best days of my life,” exclaims Creighton.
“[Lane and Short] are such great friends. Just getting to listen to them talk and tell stories all day was incredible. Plus, they went full out with that fight,” he says. “It was really fun. It was right up there with the day I got to spend time with Shirley MacLaine.”
Only Murders is a show full of comedy legends, but MacLaine’s guest spot is a highlight Creighton is still reeling from. “I was lucky enough to have dinner with her before we shot. So I got a lot of my nerves out that way, and got to hear all of these wonderful old Hollywood stories from her career,” he says. “[It was] the greatest gift in my life. I mean, I could not think of a better meal I’ve had in my life.”
MacLaine’s character actually ended up being the focal point of the murder this season, as she turned out to be the mysteriously missing painter Rose Cooper, who’s pricey work of art is a major factor in Bunny Folger’s (Jayne Houdyshell) death. All of this comes to light during the killer reveal party, which is both a party that the killer is revealed at and just a killer party in general. This entire scene, which Creighton says was filmed over four days, perfectly encapsulates how impressive the humor and creativity is in Only Murders–especially when Charles Hayden-Savage starts walking in slow motion and cuts a tomato as a scare tactic to get podcaster Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) to confess that she murdered Bunny.
“Steve and Marty doing the slow motion and the tomato thing was hysterical every single time,” says Creighton. “And then watching Tina's reaction to the tomato thing, which was a different day.”
By the end of the entire sequence, we learn that all of these scare tactics and the misdirection of blaming Alice (Cara Delevingne) for the murder were just a trick to get Canning’s assistant Poppy—aka Becky—to reveal that she was the mastermind behind Bunny’s murder. The reveal is topped off with a wonderfully comedic faint by Howard.
Creighton would like everyone to know that he did all his own fainting, but he does clear up which faint was real for Howard and which was his character “acting.” “It’s such an extreme fall. There was no need to hit both the lamp and fall at the same time,” Creighton says with a laugh. “I would say that’s probably the one where he was acting. And, I think, the one when he first sees the blood is probably the real thing.”
As was the case with last season’s finale, the big whodunnit reveal for the next season took place in the final moments of the episode. Unlike last time, however, there was a time jump of one year and the murder does not happen in the building. (Big gasp, I know!) At the opening night of Oliver’s brand new Broadway production, his lead actor Ben (Paul Rudd) collapses on stage dead within moments of the curtain being raised.
Howard is sitting right behind Oliver during the fateful moment, so we know this favorite Arconian of ours will be around for the next season, but Creighton knows nothing of the plot yet. Or so he says! All I ask is that Howard is never the killer or the killed, he is too much of a beloved comedic element of the show and far too precious for that! But with a show like Only Murders, is anyone ever truly safe?
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