‘The Masked Singer’: Mantis Talks His ‘Giddy’ Reaction to Save & Stumping Panelists

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 9 Episode 11, “Battle of the Saved.”]

The three contestants who’d been saved with the “Ding Dong, Keep It On!” bell returned to compete on The Masked Singer: Mantis, Gargoyle, and Medusa.

With no more saves left, only Medusa is continuing. Unmasked were Mantis (actor and director Lou Diamond Phillips) and Gargoyle (NFL player Keenan Allen).

“It was interesting to be part of something that was television but also a live performance, like doing a Broadway show,” Phillips tells TV Insider. “That was really cool, to approach that professionally and as a performer.”

He opens up more about his experience on the show (and laments with us the loss of Prodigal Son).

You were very entertaining, so I was sorry to see you go.

Lou Diamond Phillips: I appreciate that. First of all, I was amazed actually to have gotten past Doll. I did not expect to get past Dandelion, and the fact that Robin saved me, I was sort of flabbergasted. I was literally giddy backstage, like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this happened!” I’m like Miss Congeniality in a beauty contest. “I didn’t win, but I still won a prize.” It was really fun. To get to perform again… it was such a wonderful experience.

Michael Becker/FOX

But I learned a few things, number one, being able to perform and create a stage persona in a big costume like that. But also, and this is advice for anybody else going onto the show: song choice. When I did [The Kinks’] “You Really Got Me” and I looked out at the audience, I thought, “Oh my god, half this audience wasn’t born when this song came out.” [Laughs] I did not expect them to have an emotional connection to it, no matter how good I might have done it.

After the Battle Royale in your first episode, the panelists said it was a completely different performance from you. We got something different from you with each one.

Yes, thank you, and that was one thing that I thought would be fun and different because I don’t think they expected that gravelly voice to come out of me on [Bob Seger’s] “Old Time Rock & Roll,” and then it was so sweet to have Nicole [Scherzinger] go, “Oh my god, wait, that’s Broadway!” and it’s like, yeah, but it’s like a lot of the characters that I play. One character is different from another. It looks different, it sounds different, it walks different, and that would be the same way that I would approach the music and doing this, and that is to adapt to the genre. It was fun to be able to do in one show and to have Jenny [McCarthy] go, “Did you switch people?” I was actually really gratified by that.

Talk about that costume and being the Mantis.

When I initially said yes and we started taking the early meetings about songs and costumes and this and that and scheduling, they had already designed that and were just looking for my approval, so I didn’t have a lot of input into it. But when I saw it, I went, “Well, yeah.” There was something exotic about it. It had some stage presence. It seemed familiar but not. And it was dynamic. There was just something really, really dynamic about it.

And I know as a performer, they’re taking away one of your biggest weapons in your arsenal when it comes to engaging with the audience. As a singer and as a singer who’s performed live a time or two, you want to grab the audience, you want to connect with them emotionally, you want to bring that energy to them and feed off of their energy, and so when you cover up your face and your head, most of your body and then limit your movement, you’re taking away a lot of that, and so I thought at the very least, this costume itself will have a stage presence that I can work with.

We saw that also because you were having fun just dancing on the stage even after the performances.

[Laughs] That was just it. I think the second you step on the stage to the second you go off, you’re performing. You’re on. And so that was part of it, to create that whole person persona, and I’ll be honest, I’ve watched this show, I’ve enjoyed this show, there are Grammy winners that got eliminated in seasons’ past, multi-platinum recording artists that don’t make it all the way. And so I thought, “I’m not going to out-sing any of these people. Maybe I can out-personality them, who knows.”

Michael Becker/FOX

Talk about the panelists’ guesses. No one figured you out.

It was hilarious, actually. [Laughs] It was a lot of fun. But I do have to say I was flattered by some of the guesses and the fact that they were sort of in the right ballpark with people like Kevin Bacon and Dennis Quaid, even Keanu [Reeves]. All those guys have had musical experience, they’re not primarily known as singers but were certainly live performers, and the movie résumés were obviously comparable. I was pleased to be put in that kind of company.

Did you come into this expecting anyone from the panel to figure you out?

I thought they would, especially when I first saw the clue package. I went, “Come on, how many people have played musicians in movies?” There are a number of them, but not that many. And combined with some of the other clues, I thought, well, this just seems obvious to me. And I have to say, Twitter went nuts that night. There were a ton of guesses, “Oh, that’s Lou!” and of course, I can’t say anything, I just give them the wink or the thoughtful emoji. What’s even more fun for me is I performed onstage with Nicole when we did a charity thing for Apl.de.ap from the Black Eyed Peas, Filipino relief for the hurricanes a couple years ago. And I know the rest of the panelists, both personally and professionally. It was fun. I felt like I was pulling one over on them.

Speaking of the clues package, I caught the cowboy boots for Longmire but expected to see something for Prodigal Son because of FOX.

Right? No, I don’t think they touched on that. The poker thing I think, confused everybody. That’s a fun one because not a lot of people know I went deep in the World Series of Poker the one time I played in the main event, and I came in 164th out of 6000 people. I made it to day 5. And the fact that I’m a published author now. I did a book that came out in 2020 with my wife Yvonne, The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, and that did so well that the sequel will be out early next year. There were some obscure clues, but some of the other ones I thought were just “boom,” right on the head.

Did you have any songs in mind if you’d continued on?

You don’t really get to do the song choice, and they steered me towards the rock and roll thing I think because of the persona of the Mantis. I would have loved to have done anything from the English New Wave in the ‘80s. For Movie Night, I was hoping for something like, [sings] “don’t you forget about me,” going off into a totally different area or maybe do a little MJ or a little Prince and just totally throw them off.

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What are you going to take away from the entire experience?

Just what a challenge it was and what fun it was and to never get in a rut. That’s what I’ve always tried to do in my career, is to do something new and something fun that I find artistically challenging. But this was such a crowd-pleaser. To get out there and to realize for everybody in the house, it was a concert, whether it was me singing or one of the other competitors, it’s just fun for people to do this and to think that fun translates on the television show, it’s a nice thing to be a part of. My daughter Indigo loves it so much. We’re going to watch the unveiling tonight; she knows I didn’t win it. It’s just something that I could share with her, and it’s a nice little memory.

I have to say I still miss Prodigal Son…

Me and you both. I adore that show. I’m still in New York; it was such a great experience. I’m just trying to stretch it out a little bit more. [Laughs] But I loved not only that show and all those writers but that cast and that role. It was really special, and I was a bit blindsided when they canceled us. I really thought we had a few more seasons in us.

The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox