'The Beast In Me's Claire Danes & Matthew Rhys Reveal Why They Return To The Spies-In-Peril Genre

New York Post

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00:00I wanted to start by kind of asking how the show came to you, how much of it was described to you

00:05before you signed on? Jodie Foster was going to direct it once upon a time. Um, she brought the

00:12pilot to me in like 2020 when we were all in our, uh, in isolation. Um, and, uh, and I just loved

00:21the premise. It, it seemed, um, very kind of fresh and, uh, uh, and smart and, uh, kind of surprisingly,

00:34uh, engaging. And I, and, um, I don't know, I, I liked the kind of noir quality. It had a kind

00:42of Hitchcockian quality, felt very classic in its structure, but also I, I had never really seen a

00:49dynamic between, um, two characters like this before and I thought it was, you know, um, a really,

00:57a rich, like, conceit. Um, and then, you know, we developed it over time and, and actually I think

01:04the Nile character was really tricky. It took a while to make full sense of that he was, I think,

01:13I mean, the character is mercurial. That was the great challenge for the, for the writing team,

01:20um, to get that calibration right. And then we were so, so lucky that Matthew, you know, came on to

01:28animate him. When I signed on, he was an illusionist and a magician. Yes. So that's a bit,

01:32yeah, that's a bit too much. It was a little too much. Let's make him a businessman. It's not surprising

01:36that Aggie is so drawn to him too, because I think there's just something about him that it is the

01:42darkness that we all kind of love to explore. How did you dial into that? I would love to say that

01:46I found this kind of, you know, incredibly dark wooded pathway towards Nile based on my own, um,

01:54personal experiences, but really, you know, really, and I've, I've said this time and time again,

01:58so much of the work was done before even stepping on set because so much the, the setup of him by others

02:05does the real heavy lifting and the hard work for you. So by the time you're, you're introduced,

02:10the audience have this preconceived idea of who he is or who he might be. So you have to do I,

02:16well, I thought I should do very little in order kind of to not, um, uh, you know, not to,

02:22not to take him in a certain direction, but, but also not to kind of overemphasize other elements.

02:30But it was, it was certainly, uh, there was the, the challenge of, there was a challenge of it,

02:36which is kind of just keeping him both intriguing to Aggie and also, you know, a little bit dark,

02:43a little bit luring, but, uh, you know, a little bit dangerous, but ultimately interesting and,

02:49and not too much of a cycle that you'd have a 10 page lunch with him.

02:52You guys are both so excellent in these like cat and mouse kinds of projects too. Um, what do you

02:58think it is about those like narrative storylines that really not only draw you in, but bring everybody

03:05else in? It is true that our characters have, um, you know, hidden agendas and they are playing each

03:14other and there is a genuine attraction that neither of them fully understand. You know, we have both

03:23been in fairly long running spy shows. So I was not unfamiliar and it's, it's the best thing to

03:34play. You know, like con men are just so enjoyable. Um, it's, you know, it's ideal, you know, material for

03:44storytelling. They're grifters to a certain extent. Especially when you get to a point where you're not

03:48sure whether you're conning yourself or trying to con the person in front of you. That's right.

03:52Or an amalgamation of the two. One of my favorite scenes in the show is Madison's murder scene because

03:57it's so graphic and visceral, but then you zoom out and Niall is wearing skinny jeans and I was

04:03laughing at that. Was it as uncomfortable as it looks? But too, also, did you, do you ever get tired of

04:10just like the blood spatter on your face? Because we see it three times and that, that is, you win.

04:16That is the best question we've gotten today. Yes, yes. And I really want to know this answer.

04:21My calves were not made for skinny jeans. It doesn't sit well. Um, thankfully they were heavily

04:27elasticated, much like my performance. Um, and you know what, the weird thing is in those moments where

04:33you're really kind of, you're really trying to get so worked up and, you know, you're getting all these

04:37notes about what it should be and it's meant to be, you know, animalistic and, and then next to

04:42the camera, there's a very lovely special effects man, like lying next to the lens with syringes of

04:48fake blood and sponges, right? So you're going, right? And he's kind of with a paintbrush and sponge

04:55and he's flicking like blood and you're like, you want to say, you're so distracting. Sorry,

05:00I know I shouldn't say that, but it's the, one of the things, if you're analyzing a scene,

05:03it's one of the harder things where you're trying, you're trying not to look at him because he's going,

05:07oh, and his, then he has expressions on his face, like, oh God, I missed a bit. Oh,

05:11that was good. You can, you can read the narrative on his face of how well he's doing. And then I

05:16remember, oh God, I meant to be killing someone. The reasonable follow-up is, were you jealous of

05:20your co-star at all that he just got to do all these fun bloody scenes? Yeah, I don't know.

05:28It's very sticky also. I think, isn't it? Don't you find you still find it? The blood, yeah.

05:33And that's the one thing I really hate is like that sticky feeling. It's like cornstarch.

05:37Yes. And you're always going, oh, I hate this feeling. And then you go, oh God,

05:39I hope that didn't read on camera. Um, so these are the kind of inane things that go through my,

05:47you know, simple mind. I did a lot of, I did a lot of clickety clack at the computer.

05:52Uh, there was a lot of, uh, I was desperate to get out of that office after a certain point,

05:58um, because it was quite lonely. And I had to do a lot of, yeah, writing, writing, acting,

06:05uh, surprisingly challenging. Yes. Yeah.

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