00:04Hi. Bringing yourself back online for Westworld?
00:06Yeah.
00:07That's how it goes. I think that's like a quick little whirl.
00:10Yeah.
00:11How excited are you for people to see season three?
00:14Because I think that there's a lot of questions about how different the show is going to be this year versus the past couple of seasons.
00:19Yeah. I'm so excited. I mean, this has been my favorite season thus far to make.
00:24I was anxious, as I'm sure maybe the audience was, maybe they weren't, to get out of the park.
00:30I'm just, you know, I've always been so curious what the greater context of the show is and seeing what the world looks like.
00:37And I think the world is pretty fascinating in terms of what we've painted this year, so I can't wait for people to see it.
00:43In that regard, we're vaulting into a future version of our world.
00:47Yeah.
00:48What was it like to explore that, both in the writing and then in performing the scenes that you were in this year?
00:53I mean, incredible. You know, I spent the vast majority of last season in the park, you know, in disarray.
01:00This year, it's a whole new Charlotte, if she is Charlotte.
01:04Right.
01:05It's fascinating to see these characters that we've lived with in completely different circumstances, to see new sides of them.
01:12And also, again, to get to see what the world looks like.
01:16I think the hosts have this idea that they get into the world and it's free.
01:20And the truth is, I think the world that we paint is one where there's, you know, real sort of algorithmic determinism, where your destiny is really created by data.
01:31And we live in a time now where data has surpassed oil in terms of, you know, its import.
01:36It's the most valuable asset in the world now.
01:39Yeah.
01:40So we live in a place where data is big money and big business and really does affect the way that we go through our lives.
01:44So I think the show asks some really fascinating questions about how we live now.
01:48And I love that.
01:49I was going to ask you how you feel like the show is sort of speaking to where we are culturally.
01:54But you would say like the vision of the future that we're seeing in Westworld is a vision that you could see to some extent at least.
02:00Maybe not with all the killer robots and theme parks, but a lot of the material is exploring.
02:03Certainly.
02:04I mean, I find myself, I don't know if you do, I don't know your relationship to social media.
02:07But sometimes I'll just.
02:08It's bad.
02:09It's awful, right?
02:10I'll find myself just like on Instagram and I don't even know how I got there, you know?
02:13I mean, I think we are a little bit in this modern world on a loop.
02:17And we are really affected by technology and we are in some ways a slave to it.
02:22So, you know, I think that there's some fun stuff to explore this season where that's concerned.
02:29Last season at the end of it, and really in scenes studded throughout season two, you started to get to explore what it's like to play a different character within Charlotte Hale.
02:38So you were playing two last year.
02:40No spoilers on how many different people you could be playing this year.
02:44But what has that process been like to sort of, to discover, you know, whether or not we know who the character is underneath Charlotte Hale.
02:53There is at least someone you're facing forward to the world as if you are Charlotte Hale.
02:57Yeah, yeah.
02:58So you're tracking a lot of different aspects of this character.
03:00What has the big challenge been of all of that?
03:02I mean, it's an immense challenge to sort of keep a handle on it, but it's so fun.
03:08You know, you have the chance to present something entirely new and that happened sort of midway through to the end of the last season.
03:16So it meant that I got to text Evan in the middle of the night and be like, hey, will you send me a voice memo of you saying this line?
03:23And trying to sort of, you know, infuse her voice into my performance or, you know, going to set and watching the way that she moves.
03:30And like, oh, I'm like, oh, right.
03:32She doesn't really move her hands that much when she walks.
03:34So fun nuances of performance.
03:37And then, you know, the truth is I think we as human beings, we play all sorts of different parts depending on who we're in front of.
03:44That's just a part of what we do as humans.
03:48So to get to do it as this sort of, you know, subhuman or superhuman was interesting.
03:55And then, you know, I started this show being a human.
03:58And now to play a robot, I get to ask all fun questions like, do robots close their eyes when they sleep?
04:04Do they sleep?
04:05Like, you know, I sort of had to learn a whole new protocol in terms of performance.
04:09Like, what does a tear mean to a host?
04:11Does it mean anything?
04:13And I love that, especially when you're doing long, you know, format television.
04:17You're telling so many hours of a story.
04:19So it's fun to get to see characters grow and change and shift.
04:23And I hope the audience is as excited to watch it as we were to play it.
04:27I think one of the things that was surprising to me was, like, my big question about you coming into the season is, who are you?
04:33Yeah.
04:34You know, first and foremost.
04:35That's my big question to myself.
04:36I mean, for all of us, right?
04:37I wake up, I'm like, who am I?
04:38It is 2020.
04:39Yeah.
04:40Like, we're asking these kinds of questions.
04:41I hope so.
04:42Yeah, I hope so.
04:43If you're not, what are you doing?
04:44Wake up.
04:45Wake up.
04:46I think that the episodes that I've seen so far, anyway, are also asking compelling questions about who was Charlotte Hale.
04:52Yeah.
04:53And showing sort of different dimensionality to somebody who was a fairly straight antagonist through the time that we had her on the show.
05:00Was that fascinating to you to kind of get under the hood of who Charlotte was outside of some of the bravado, outside of some of the stuff in the park?
05:06Oh, completely, because I didn't know any of this stuff.
05:09You know, I'm discovering these things in performance as the audience is.
05:13And I think in the past, Charlotte presented to me, she presented this idea of big business, what a corporation looks like.
05:20That there's this idea that you put the bottom line before human emotions.
05:26You know, she was sort of like, didn't really care much about hosts, about the emotionality of these sentient beings.
05:31She was kind of like, I'm about the money.
05:33And then you get to see, actually, the cost of power.
05:36You get to see her relationship to herself.
05:38But, of course, you get to see it through me, and I'm kind of an imposter.
05:43You know, I'm an impartial person that's suddenly in her life and having to reconcile all the choices that she made, good and bad.
05:50And that's fascinating to play, really, really cool to play.
05:54I wish I could, like, body snatch just in general.
05:57You know?
05:58Yeah.
05:59Like, it'd be so fun to just, like, suit up as someone and be like, hmm, today I'm so-and-so.
06:03It's like emotional espionage.
06:06Is that a thing?
06:07I think it has to be a thing.
06:08Yeah, that's what it felt like.
06:09If it's not already, you just coined it.
06:11It is now.
06:12A new industry.
06:13But it's not all fun and games for the character that you're playing underneath Charlotte, where she's struggling with this.
06:18And I think that it's telling a really fascinating story about what it's like to not feel like your body is your own.
06:24Yeah.
06:25To not feel like you're comfortable in your own skin.
06:27Oh.
06:28One of the things that's great about Westworld generally, but really this season is you're seeing gender norms being really defined this year.
06:34Yeah.
06:35You know, as a host, as a robot, you're not necessarily a man or a woman.
06:39Well, I've, I mean, that's, you're speaking my language now.
06:42Yeah.
06:43I think gender is a construct that gets us into all sorts of trouble.
06:45And I don't believe in it too much anyways.
06:48And I think for me, Charlotte Hale's always been someone that bucks convention in terms of that.
06:53I remember the first season, people, you know, talking about the way that she behaves and they didn't really buy it or understand it.
07:00And I was like, if she were doing all those very same things and she were a man, I don't think you'd have those complaints about her character.
07:06I don't think you would assassinate it in the same way.
07:09So I've always loved the questions that she posed about, about gender.
07:13And I think you're so right.
07:14I hadn't really thought about that element of it to that extent.
07:18But I think we're in a time where hopefully we're all reckoning with these ideas and seeing sort of more fluidity in our ideas about, you know, gender being upended.
07:29And it's cool if the show can be a part of that conversation.
07:32Did you have a favorite day on set that you can even hint at right now?
07:37No.
07:38It's far in the future.
07:39I can't because I have, yeah, I had so many favorite days on set.
07:42But they're, I think they're all spoilers.
07:44But I think something that has been really fun is to have this new cast of characters come onto the show in the form of Lena Waithe and Vincent Cassell and Aaron Paul.
07:53I'm such a fan of so many of the players that come to hang out with us this season.
07:58And it does feel, I mean, I'm still, you know, I'm a nerd for these things.
08:02I love television and film.
08:04And when I am presented with someone on set that's in something that I love, that's iconic, like Aaron in Breaking Bad, I'm like, oh my God, oh my God, he's there.
08:13You know?
08:14Like I still am like pinching myself to get to exist inside of these narratives that are, you know, have meant so much to me.
08:22So I had a lot of favorite days just geeking out on who I was getting to play with.
08:26Last one for you, and in that regard is, you know, you've been involved in so many different projects, so many high profile projects, lots of nerdy worlds that you've gotten to dabble in.
08:35Yeah.
08:36What separates Westworld from the rest?
08:38What does this allow you to explore creatively, not just as a performer but as a thinker, getting to come on set and getting to read these scripts and getting to engage in it that you haven't gotten a chance to explore in other material?
08:48Well, I think really asking, you know, sort of the big question that the show asks is what is the nature of our humanity?
08:57I think the show asks some really fascinating questions about memory, about, you know, about what freedom is.
09:07Does it exist?
09:08Does it exist in this modern world?
09:10And I love those questions.
09:12I think that that's the most profound thing inside of just watching narratives that are entertaining.
09:16I think if you can be entertained meanwhile contending with things that are fundamental to just being a human and being alive, to me, that's the best.
09:26Yeah.
09:27You know, that's really and truly the best.
09:29And then obviously, you know, because the show, especially this season, we've had to work a lot in this space of, you know, having to digitally enhance things.
09:38I think it's such a beautiful way.
09:40I mean, by and large, even though I exist in some nerd worlds, I think the best marriage of technology is always based on story and character, that you can really paint a world.
09:51And I think the show does that beautifully.
09:53And then inside of it also, I think if you're going to tell stories about the future, you know, what responsibility do we have?
09:58Not just to present the world as it is, but maybe as it should be.
10:02Yeah.
10:03And I think there's something inside of this story, you know, as dystopian as things can get sometimes, I feel like you see these characters really, you know, fighting for a sense of real self-discovery and to really have agency.
10:19And I think that's something that we continue to do as humans.
10:22So I'll always be compelled by watching characters do that and struggle for that.
Be the first to comment