Westworld 2, interview with Jeffrey Wright

"Westworld" returns with a second season on April 23. In anticipation of the premiere, we publish an interview with the performer of one of the key roles in the series — Jeffrey Wright (aka Bernard, aka Arnold).
Is of course crazy — to talk with you about something that you haven't seen, and even with me, who just don't maybe even to talk about it!

— Nevertheless, can you tell me about the topics that will be raised in the second season?

• Yes, in the first season we marked the very nature of this place, got acquainted with the characters and talked about the rules of the game that act there. We raised the very subject of existentialism, the theme of human nature, raised some basic questions-for example, the theme of moral choice. The second season will be something similar, but different. What's great about this series and what attracted me in the first place, when I first read the script, is that there are endless possibilities: we can go in any direction; the only thing that can limit us is our own imagination. The very nature of the Park is this: whatever you want and wherever you want to go, you can do it in the Park. The entire the second season built on this the idea of. In the first season we see a kind of mirror reflection of this world, we see the duality of this world, whether it's Bernard Lowe, duality in the story of William and the man in Black... So, and on this I have to stop (laughs).

— However, thanks to your character is one of the most interesting plot twists in the first season. Did you initially know it was gonna turn out like this?

• No, when I signed up for this project, I knew nothing about it. Didn't know about it, even when we were filming the pilot episode. But when we came back to shoot the second episode, one of the writers, Lisa joy, took me aside and opened my robotic brain and laid the idea (laughs), which was pretty cool. Because I thought that Bernard would be a kind of ordinary man, undervalued and spineless, which is slowly trying to solve this puzzle, this puzzle that we're trying to solve with technology point of view and from the point of view of audience understanding in relation to the nature of this place. And I thought Bernard was going to lead us into this — and then I thought it would be cool! And then I realized that this journey would be a kind of a journey to myself, to the secrets that are stored inside it, its origin and its life, and it added certain layers to the story itself, well, more nuances for my acting.

— And the rest of the actors on the you then be offended that you didn't tell them from the beginning, what is your character? Many said, that this literally them the brain blew up!

• Oh Yes, many were surprised-no one knew, I not told about this nor one living psyche, so that when it is time sack this a series of, Evan) sent me message: "Dude, that-about-about?!"and I sent her an answer," yeah, baby, I'm on the host team!". And Evan, of course, was trying to elicit secrets from me all the time, but I kept everything secret behind the iron castle and only shared information when the time came. I think many viewers were certainly surprised, though I'm pretty sure there are actors I haven't worked with, there are those who have worked for the show and didn't know right up until the release of the series about what was really happening because they didn't see the script.

• So some of you received the script only partially?

— Well, Yes. If, for example, you and your character only appear in episode five, you won't see the script for episode ten and so on.

— What's going on behind the scenes? Do hosts communicate only with hosts? People with people?

• No, there is no segregation on the set, there is no struggle between hosts and people behind the camera (laughs). When I wasn't in the frame and I had the time, I went to the ocean — we went surfing, so if you didn't see me in the show, now you know what I was doing. Rodrigo Santoro and Luke Hemsworth are very cool surfers, which I can't say about myself!

— Your character has been on both sides, will he have difficulty in the second season?

• This is a good question, not can you to tell all, but his stance in this chaos quite a unique. He has experience of co-existence with both sides, and he feels a stranger on both sides of the world. So Yes, that's the question he'll be asking himself at the beginning of season two: "Where is my place in all this?". At the end of the first season he shot himself in the head, so, you know, he's not feeling very well and feels in this world with a bullet in his robomaze. Its mechanisms are spoiled in every sense.

— You have had so many scenes with Anthony Hopkins, and, of course, the hugely, it is a pity that, likely, in the second season their already not will. There's a theory that Dolores only shot Ford's host version, what do you think about it?

— And that fans now the scripts we write? That's cool! In fact, I love reading fan fiction, because their theories are like another dimension where our characters live, and we also often think about what will happen to our heroes — indirect subjects, some of them sometimes overlap, sometimes not — but I like the audience plunged into this series so deeply. But as for Ford, it would probably be better if he had a robot brain than a human brain…

Do I miss Tony? Oh yeah, it was so cool to work with him in the frame, but it was just as nice to spend time with him and behind the camera. He loves history, he's obsessed with it, and I'm a political junkie. When the shooting of the "Westworld" was going on, elections were held, so no one could tear us away from chatting with each other! In addition, he is a contemporary Lawrence Olivier, he talked so much and interesting about his film and theatrical career, about the productions and projects in which he worked - it's something amazing. He is a very interesting narrator, I loved spending time with him.

• In the first season, Ford in a conversation with Bernard explains that it is very important for hosts to have their own history, cornerstone memories, and in your own life - not personal — but professional-what moment influenced the decisions in your career that you take today?

• Oh, for me, this Broadway show Angels in America is what defines everything in my career, everything before and after, everything somehow relies on it. It was perfect at the time and couldn't be better.

— A you not consider this damn it, after which you had to become more selective in roles?

• No, it's not a curse! I don't think this has made me more selective, although... This production has made me realize what inspires me in my work and how to do it. Thanks to this production, I have a zeal for work, which can be more difficult, but more creative, new, but at the same time it will be important for our society, it will be shamelessly political. It's two opposing sides of himself that I could combine in your work. I grew up in Washington, my mom worked as a lawyer for the U.S. government, I got a degree in political science — there's nothing you can do about it. In addition, the level of writing that material has set a standard in the work, and I'm always looking for something at this level. Of course,"Westworld" is a completely different genre, but for me the script and how it is written is very important.

— A you thought about how we, people, differ from hosts. After all we, in one way or another least,,, too, programmed?

• This metaphor is one of the most attractive features of the series for the audience. We often see ourselves only through the prism of our self. We ask ourselves questions about our nature, about how we actually control what is happening to us. Or are there any supernatural powers that control us or even program our actions? It's a metaphor that eventually resonates with all of us. It seems to me that it was a clever move — to show this world from the point of view of hosts: only then we impress them. It would seem that they are different, but at the same time we have too much in common with them, we find our reflection in them. They all represent different archetypes of people. Often people come to me and talk to me about their theories and how they reacted to the first season.

So, when I gave a speech at Human Rights, LGBT Advocacy Group, an elderly man came up and spoke to me. He said that Bernard and his duality fascinated him because it reminded him of a time when he had not yet reported his sexual preferences. He had these "internal" and "external" life that did not overlap. My first reaction was, " what?!". At this moment my brain exploded because I never considered the story of this character from this point of view (laughs).

— In the first season we, the audience, sympathetic to the hosts, you will change it in the second season and will start if we can empathize with people?

— I think, that we do in this season understand, for whom we. Bernard so accurately. In the first season of it, in one form or another, served as the eyes of the audience. He tried to understand what was happening, and then the audience turned to him with questions and sought answers. For example, why does the system crash? Bernard is by nature a person who solves problems. Bernard in the beginning can not understand who he is, for what team he is sick, and I think that maybe he will again be different eyes of the audience.

HBO
— When you watch TV series like "Westworld" or "black mirror", somehow you start to be a little afraid of what the future prepares for us. Have you had any kind of "post-traumatic" symptoms?

• Yes, when the shooting of the series came to an end, I have very strange things happened to the phone. Sometimes it seemed to me that my phone woke up with me: I opened my eyes, and he looked at me-as if our sleep cycles coincided, as if I and my phone became one! A very strange thing!

And here is recently I talked with someone about boots, which saw in real life, and here is very strange deal, believe me me now — eight hours later after conversation on the screen emerges advertisements with these boots! Although I have not even been on the Internet. Of course, the last few years have been talking about surveillance, and of course, depending on the nature of your state and who actually controls it... You know, this is a very serious issue, but I think that the issue of corporate control — this is the question on which we need to focus, we do not pay due attention to this issue! Who owns these technologies-and what are their intentions? By the way, this is exactly what we will try to learn in the second season. We know the Park exists, but why? In many ways it's all about who owns it and why?

• And if you had the opportunity to improve a person with the help of technology, what would you change? Do better?

— I would like to have something like a button that could help us spend more time with ourselves and not be distracted by everything at once. A kind of security button.

translation of the article Афиша Daily
https://daily.afisha.ru/cinema/8653-dzheffri-rayt-o-vtorom-sezone-mira-dikogo-zapada/