Among a stellar cast in HBO’s Westworld (including Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright and Ed Harris) Evan Rachel Wood is getting a ton of acclaim – including in my own review – for her standout performance. The actress is our big “in” for the series in its premiere playing Dolores, one of the androids programmed to believe they’re living in the Wild West as one of a theme park’s so-called “Hosts,” there to entertain the guests by recreating the past in various roles, and for various purposes.
Dolores is an open-hearted, optimistic prairie girl living with her father – who doesn’t know she continues to live the same day over and over, often ending in horrific events, depending on which guest she encounters and how ugly their impulses are.
I spoke to Wood about her complicated role in the series, the challenges included and why she’s so excited about Westworld.
IGN: After my wife and I finished watching the screeners of the first couple of episodes, she immediately said, “Where’s the next one?” and I had to tell her we didn’t any have anymore.
Wood: Yeah. I had to suffer like you! I didn’t know what was going to happen on the show, I found out episode by episode and had to wait and it was brutal. You guys are going to get one every week. I had to wait like three weeks. That was torture.
Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores in Westworld.
IGN: Your character, as we meet her, is stuck in this Groundhog Day-like existence, but she’s not aware of that, obviously – at least so far. How do you approach that acting-wise? Do you think there’s any sort of sense memory there or is it just a clean slate?
Wood: Both, I think. The show is hitting the ground running right at the dawn of “Is it consciousness? Is it sabotage?” We don’t really know what’s going on, but I think with her, everyone that comes across her knows there’s something different and special about her. And most people try to figure out what that is. Is it because she is special? Is it because she is figuring it out? Or has she been programmed to be the most convincing Host, to draw you in, and make you think there’s something special? You just don’t know. So it’s playing with that, and not knowing where it was going helped, because I’m supposed to be in a state of confusion for most of the show, so that was great for me. That was good method acting. And most of the time I didn’t know if my character was being sincere or not. You never really know. And I think that’s the question: Well if you can’t tell, does it matter? And although, when she’s in character mode, she is this very kind of naive, sweet, pure prairie girl -- almost princess, as we get to know her in that way -- we forget, until certain moments, that underneath all that, she’s a very, very advanced, strong, intelligent being. She just has no idea the power that she wields. So I think it’s going to be really interesting seeing her journey and where all of that will take her. It’s my favorite character I’ve ever played.
IGN: Is that a fun dynamic for you to play, as far as a character who is both, like you said, sort of optimistic and naive, perhaps, and yet has this untapped wealth of history behind her?
Wood: So fun. So fun. And especially as the show unfolds, you know, I think we’ll see more of the dichotomy that is Dolores. But I can’t say anything without giving things away.
IGN: What’s it like playing the dynamic with Anthony Hopkins, and with Jeffrey Wright, because that’s also very complicated. They’re your creators and clearly there’s a connection with them that is both knowing and unknowing.
Wood: Absolutely. Well, and when you think about it, you know, I watch a TV show and I get so attached to these characters and their storylines and their loops, and if I saw them on the street I’d freak out, because we know that’s not real, but we’re so affected by it, and we’re so in love with these characters and those ideas. So I could imagine that characters like the ones played by Anthony and Jeffrey, it would be hard for them to detach after spending so much time with them and spending so much time on making them as real as possible. Even they would get tricked every now and then, I would assume. So that’s a really fun dynamic to play with, but especially because they’re aware of how long the Hosts have been a part of their lives, but the Hosts aren’t, so, you know, it was fun playing that familiarity, but not really understanding why.
Continue on as Wood discusses more of the intricacies of Westworld.
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