Jack Reynor and Chloë Grace Moretz lead the cast of new sci-fi series The Peripheral, which comes from the creators of Westworld on Amazon Prime Video.
Moretz stars as Flynne Fisher, while Reynor plays her brother Burton. But during a scene in episode one, things get a lot more complicated.
If you can wrap your head around it, the scene features Reynor playing Burton. Except it's not really Burton, it's actually Flynne – but in Burton's AI body.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Reynor explained what it was like to essentially play Moretz's character, though in his body.
"It was very fun," he said. "You know, that was one of the draws for me when I read the script. It was an exercise in trust between you and your co-star.
"Chloë and I got on the phone, and we talked about the scene before we shot it. I basically said, 'Hey, tell me how you think this should be done. I really want you to inform how I do this.'
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"That was great, you know?" he continued. "It was just fun to get Chloë's notes about it, and then sort of go out there and try to perform it in a way that was reflective of how she felt she would have done it herself. So that was good. It was great."
Reynor described acting out the scene as letting him exercise a new acting muscle, as he tried to draw on his co-star's character notes.
He explained: "It's kind of like exercising a new muscle when you're in the middle of a scene, and you're trying to remember what your co-star said about how they were going to do it, you know?
"The kind of awareness you have to have around it as you perform it, is unique and a little bit different to, you know, when you're just autonomously making your own decisions about the performance."
The series also features Moretz's character in AI form, with the actress revelling in the opportunity to play a robot.
Explaining the physical differences between Flynne the human and Flynne the AI, Moretz said: "That was one of the big excitements for me, I think, coming onto this role, being able to figure out what it means to be Flynne, the Peripheral.
"And the physicality of it – even when Flynne is in her Peripheral, the difference between her when she's implanted and in her human body versus her robot body. So, yeah, we had to figure out what it looks like when the connection is cut; when it looks like when the connection comes through.
"The AI – I really wanted her to feel pleasant when we're talking around her," she continued. "I felt like that was something that we… you know, we were specifically kind of referencing Westworld – I figured people would reference Westworld, given that Jonah and Lisa are involved in this, and helped create this.
"I really wanted to feel different than that. And for her, even when she's running on AI, to have this just different aspect, I think, of a robot perspective, which was really fun to play with."
The Peripheral airs on Prime Video.
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Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.
After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.
Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.
You can read more of her work on her Substack page.
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
