LOS ANGELES, USA – In part two of our foray back into the complicated but vibrant and always intriguing Westworld, we feature excerpts of our video conversations with the rest of the main cast.

We talked about season four of the meditative, risk-taking HBO series from the brilliant minds of Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan this time with, listed in the way they were paired in the Zooms: Ed Harris (Man in Black), Tessa Thompson (Charlotte Hale) and Angela Sarafyan (Clementine Pennyfeather); and Jeffrey Wright (Bernard Lowe) and Luke Hemsworth (Stubbs).

Once more, the show, featuring humans and robot “hosts” that jumped from the adult theme park into the real world, has reinvented itself, but we’ll let the actors reveal or hint at what’s in store.

Spoilers abound!

Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, and Angela Sarafyan

How is it to come back with your character in a different light, one that is nearer to the first season?

Ed Harris: It was really nice to get out of a jumpsuit that I was in a lot last year, so it was refreshing. I was slightly frustrated in the first four episodes because I just felt I wish I’d had more stuff to do in a way.

But the last four episodes got very, very interesting. It was great to be back in an active role as opposed to just being shot upon.

It’s a bloody one as well.

Ed: Yes. Well, that’s unavoidable, unfortunately in this show. That’s just the way it is.

This show is constantly dealing with mutants, androids, and humans, mysteries and locations. How do you, as an actor, welcome this complex and ever-changing story?

Tessa Thompson: It’s been really a gift because I’ve gotten to shift so much and do so many things on the show, whether it’s trying to embody a bit of Evan Rachel Wood’s brilliant performance. And I’ve gotten to play with so many of the amazing actors on the ensemble and really, it’s been a big shift from where we found her last season to this season.

It’s really rare when you work on a television show that a character changes. Hopefully, in a strong show, there’s character development, shift, change, and have an arc, but it’s pretty rare that you play kind of a new person in a way. That is a really unique challenge.

When I started the show, I thought for sure I would die really soon because they were setting me up to be kind of an unsavory person you didn’t necessarily want around. So, I thought I would die a really terrible death.

I had been actually pitching, funnily, to them, different ways that I could die. So, I never thought I would be around this long, and certainly for a show where the fun hat-trick seems to be playing one of the hosts.

I also never thought I’d have to do that, figure out how to go offline and come back online and all that. So, it’s fun that I also got to play in that world.

I still have moments sometimes when I’m on set, and I’m like, “Oh wow, I’m on Westworld,” which I know sounds weird. But there are certain lines that you say or certain things that a character says to you and you’re like, “Oh well, I’m on the show.”

It took me about like a season and a half to really get on the show before I got to say, “Bring yourself back online.” So, it’s been a pleasure.

Do you sometimes go online and read the Reddit boards to see the fans’ theories about what’s going on in Westworld or for you to try to understand what going on in the show?

Ed: No, I don’t go on the internet to try to do whatever but there comes a point in certain seasons where you just kind of give up because you don’t really quite get it. You just start focusing on your character, what he’s going through, and what your intentions are, scene to scene.

I just got to say, it’s tricky, man – season three, in particular. There were so many levels and dimensions of reality. Anybody could be anything. It was highly confusing to me.

Season four is clearer to me, in terms of what’s happening. It’s a little more boom, boom, like, this is what’s going on.

Tessa: Yeah, this season felt easier to sort of unpack. Sometimes we definitely had moments that we have to check with each other to be like, “Wait a minute, so…”

There was a couple of those, where we’d be like, “Wait, huh?” But we made it through.

I’d be afraid to go on Reddit. I’d be afraid to see what’s happening on Reddit but I am very curious.

Angela Sarafyan: I have to say, I have gone on Reddit. After season one, I went on Reddit just to go look at what people are saying, writing, thinking, and how they’re analyzing it. I was like, oh my God, I didn’t know that.

Some of the things that they’re looking at and the way that they’re dissecting it, I had no awareness of that layer of depth that could be looked at. I love that people think about the show, that they watch it and then they think about it.

It makes them think but similar to Ed, I have had moments where I was like, I’m not sure what’s going on, but…

But, even from the beginning, it was new. Like when I had just gotten the sides for the audition, I was looking online, going, okay, this reads like Gertrude Stein. It’s poetry, it’s beautiful, it’s like Shakespeare but it’s in a different world, and the world is their hosts. Okay, what is that?

So, I started looking on YouTube, going, oh, look at the way they’re moving and what doesn’t make them human because they look kind of human? There are layers of research that you could do to try to kind of bring it all together but you still can get lost because, like Ed was saying, the way Jonah and Lisa think is not how my brain thinks.

Ed: I haven’t really read any of anything on Reddit ever but that’s not a bad idea.

Tessa and Ed, both your characters had major reveals and especially Tessa, in this season, in episode four. Did you feel that is the big thing that people will talk about after this episode airs?

Tessa: Yeah. You discover that I’ve taken over the world, right? I knew that was sort of the case, the way it was pitched to me. Lisa was like, “You’re God, you’re kind of God.”

So, I knew that was coming and what that looks like. But you’re like a disgruntled God, which I really liked the idea of. You’re like a petulant God. What does that look like?

And it’s always been exciting. I remember the first season. It was like this idea of a person who wields that kind of power. At that point, she was like a corporate overlord, essentially.

Can you upend ideas around how that person might behave, which was kind of what Lisa tasked me with, the way inside of the performance. Even just in terms of her pace or her rhythm, that it feels like it should disrupt, that it almost shouldn’t belong in the landscape of the show and its rhythm, it should disrupt in some way.

And so, it was fun again to think of what her rhythm is like, [how] this godly task might affect the behavior of the show. And certainly, this is a dream for me. I can’t believe to be on something that feels like it’s culturally such a phenomenon, that kind of thing that people want to unpack and talk about.

Speaking of Reddit, people want to do Reddit posts about the character. It’s really rare to get to be a part of something with that level of fandom. But I didn’t think about it like the “aah” moment.

It’s like if you try to play something and you’re aware it’s the trailer moment, you might be playing for effect as opposed to living inside of it. But it certainly was fun in thinking about, this season, those sort of mind-blowing moments that happen on Westworld, which have happened to me both inside of playing it and as an audience member.

I approach these things, always kind of an audience member at heart, too. Every season before we shoot, I go back and watch the show and I’m watching it more like an audience member.

And so, it was quite fun to think about what that might mean to people. Maybe I’ll go on Reddit then.

Angela: Yeah. I also agree, I’d do that.

Tessa: Okay. Ed, you and I, we’re going on Reddit, after that airs.

In this series, what do you consider is the key moment for your character in everything that is happening in Westworld?

Ed: At the end of the third season, as a host, Man in Black kills the human Man in Black. I don’t think I can get a “key-er” moment than that for myself, in terms of my character.

What is the most difficult thing that you’re doing in the transition between season three and season four when everything is changing from the Westworld to the real world?

Ed: If Tessa has become somewhat of a God figure, then I’m a disciple of that God in this season. And so, I try to do her bidding as well as I can.

Angela: And I’m the disciple’s key helper, would you say? Like, I help you?

Ed: Sure. Definitely.

Angela: Yeah. It’s fun, thanks to Tessa and Ed. It’s been fun – the God, the disciple, and the help.

Ed said in the first episode, in a very sinister way, “This is America. Everything is for sale.” Do you think this is a statement for modern America as well?

Angela: I’m Armenian. I’m an immigrant in this country. And, coming to America, it was where dreams are made. I always saw it as a place where, if you want something, you can achieve it, so it was a place for hope, in that sense.

I’ve been very lucky because I can do what I love. I’m in a country where I can be an actress and I can work with wonderful actors that the world gets to see and have these special moments. So, for me, America represents that.

I grew up here so I have all kinds of beautiful freedoms that I think in a lot of Third World countries, we wouldn’t. So, my perception is, there are so many things in this country that I’m hoping are evolving, growing, becoming a better place.

I want to believe that it is still that. But, we have so much work to do to become better people. I don’t know if everything’s for sale but maybe it is.

Ed: Maybe not everything but it is a very materialistic society. Let’s be real.

Tessa: In any capitalist system and structure, that is by and large true. America is the biggest purveyor of capitalism around the world. So, I’m inclined to feel that way about it.

But also, as Angela said, it’s complicated. Luckily, we work inside of structures that are the legitimate intersections of art and commerce. So, I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom.

This is something that the show really talked about and certainly, it was something I thought a ton about. Because the first way that we meet Charlotte Hale is, she is someone who has a corporate mandate that puts the needs of the corporation above, certainly, host-kind because she doesn’t believe in their sentience but even humankind.

I think that’s real. We see that in this country, hugely. I was going to say there’s the ability to exist inside of capitalist structures and also care about people but on a mass scale, I’m not entirely sure that’s true, to be honest. It’s certainly one thing that the show posits, which I tend to agree with. I think if Lisa and Jonah are saying it’s not true, I tend to agree with them.

It’s been two years since the last season. Can you take us to that first day when you went back to the set? What was it like?

Ed: I remember the first day, at least for myself, was in a room with the Senator guy. It was odd – the first day. It took me a little while to feel on the ground and be present. It was a little surreal on some level, being back in it. I do remember not feeling totally…I felt invisible or something.

Angela: I remember my first day. It was really chaotic because we were trying to figure out what Clementine looks like now. So, it was, “Oh no, the hair could be this, and then it could be this half, and no, it’s going to be this.”

It was like 15 minutes before I got onto set. I learned very important information when I was on set for the first time, about what’s happening with her as well. So, it was just like, okay, okay, this is what’s happening.

But it was actually heartwarming for me because we work with the same crew, we’ve been very fortunate to have a core group of our camera operators, gaffers, makeup artists, and hair.

So when I walked on set, it just felt like family. I got to work with the same crew again because Lisa Joy had made Reminiscence so some of the folks on that film worked also on Westworld.

And so, it was like a reunion. It was very sweet and lovely, even though I was trying to get my head wrapped around what Clementine is at this point. It was like being home.

Tessa: I remember feeling kind of like Ed, honestly. It took a minute. We were shooting during COVID. It was tricky.

I had come from shooting the Thor movie in Australia where, by and large, COVID was not really an issue. They had contained it. So, coming back to a set where it was an issue, and we were really trying to do it safely but there were times that were uncertain.

There is that sense of coming back to see people that you love and that you’ve missed but doing that with a mask and trying to figure it out. It just was kind of trippy.

Luke Hemsworth and Jeffrey Wright

One of the bigger news about season four is the addition of Ariana DeBose to the cast.

Luke Hemsworth: That’s amazing, epic, so cool. Unfortunately, we never crossed paths. Well, at this stage, we haven’t. But it just enriches the show even more.

Jeffrey Wright: Oh, yeah. I barely saw Evan (Rachel Wood) this season. We kind of, to some extent, have our own rabbit holes that we inhabit.

Luke: It’s like we’re shooting five different shows. Everyone has their series. If you ever meet in the middle, it’s a joy but usually, we don’t meet until the end.

Jeffrey: I regret, to some extent, saying that you are more informed about some aspects of this season than I am because I haven’t seen the first episodes. I just got them yesterday. I was traveling.

So, in the edit, the show can often take on certainly a different chronology. So, I have yet to see it. I will when we finish with these interviews which is probably the ass-backward way of going about it.

I saw Ariana in Hamilton on Broadway as the Bullet. She was so intriguing. She just had this really cool, beautiful presence there so I expect more of the same but in a Westworld manner with what she’s doing here.

In Westworld we’re always guessing, is that real, is that not real, or what is that? So, for yourself, when you’re trying to switch out of your character, does it get confusing sometimes?

Jeffrey: There’s a pretty smooth transition from the Westworld set to the real world. It’s not a big leap.

In some ways, our show is a documentary about what’s going on with all of us now, in our relationship to technology and to the corporations that are extracting our data from us, the data that we’re giving over willingly and the implications of all that. So, it’s not such a transition to have to make.

Then just generally, I pretty much tend to leave work at work. I just don’t have the time anymore to keep a role in my head 24/7. I used to.

Not that I would walk around through the streets thinking that I was in the film, or the show, or the play that I was doing, or that I was the character. But I used to have the luxury of being able to spend a lot more time thinking about performances and characters than I can now simply because I’m a dad and I just don’t have that bandwidth anymore.

So yeah, when I leave set, it’s like, okay, onto the madness that is my own life. In some ways, going to the set, it’s the opposite. Going to set is a relief from the real world.

Luke: Yeah, when you drop your kids off at school and go to work, and you’re able to sit in the trailer in complete silence for a few hours, it’s heavenly. But it depends on what scene you’re doing, right?

Some stuff is heavier than others and other stuff is just me and Jeffrey laughing in the car all day. So, it’s not a big stretch to let that go.

Personally, on a deeper level, what do you think this show is about?

Jeffrey: I think it’s about the world as it is. I don’t think it’s futuristic. It’s sci-fi but so is our world. It’s about now and also about the implications of now. It’s about the ways in which we’re all living.

Our show is pretty cryptic, very complex, multi-layered, interesting chronology. But at the same time, I think it’s explicit in its examination of the ways in which technology is shaping our lives and the ways in which the corporations and individuals that are controlling that technology are influencing our reality.

So many social changes and upheavals for the better and for the worse are being driven directly by the technology that we’re becoming increasingly merged with. And I think a lot of disruption in the worst way.

A lot of tension and division, certainly in our country and globally, is being driven by this technology which is intensely beneficial to the bottom line of certain individuals and companies. And we know who they are.

I think it’s obvious what our show is about. It’s a sci-fi adventure, escapist in some ways, intimate, weird at times in the best ways. But it’s a cautionary tale at its core. And it’s been that from the start.

Luke: I think it’s also about what it means to be human. There’s an overarching theme that if something thinks, feels, touches, does that make it alive? What constitutes being a human?

An interesting part of the show is that we don’t follow the human storylines. We follow the arcs of these created beings, their development, and their search for meaning.

What they’re searching for is to become more human. They’re struggling with all the things that we struggle with – revenge, hatred, and love. A big part of the show is, can technology reach that? The show tends to ask a lot of questions and the answers are still forthcoming, I think.

How did this show change your life and you as an actor?

Luke: It’s been a huge joy to me, to go from year to year. The nature of our show is that we’ve been shooting every 18 months, every second year. But having that year in between and knowing that Westworld is coming has been liberating.

It’s very freeing to know that you’ve got six or seven months tied up where you’re going to get paid and not have to worry about searching for the next job. And in the same respect, it’s allowing time to go and explore other avenues.

I am lucky to do things in between that have been a lot of fun. And then, to be surrounded by Jeffrey, Ed, and these amazing women year after year as well – if you’re not growing as a human and as an actor, then you’re missing the point.

I can tell that I’m definitely a better performer and I’m usually a better person. Just not around Jeffrey. He tends to bring out the worst in me.

Jeffrey: You’re welcome. Yeah, to Luke’s point, I do bring out the worst in him. No. To his point, this is really the first time in my career that I have had this consistency with a project. It’s been eight years now.

I haven’t spent that much time on any project and it’s great. In acting, no matter who you are, there’s a lot of uncertainty in what we do. You’re only as good as your next gig and when is that next gig coming?

That’s how pretty much how every actor lives, with that trying to recreate the thing from time to time. And so, having this kind of anchor has been really wonderful.

Well, again to Luke’s point, having this anchor that’s tied to an incredibly creative, welcoming, challenging, loving circle of collaborators, it’s been a fantastic gift. I have done episodic before but never to this extent.

And the opportunity to go back and work continually, to be on camera and kind of honing the thing that you do. Yeah, it has really shaped my way of working.

In some ways, you kind of catch yourself. You say, okay, I want to avoid playing the same tricks. It can be challenging in that way but ultimately, it’s really addictive.

I always thought, I don’t know if I want to do a TV show because I’m going to get bored with playing the same role. But there’s no time really for boredom with our show and there’s no playing the same role with our show.

There’s so much variety and so many levels and because of the orientation on this technology, there’s just all manner of possibilities. I was aware of that from the start, that our show could go anywhere and it has.

So, we’re always reinventing and being re-reinvented. It’s been a really satisfying and gratifying piece to work on. If you’re going to work on a piece for as long as we have on this, it’s definitely a much more interesting, attractive, and enjoyable experience to be working on a show that is as complex as our show.

But also one that evolves with the times, in terms of the themes and the focuses within the writing. So yeah, it’s a good run. Long, strange trip but all good.

Jeffrey, when you got this role eight years ago, did they show you any path for this character or were you finding it out every season like we did?

Jeffrey: Yeah, we pretty much find out where we’re headed. At the beginning of the season, we’re given a map and there’s a trail on the map. And basically, we’re given the first two steps of that journey and then there’s the rest of the map that’s partially filled in and away you go.

But that was what excited me, again, about joining the show. When I read the first script, it was understanding just from that first read, that the possibilities were limitless with the show. And the first script was so well constructed.

And also, that structure spoke to multiplying exponentially the already expansive possibilities. So, there was so much underpinning the architecture of that first show, that it was clear from that, that we were about to go on a journey of chartered and uncharted territory. I have to say at least on that, I was right.

When we see your character, there’s nothing left from him from the first episode, from the first season. He’s a different character in all the ways.

Jeffrey: He’s evolving and emerging. I think he is doing his best to define and pursue his own idea of freedom which is one of the themes within our show. Again, a theme from the start of these hosts, these entities, who are really an examination of the possibilities of our artificial intelligence but also our metaphor for human beings.

They’re the fun house mirror of human behavior and the realities of our existence. And so, he’s striving to be free and coming out of this type of enslavement that they’ve all experienced.

And I think that we are experiencing to some extent, too, relative to the evolving technology that we are increasingly married to. So yes, he’s changed. He’s been upgraded and now he’s attempting to upgrade himself and install all the necessary updates towards freedom.

It definitely feels like the show gets deeper with every season in terms of the subjects you are talking about but also bigger in terms of production. This season shows that. How do you hope or how do you think this season will impact the audiences?

Luke: I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised. But again, Lisa and Jonah do this thing where they show you their left hand and then punch you with their right. Constantly.

Maybe that’s part of the loop but this season never fails to do that constantly. We’re constantly on this Escher journey where we’re only ever seeing part of the Escher picture. And then eventually you realize that you are stuck in this loop, like these characters.

Or perhaps it’s more like one of those games like Command & Conquer. You have a black map and you have your city and you venture out into this bit and the map gets a little bit bigger. And then as you get better and you get more into the game, you pull back and the map gets huge.

Suddenly, you’re a tiny part or you were a tiny part of this massive world. And season by season, that’s what this show has done. We were very focused in the first season, and in the second season, we pulled back to see a little bit more, we saw more worlds.

And this season again, we’re going back even further to see not just the physical world but the worlds within these characters and the struggles that they have. So, I think fans will love the season. I think this season is amazing.

I’ve only seen the four episodes but even that was, again, it’s an addiction. And if you’re not debriefing after every episode, I think it’s a hard show to binge-watch because it’s complex. You need to step back and figure out exactly what part of the map you’re on, to use an analogy there. – Rappler.com

Westworld season 4 premiered in the Philippines at the same time as the US on Monday, June 27 on HBO and HBO GO, with a same-day encore at 10 pm on HBO. A new episode debuts every following Monday.