Soâwe’re all watching and loving Mr. Robot, right? Sam Esmail’s brilliant thriller series has had the whole of the Internet talking since its premiere, and last Wednesday night’s episode blew open the gates on not only the possibility, but interconnectivity of the show’s storylines. Naturally, we all sort of lost our gourds over it and knew we had to debrief with the cast immediatelyâespecially Darlene (Carly Chaikin) and Angela (Portia Doubleday), who’ve come so far in a scant eight episodes. Luckily, the ladies were more than willing to spend some time chatting with us about the resonance of the show’s themes, the very real threat of hacking, and just how WTFOMGHOLYCATS that particular reveal from “eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v” was when it happened. Needless to say, if you’re not caught up run away from this post now because it contains seriously major spoilers.
For the rest of you? Fall down the rabbit hole with us, won’t you?
Nerdist: Okay so Mr. Robot‘s world is one that’s not only crazy and labyrinthine but also so resonant with the times.
Portia Doubleday: Yeah, thatâs the response weâve been getting a lot. One of the things I really gravitate to when weâre shooting is the stuff about society today and technology. Weâre so dependent on technology for instant gratification and I donât know if that makes us more lonely or more connected as people. I remember being in New York City on the subway and looking around realizing 90% of people are on their phones. Like youâre within two inches of someone and yet you donât have any connections with any of these people.
I mean, Elliot is basically invisible and yet heâs around people constantly, and that dichotomy was really interesting to me when I was reading the script. All of that stuffâthe therapy scenes and the counterfeit heroes and constantly wanting to escape realityâI can identify with that and I think so many others do, too. And then you start thinking about Facebook and Instagram and you realize that basically we get to create an image of ourselves thatâs not real. People get to watch our lives but we get to control what people watch and see. And it makes it seem intimate. So when I read the script I immediately thought, “Wow, this guy is really onto something.”
When we were shooting the episodes we kind of felt we were ahead of the time. Like, itâs dealing with a lot of the issues weâre going to have in the next 10 yearsâlike the societal and warfare issues. We spend more time with our phones than we do other human beings. And whatâs so cool about the hacking stuff on the show is that everything is real. Everything is happening as you watch it. Thereâs no green screen, we actually have someone doing it exactly how it would happen as it happens. Sam kept everything pretty realistic.
Nerdist: Speaking of controlled vision: the reveal in “White Rose” had everyone I know going “wait whaaaaaaaaâ”!Â
Carly Chaikin: Well I knew from the beginning that I was his sister. From the very, very beginning Rami [Malek, who plays Elliot] and I both knewâChristian [Slater], Portia [Doubleday] and I all knew, pretty much. All I knew, though, was that Sam [told me], “Yeah he tries to kiss you and then youâre like, ‘Iâm your sister.'” So I didnât know how that was going to play out, or any details or anything, so I’d been waiting for episode 8 to see how it happened. It was exciting to see it, for real, in the script. Thereâs so much craziness that happens and it’s so hard to keep it in. Especially with something like that. People would say to me, “OK how do you fit into the show? Why are you so weird?” and all I could say was, “Well, youâll see.”
Nerdist: Was it hard to navigate thatâleaving clues but not projecting that you knew the twistâwhile still bringing a fully realized Darlene to the scene?
CC: Really, the way I played it is like heâs my brother and he knows it. Because how could he not know it, you know? It was just a natural brother/sister relationship. Like in episode two when weâre on the subway and Elliot says, “How do you know where I live?” And I gave him a look like, “Why wouldnât I know where you live?” But because nobody knew and were seeing it through a different set of eyes, it wasnât something that necessarily read as that.
Nerdist: What was it like getting into this project in the beginning?
PD: When we were making it, I think all of us kinda knew. Every week would continually blow our minds because a lot of it is so unpredictable and last week can attest to that. [laughs] Itâs been so exciting to see how engaged people are and how theyâre responding to it, because some of itâs quite denseâespecially the hacking aspect of it. But I think that whatâs been so exciting is how much people relate to the material and the the themes in the show, which I think is so relevant especially to our generation.
CC: It was absolutely insane. After [reading] Elliotâs opening monologue my jaw just dropped and I was like, “Holy shit!” After I finished reading the pilot I slammed my computer shut and screamed, “What happens?!” I was freaking out. They sent it to me originally to read for Angela, actually, so I was reading it with that in mind, ‘cuz Darlene only had like two lines in the pilot. So when they asked me to read for her, too, they sent me some scenes from episode two, but it was hard and kinda scary going into something with zero idea of what the character was going to be like, because I only saw the tiniest snippet of her. But this project is just so unbelievably incredible that I didnât careâI just wanted to be a part of it in any way. I was just so beyond excited and knew that what we had was something incredibly special.
Nerdist: And Darlene has developed in such an interesting way; thereâs something so electric about her, which is a huge departure from what most people know you forâyour character on Suburgatory.
CC: Actually, my favorite story is that Sam had watched Suburgatory and Susie Farris [who did casting], gave Sam the name of people she thought should come in and I was on the list. And Sam was like, “Absolutely not, are you kidding? Sheâs so not right for this character thatâs not what I want, no way!” He was trying to get her to take me off the list but she was like, “Just trust me and watch her.” And then I came in and that was it. Sam told me that story later while we were at South By Southwest and I loved it.
Nerdist: It must be fun to subvert people’s expectations like that.
CC: This is totally a character Iâve always wanted to play: to play someone who’s so free gives you a lot of freedom, but at the same time we did have to find the balance between her being loud and abrasive and not really giving a shit, and her âas you see in the season’s progressâa more grounded and real side than what we saw in the beginning.
Nerdist: Iâve loved Angela’s evolution, too, and how her involvement’s grown in this situation. She’s sort of the White Knight of the show. At least for now.
PD: Itâs been a very slow progression. Thereâs been so many moments where, in the beginning, she was naive and hopeful. What Elliot and her share is this idea that they can change the course of societyâthey just go about it in very different ways. At first we meet her and sheâs innocent, but slowly sheâs compromised by going after what she wants. And we see it in that scene with Shayla when she says, “You need to start worrying about you instead of everyone else.” So she emancipates herself from this image and illusion and goes rogueâand you slowly see that. And itâs totally not done by the way, thereâs a lot more to come.
Nerdist:Â And I have a sneaking suspicion that all of this means it’s not going to end the way she wants it to be.
PD: Well, she doesnât think about the consequences of those actions on Allsafe and Gideon, and in a way sheâs compromising their lives because of what she thinks is right. To me, whatâs most exciting, is putting it into the audienceâs hands and asking them what they would do. Like, would you go after Evil Corp if it meant compromising all of these peopleâs jobs? I think thatâs what the show does really well, is proposing those question for all of the characters. What is the best alternative? Whether or not theyâre selfish or altruisticâthose questions really intrigue me about everyoneâs arc and inevitably how they all weave together at the end.
Nerdist: There is always going to be something great about vigilante justice and the hacking does just that, but what Angelaâs doing, going after Evil Corp, is perhaps the more logical path.
PD: One of my favorite moments from the show is the scene between Angela and Terry Colby when he completely devalues her and she comes back with the response of, basically, “You can go through with not taking this deal but inevitably you wonât have what you want most, which is respect and power.” Because thatâs what she can identify withâand inevitably that changes his mind. Those two characters are very analogous though, which is interesting because heâs monstrous. In the next scene when she talks about her motherâs death, though, he has a moment of reflection and is humanizedâ[which is] interesting because weâre humanizing evil.
Nerdist: And when IÂ see those twists and the full scale of the unreliability of the narrator, I find myself falling down speculative rabbit holes.
PD: Thatâs so funny, I was talking to Carly about this last night and she said, “I donât want to know what happens,” but I canât help but think about it. And your guess is as good as mine: I donât know whatâs going to come out of Samâs head. I was just going to text Sam today and say, “I have a couple hypothesis and theories about what heâs going to do,” but I have no idea. No idea. The show is so unpredictable but it always lands, and itâs not that far-fetched, which makes it even more tantalizing. I go on spells for 30 minutes and say, “Well maybe I’m hisâ¦daughter” or something. I donât know!
N: It’s the perfect time for something like this to come out, too. Darleneâs line about there not being a middle class anymore and how corporations function within our society makes it so extra-relevant. And it makes the realities of what hacking does all the more present.
PD: I mean, not that I have enough information to theorize that this is whatâs going to happen, but I think that in the next 10 years, itâs going to be a very prevalent issue. Because you can hack anything, I mean you can hack into the navy. And being able to do that, I think warfareâs going to be completely compromised because weâre owned by technology. If you can hack someoneâs privacy, you own themâI think thereâs something very frightening about that.
Nerdist: Itâs a terrifying game-changer in the same way as the atomic bomb was in â45.
PD: And weâre already seeing it! Even though it was a studioâthe Sony hackâsomeone was in their system for a year. We spoke to this hacker before doing the show and he was sort of explaining what that world was like and he said that hacker was in there for a year before they even know. And you canât get rid of them once theyâre in. Thereâs no way to know if theyâre completely gone. And what happens if someoneâs able to harness that information? Thatâs pretty scary.
Nerdist: And it’s so easy.
PD: So easy! And the other thing thatâs so unpredictable about hacking is itâs not like you can study it. Itâs not like, “this is how you hack.” It starts with one personâs email and then you find someone elseâs and then you have ten others. But you just collect information. Thatâs why used hard drives are more expensive than new ones, because thereâs information you canât get rid of on them and hackers just want to accumulate as much information as possible. I definitely bought a new computerâeven though I know thatâs not going to do anythingâbecause I was pretty freaked out during the show. But supposedly 60% of people are hacked and they can watch you from your computer.
Nerdist: God I would be so paranoid after working on this show.
PD: I was really paranoid for awhile because thatâs the thing: we donât really have privacy anymore. So after I realized that, it was like, “OK, I need to be more careful about what I choose to record, what I put into my computer.” And thereâs something sad about thatâthat we canât be as private as we want to be anymore. Itâs too easy for people to access your information.
Honestly, I was hacked a lot since the show started and I donât get it, because a lot of my stuff is really boring. But hey if you want to look at pictures of my dog, have at it. Thereâs something really unnerving and unsettling about someone being able to be in your personal space. Itâs so invasive, them being able to watch you.
Nerdist: It’s as unnerving as watching the show itself.
PD: Well just keep watching these last two episodes. You wonât be able to predict anything, especially with my character. Sheâs still very much progressing. Sheâs still changing, kind of drastically. And thereâs definitely more answers.
Are you watching Mr. Robot? Let us know your thoughts about that big reveal in the comments!
Image Credit: USA Network
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Alicia Lutes is the Associate Editor of The Nerdist and a grade-A Mr. Robot speculator. Tweet about it with her on Twitter @alicialutes.