On the glossy surface of Companion, you get a meet-cute between a nice guy and the perfect girlfriend. Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) seem like that idyllic rom-com couple, the goofy guy and the out-of-his-league beauty who somehow can’t live without him. The catch? She’s a robot and he bought her for companionship that’ll suit his every need.
io9 caught up with filmmaker Drew Hancock to talk about the inspiration behind his Stepford Wives-tinged, “girlfriend of tomorrow” android romantic thriller. While Companion is about a robot girl, the AI aspects of Iris are scarily real because people like Josh actually exist—and you don’t have be a robot to have been made to feel like someone’s property.
“I think for me, my way in is just to make Iris as relatable as possible. So when I think about her as a character, I’m not really thinking about her as a robot. I’m thinking about, what is her emotional journey that she’s going on? How is it relatable to people that are watching it?” Hancock shared.
Sophie Thatcher’s Iris looks a bit like Zooey Deschanel in her 500 Days of Summer era, and the similarities don’t end there: both women are the romantic interest of a schmuck who projects his insecurities on her, assuming she’ll love him anyways (though she may eventually leave him, like Deschanel’s character did in Summer). “I think the thing that’s kind of the magic of this movie and Sophie’s performance is that this is a relationship drama at its core,” Hancock said. “This is not a big commentary on what AI is, this is more about AI is like a placeholder for us. And we’ve all been in those relationships where maybe it wasn’t the best relationship. You don’t realize until it’s over that you look back and go, my gosh, why was I in this relationship with this person?”
It wouldn’t be surprising if Iris’ robot template was based off those type of manic pixie dream girls for Josh to pick but Thatcher’s performance brings a moody and emotionally detached take on the role on purpose. It’s almost like she has a shell built up against the wear of emotional labor. “Iris is being literally programmed, we’re metaphorically being programmed,” Hancock said. “But that to me was the fun of it—the fun of incorporating AI as a placeholder for someone who’s experiencing like imposter syndrome. Someone who feels like they’re less than. She finds out she’s less than because she’s not actually a human being.”
It’s no wonder that not even a sentient robot could put up with it either, once they realized they’re a robotic receptacle for the toxic expectations of a gaslighting incel type.
Quaid really digs into his character; he’s a darling doofus one moment and a menace behind everyone’s backs the next. The actors really play well off each other between the good and the bad of their relationship to get the very real themes to shine through the sci-fi aspects of Companion. “That’s a testament to them, it’s just their ability as actors. Like they’re so good, as soon as you see them together that relationship feels so lived in, it feels like they’ve known each other for years and years and years,” Hancock said. “Jack, [let’s give] credit to him to take a line like ‘Smile, and act happy’ and making that a horrible thing to say to someone, but actually plays it off in this like kind of goofy way that you’re like, ‘I kind of like this guy’ even though he’s saying these awful things.”
And Thatcher’s Iris does have her moment where she draws the line of not tolerating that any longer, after being reactive to Josh in the first act. “There’s something off about her performance. You know what I mean?” Hancock said of Thatcher’s portrayal of Iris’ programmed nature. “Like something feels wrong when you’re watching the movie, and that’s all from Sophie, that’s all her ability.”
The film does portray how even robotic romance can be multidimensional in this very near future reality with AI Companions already in advanced prototype models. “That was really important to me. I never want to come from a place of judgment. This could easily have just been from Josh’s point of view. But this is a technology that is going to exist at a certain point and some people are gonna be using it for good,” Hancock said. “And that’s kind of like the point behind AI, right? It’s like a tool, it’s technology. You could use it for good, you can use it for bad. So I wanted to show the other side of that coin which is like, what would a healthy relationship be like?”
Quaid and Thatcher in any other movie would be cutesy rom-com leads with fun supporting from Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage, but these comedic strengths from the ensemble do get the opportunity to shine.
There’s also an element of tragedy we get to see in that regard with the relationships within the film. Companion runs the gamut of a multi-genre popcorn flick. “The whole point of this movie was because I was at a place in my career where I wasn’t getting the job opportunities that I wanted,” Hancock said. “I love genre, I’ve always loved genre. I love The Terminator. I love anything with robots or stuff like serial killers or ghosts. But I was not getting those job opportunities. So I was like, okay, well, maybe you should write something that like reflects the kinds of movies you like. And so I mean, there’s like 10 tones in this movie. There’s 10 genres in this movie. And I just kind of just tried it all, like putting in a little bit of Terminator, putting a little bit of Coen brothers, putting a little bit like a heist element. So just throw it all on the wall and see what sticks.”
Companion opens this Friday, January 31.
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