I started questioning my reality: Evan Rachel Wood on playing Dolores in 'Westworld'

Evan Rachel Wood plays Dolores Abernathy in Johnathan Nolan's new sci-fi series Westworld. Wood shares the screen with Sir Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton and more. The American actress began acting during her early years, appearing in several television series including American Gothic and Once and Again. She marked her debut at the age of nine and later became well-known after her transition to a more adult-oriented Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated role in the teen drama film, Thirteen. Later, she was nominated for yet another prestigious award – the Emmy award and the Golden Globe for her performance in the Kate Winslet-starrer mini-series, Mildred Pierce.

Here, Evan Rachel Wood talks about her character and the show.

From the trailers, Dolores has a lot going on….

A lot going on. You don’t even know the half of it. 

What can you tell us about her and her storyline? 

It’s so hard — we just can’t tell you anything. Everyone’s asks me, “Are you like a central character in this?” All I can say is, “mmm, mmm.” That’s the only answer I can give. 

Well, let’s see what we can talk about. What appealed to you about the show and about Dolores? 

Everything. I went in and I met with Jonathan (Nolan) and Lisa (Joy) and I didn’t really know anything about the story. 

They pitched it to me and they told me, yes it’s based on Michael Crichton’s film from the 1970s, but it’s really just the premise — this is a complete re-imagining. Instead of focusing on the humans being terrorised by robots gone haywire, it’s flipping that on its head and it focuses more on the hosts, as we like to call them, and what would that be like if they were trapped in a world they thought was real? What would happen if these hosts could remember what had been done to them?

And what if there were no rules and it was lawless and there were no consequences? If humans were given the key to that city and that power, that curiosity and bloodlust, and these inner demons would all come out to play.

That’s the blessing and the curse of Westworld — it brings out who you really are, whether that be good or bad. 

So the show focuses an awful lot more on the hosts than the film did?

Yes, and they raise questions about how you measure feeling and suffering – if they aren’t real, presumably, they can’t feel suffering – but when you think about it, what is consciousness? We don’t really know. We don’t really know what separates us from them. So, who are we to measure pain or suffering? 

That’s one of the many things we tackle on the show, and what’s so terrifying about it. Because if they did wake up, that would be pretty dangerous. 

How did you, as Evan, mentally process all of these questions when you were playing Dolores? 

I genuinely started questioning my own reality after working on this show. There was at least one moment I remember very specifically on set, when I was kind of scared, just thinking: I honestly don’t know anymore. My reality could be fake, I could really be a robot and not know. I wouldn’t put it past them. This is how they’re telling me. It was that meta. 

The more research I did and really learned about the technology, I realised that our DNA and computer code really isn’t that different. And computer chips in our brains are not all that far away. It’s going to start happening faster and faster. 

It’s been interesting talking to people that are working on this technology as we speak. We’re pretty close, it’s going to be in our lifetime, probably, and what that means for our humanity is yet to be seen. 

I think we are in the era of holding a computer screen in our hands and eventually it’s going to be part of our hand. We will slowly begin to merge with machines. 

And what do you think that means for humanity in terms of our behaviour and how we relate to others and ourselves? 

Well, the problem is, if this artificial intelligence is being modelled after humans, and if we don’t start setting a good example, we will be the only things they have to draw from and to learn from. We’re not doing so great right now. 

That’s another theme we’ll be delving into. If they are modelled after humans and they wake up, would they want to continue to be modelled after humans or would they evolve past that, and humans would become obsolete? 

I mean, at this point, if I was a machine with unlimited intelligence and I looked at human beings I would not want to be like them. If someone asked, how do you have world peace, a robot would probably tell you, well, eliminate human beings. You know, that’s the quickest fix.

That’s why this show really blows my mind — it is science fiction but also very much science reality. I think it’s going to make people question a lot of things. 

Victorian gothic horror was born out of fears that the Industrial Revolution was going to lead to the dissolution of society, that the machines that were replacing labour were going to destroy civilization. Is this just the same sort of fears we are having now? 

Now, it’s the exponential growth that is different— it starts off slow and then all the advances start getting closer and closer together and we’ve just hit the point where it’s going to go so fast now. The advancements are going to go through the ceiling. I used to wonder, what’s going to happen to art? What’s going to happen to emotion? 

Before language was invented, cavemen couldn’t even comprehend what the world was going to be like. And we can’t even comprehend what the world will be like in the future because it will be so advanced, so much better and beyond our awareness. The art will be even more amazing, the empathy will be deeper and there will probably be less violence, easier problem solving, and it’s going to be a better world. Whether we call that natural or not, or just the natural progression of evolution, that’s up for debate. This is the messy stage. It’s an interesting time. We may be on our way out, so live it up.

What’s your own relationship like with technology? Are you quite wired? 

I have a love/hate relationship with it. I was a late 80s, early 90s baby, so I remember when no one had cell phones and there wasn’t AOL or the internet — it was right at the end of that era. And I saw the changeover — I stopped at Nintendo 64; I’ve never been able to go further, my brain just cannot comprehend modern video games, there are too many buttons. 

I have a lot of music technology, but other than that, I’m just not wired for it. No pun intended. My son is three and he already knows more than I do, because he’s just seen it and is used to it. My brain was not set up for that world.

Technology does freak me out, but I also love it at the same time, because I’m more connected with people than I’ve ever been. Everyone’s worries about no one communicating because we are always looking at our phones and no one talks to each other anymore. But I talk to everyone all the time. Social media makes it so I can talk to people in my family, people I went to school with in second grade at the touch of a button. I can Facetime with my kid no matter where he is in the world and say goodnight. 

It’s a double-edged sword. Technological advances are always a double-edged sword. 

What was it like working with Jonathan and Lisa — they seem incredibly inspiring…

Lisa’s my favourite person. She’s incredible, she’s my role model. So smart. Jonathan and Lisa are the smartest people I know. They’re so gracious and down to earth, considering they are absolute geniuses. What they’ve done with the show is unlike anything I’ve ever read or seen. I’m just in awe of them every day. 

Dolores has quite a different style to yours. How did you find being bedecked in bustles and long frocks and having all that hair? 

You know, it was funny, because I’m such a tomboy. But it’s one thing I love about Dolores, which you will see more of, is that she is the quintessential beautiful, innocent prairie girl, but she’s also a farm girl. She’s a cowgirl. 

She’s tough. If you’re considering the park as a game, there are different levels. If you went to the brothel, that’s easy. Dolores would be a character that’s slightly more work. She’s the one that you can fall in love with. 

Westworld can give you that experience as well. It doesn’t just have to be sex and guns, you can actually be a knight in shining armor and go save the damsels from the train tracks and fall in love. 

Dolores can handle herself pretty well, she’s been through a lot and I think we’ll slowly start seeing that side of her more and more.

Yes, you see from the beginning that she’s got a certain confidence, even just in her interactions with Teddy. 

Yes, she’s a challenge. She’s smart and witty. That’s her character build. There has to be something for everybody in the park and that’s her model. 

I’ve known Shannon Woodward, another actress on the show, since I was 15, and the first time I opened up the trailer door and she saw me she just started laughing. She said: you look like a Disney princess. At first, I was not feeling it. Then, by the end, I loved the blue dress — it was so comforting to me. I actually requested to wear the real corset most of the time because I just wanted it to be real. My back was killing me by the end, but I did it. 

It’s amazing when the character is so different from yourself because the second you’re in costume and hair and makeup and you look in the mirror, you’re just transported there, you’re clicked in.

Westworld premieres in India on Tuesday, October 4 on Star World Premiere HD.