Jimmi Simpson is one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood, and he has played memorable roles in a number of fan-favorite shows and movies, ranging from the silly to the surreal. Two recent roles, in Westworld and Dark Matter, feel like they could be thematically linked, since they’re both dystopian science fiction that digs as much or more into characters than plot. Simpson, speaking with ComicBook.com in support of next week’s release of Dark Matter, compared the two and came away thinking that their examination of the human condition makes them interesting as companions to one another.
He gives a lot of credit for the show’s depth to Blake Crouch, whose novel Dark Matter adapts. In Simpson’s mind, it’s Crouch who takes the heady topics of theoretical physics and transforms them into an understandable theme for audiences.
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“They’re both touching on deep — at least season one of Westworld and Dark Matter are both touching on serious human conditions,” Simpson told ComicBook.com. “Westworld is just this sad reality, that a human will often take as much as it wants regardless of how it affects others. So, it’s this investigation of the greed that humans naturally possess, that maybe machines don’t, and then learning, ‘Oh That’s what humans do. That’s how we should be.’ And that’s the reality we’re dealing with AI and all that stuff. But the fact that [Blake Crouch is] dealing with superposition and actual quantum physics, quantum mechanics reality, that is provable that two things can exist in the same space at once, that a that a subject can be a wave and a particle at the same time. Then expanding that into the quantum theory realm, where Schrodinger kind of try to tamp it down…I think with his cat analogy, it’s a bit obtuse in my estimation, and it’s a bit simplifying. ‘Oh, so you’re saying this, it’s like the tree falls in the woods? Well, of course, it makes a sound, it’s a little oversimplifying. I think Blake’s taking superposition, and articulating it in a way [where] it’s a real thing and quantum physics is simply the study of light. It’s a real thing. And so he’s taking that and he’s articulating in a beautiful way no one ever has.”
Below, you can check out the official synopsis for Dark Matter:
Jason Dessen is abducted into an alternate version of his life; to get back to his true family, he embarks on a harrowing journey to save them from the most terrifying foe imaginable: himself; based on Blake Crouch’s best-selling book.
Dark Matter debuts on May 8 on Apple TV+.
