Westworld Star Tessa Thompson Reveals How She and Evan Rachel Wood Play the Same Character
Westworld will return with its fourth season this weekend, and viewers will surely be curious to see what unexpected elements are in store for its new episodes. One of the biggest twists of Season 3 was Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) taking over the identity of a host version of Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), something that significantly changed the trajectory of both characters going forward. While it's unclear exactly how that will unfold in Season 4, the idea of both Thompson and Wood portraying versions of Dolores was apparently a unique creative experience.
"I asked Evan for a lot of help, and she was so gracious and she gave it to me," Thompson explained in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com's Chris Killian, which you can check out above. "I watched her performance in town, I asked her questions, things that I noticed. 'Is this true? or 'Is this something you're conscious of?' She was so generous. She sent me voice memos. She gave me tips about her physicality. She would talk about anything. Evan's so fun. Anyways, even if I wasn't playing a version of her, she loves to talk about the show."
"It felt like sometimes talking to Evan was like being on Reddit," Thompson added. "She has so many ideas, You'd always have so many theories about where the show was going and what we were talking about. So I just loved it. I was always in conversation with her around the show, because she was so fun and eager to be in conversation, but particularly around this invention of ours. That was really a joy to get to work. It's so unique to get to collaborate on a character, and this is a cast of really generous actors, but that was a different kind of generosity. She was so, so great with that with me."
The fourth season of Westworld picks up seven years after the end of season 3, and has been described as a "dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on Earth." The series also stars Thandiwe Newton as Maeve, Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, Aaron Paul as Caleb, and Ed Harris as The Man in Black.
"We've been very, very lucky to work with this cast, this crew, and now, partnering with Denise," co-creator Jonathan Nolan said in a 2020 interview. "When you have a show going like this, you want to stay as long as you're telling a compelling story. We're heading towards that end, but we haven't completely mapped it out. At this point, part of the work is looking at the rest of the story we have to tell. It's two impulses, one against the other. You don't want to walk away from people who are as talented and cool as this. They're all lovely, lovely people, and they love working together, we like working together. At the same time, you don't want to outstay your welcome. You have a story to tell, and you want to go out without feeling like you've outstayed your welcome. So we're trying to balance those things a bit."
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Season 4 of Westworld will debut on Sunday, June 26th on HBO.