The making of HBO’s “Westworld” is a complicated process that star Jeffrey Wright describes as “a game of benevolent chaos.” Multiple units are filming on the same day — sometimes as many as four might be working on different portions of an episode.
“These many threads come together to create one tapestry and fusing together in ways that I find particularly gratifying,” he said. This season, his character Bernard — the android programmer — has had to confront some awful truths about the nature of the park, and his own actions therein. That means memory flashbacks, which require more than “just staring off into the distance. You’re staring off into another scene, so you’re actually trying to remember what you’re supposed to be envisioning — and how that will cut back into the scene — so you have to be actor, envisioner and editor.”
The show’s co-creator and co-showrunner Lisa Joy directed Episode 4 this season “and when (co-star Shannon Woodward) and I showed up that morning to film the sequence where Bernard and Elsie walk into this secret lab, Lisa said, ‘We don’t have a lot of time, so we’re just going to film these two scenes together in one block.’ And we’re like, ‘We are?! OK Lisa, anything for you!’ And we just shot the entire thing as though it were a play that we happened to be filming. That was a 19-hour day.
“When Lisa Joy — aptly named — describes the game plan at 6 o’clock in the morning, she tends to laugh in a self-deprecating way and away you go! I’m more enthusiastic about acting now and engaged in my work in a professional way, and also I have been working so much in a pretty demanding environment on ‘Westworld,’ so my muscles are toned again and lines come pretty quickly to me now.”
That wasn’t always case, Wright said, when asked to share his memory of a worst moment for this column.
My worst moment …
“It was in the latter half of 2005, my daughter had just been born that July. And it was a period for me in my career in which I had become reasonably disenchanted with the film biz for a number of highly justified reasons. I’d just had too many experiences working on projects that I found to be disingenuous. Working with collaborators who couldn’t be trusted. Just working within scenarios that led to disappointment and a sense of having been exploited and used.
“So I wasn’t the most enthusiastic player at this time! (Laughs) And I had also begun to really dig into some projects outside of film. I was working very intensely on some development projects in Sierra Leone that had taken my interest. And then of course my daughter had just been born, and I also had a young son. So I was a bit distracted from the purposes of filmmaking and acting.
“So I was working on a film called ‘The Invasion’ down in Baltimore with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. And the movie was directed by well-meaning filmmakers who were serious talents, but it was their first foray into big Hollywood stuff and they didn’t quite grasp it in a way that allowed them to control the process. It’s a big step up for a filmmaker who hasn’t been in that scenario before; just big logistical challenges and many moving parts and bigger expectations owing to the budget and the studio. So the whole management of the thing was a little loose in the tail.
“And here I am, on this particular day, I played a scientist and I had about seven pages of dialogue that was largely me describing the science-heavy nature of this virus that was at the heart of the story. We’re in Baltimore and we’re down in the bowels of Johns-Hopkins University in one of the science centers there, filming — as I was told — in front of an actual electron microscope that they used for their most precious research. It’s massive, fills up an entire room. I’m sitting in front of it; Nicole and Daniel are sitting opposite me, and the camera’s behind them focused on me while I have what is essentially a seven-page monologue.
“We were supposed to have filmed this at the end of the day. But it was decided that they were going to change the schedule. So rather than film the scene that I’m describing after lunch, we were going to move that scene up and film it before lunch. And I’m thinking to myself ‘Oh (shoot)’ because I had seven pages of dialogue that I was planning to drill down on during lunch. So I’m going, ‘Ooooookay.’
“As I mentioned, I had kind of gotten away from the enthusiasm of acting and learning my lines prior to arriving on set. I thought I had it together because there was another scene they were supposed to shoot first and then lunch, so in my head I thought I had a good three or four hours to tighten up these lines before we got the scene. Anyway, chaotic film set: We’re going to change that and do that scene now. All right. Oh boy.
“The camera’s set up, I’m sitting there in front of this multimillion-dollar microscope and there’s Daniel and Nicole staring me. OK, roll camera, action: And I start this scene and I’m doing OK, I got it, I got it. And then about three-quarters of the way through, it was gone. Just gone.
“‘OK, let’s do it again.’ And this goes on. And on. And on. I just cannot get through this entire scene — this highly technical, science-heavy jargon and just a ton of words, language and thought.
“I was so consumed with the anxiety of knowing that I wasn’t as fully prepared as I should have been. And I didn’t want to stop and restart because I thought it would fudge continuity. And then on top of that, I was just stubborn. So I was like, ‘Dammit, I’m going to do this whole thing in a single take!’ I wasn’t going to staple the pages to the underside of the camera or certainly not ask Nicole if I could paste my lines to her chin or something! (Laughs) I’m not that kind of guy!
“So now I’m just determined that I’m going to get through this thing, and I don’t know how many takes we did — we lost count — and I got so frustrated at one point that I just slammed my hand down and realized I had just punched this multimillion dollar microscope that’s probably highly calibrated and used for actual real work! Lifesaving research! And ultimately the DP (director of photography) got so frustrated that he walked off the set! (Laughs) And I was like, ‘I don’t know man, this is just one of those days!’ (Laughs)
“Daniel was over in the corner kind of giggling through this and laughing at my ineptitude. And Nicole, she would just as soon move on to the next scene. After the DP returned, I think I ended up relenting and doing the second half separately. I just to had to have my lunch of crow that day. And ultimately it didn’t matter because there were other angles to use. So my determination to get through the whole thing in one take would have to run away and live to fight another day.”
What was going through his mind?
“I was just pissed at myself because I knew I hadn’t spent the evening before learning my lines, I had been doing other things. And I hadn’t prioritized in a way that would serve the interest of the performance. As I mentioned, this was a period of feeling disenchanted.
“And then, even though I think we were days behind on the schedule — this was just one in a series of bumblings and stumblings that the production experienced — I think my agent got a call (laughs) from the studio saying that I was holding up production and all of this ridiculousness! But it was definitely the most substandard day that I ever had on a film set.”
The takeaway …
“I realized that I probably had gotten into a bad habit because of my disenchantment with things, and I had allowed my disappointment with the film industry to pollute my relationship to acting and to my work. It’s one thing to know your lines, another to be able to deliver them. The taste of the pudding is in the delivery.
“I mean, it is completely inconsiderate and ignorant of the process to think that a shift of the schedule the morning of — for a scene of that size — won’t have an effect on the outcome. That said, if I had been better prepared (laughs) it wouldn’t have mattered so much!
“In some regards, I guess I had become a bit cynical myself and I had to address that — and that happened through a process of being away from acting for a while and being more focused on outside things. And then circling back and finding the right collaborations that were more engaging, more supportive, more mutually respectful. So I have done away with that dirty habit and I’m a bit more myself. As I found at ‘Westworld,’ I’ve been able to re-engage with my work in a way that I had earlier in my career before that period of drifting away.”
nmetz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @Nina_Metz
