Filmmaker Alex Garland and actor Oscar Isaac spoke with BuzzFeed News about crafting Isaac’s unique and unnerving character at the center of Garland’s new sci-fi thriller.
Director Alex Garland and Oscar Isaac on the set of Ex Machina
A24
Ex Machina, the feature directorial debut of sci-fi writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, Dredd), follows a mid-level programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) on his visit to the secluded mountain estate of the obscenely wealthy founder of the massive tech company where he works, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Once he arrives, Caleb learns he's there to help test Nathan's latest technological innovation: a startling realistic artificially intelligent robot named Eva (Alicia Vikander).
But Nathan turns out to be as much of a unsettling enigma as his groundbreaking invention in the movie, which opens in limited release in the U.S. today.
The mystery starts with Garland's crucial creative decision to avoid making Nathan a socially awkward tech geek stereotype, a la HBO's Silicon Valley. When Caleb first arrives at Nathan's stunning mountain home, he sees Nathan in workout clothes, jabbing hard at a punching bag. "He carries clearly the sort of latent potential for violence," the filmmaker told BuzzFeed News after the movie's screening at the SXSW Film Festival. "Is it a deliberate intent that the first time he sees him he's punching a bag?"
Domhnall Gleeson and Isaac in Ex Machina
A24
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