Picking up seven years after the events of the Season 3, we meet the Westworld trio at a crossroad. Dolores is now Christina, a soft-spoken video-game writer. Caleb may have finally found the stability he desired. Maeve is in hiding from the corporation who is still on the hunt for hosts. Now in its fourth season, Westworld continues to ask the complex questions of how far humanity will take technology before their values cease to exist.
In this Goggler exclusive, we spoke to Lisa Joy and Evan Rachel Wood on injecting hope into their writing and performances.
Umapagan Ampikaipakan: Every time a new season drops, and because of the long period in between, I rewatch everything because I can’t really recall what’s come before. And the one thing I realized on this recent rewatch, is that your evolution, and your performance, and what you’ve done in this series is unlike anything in serialized storytelling today. It’s just incredible. And we’ve seen the first four episodes of Season 4 and it’s, wow!
Evan Rachel Wood: Thank you.
UA: I wanted to speak to you about the hopefulness or hopelessness of the series. I wanted your take on that because I don’t necessarily see Westworld as a particularly hopeful series. But that’s not a bad thing for me because I think what is reflected on screen inspires me to want to do better. Lisa, I was wondering what your approach was in writing the series. And Evan, what’s your take whenever you’re performing this part?
Lisa Joy: I mean, I’m an optimist. I feel hopeful. Despite much evidence to the contrary.
UA: I mean, between this and Reminiscence…
LJ: But I thought that was a happy ending. So I clearly have a strange barometer for what happiness is. But, you know, I think for me, this world is difficult. It’s a series of challenges. It’s hard for everyone. And what makes it livable, and what makes it beautiful, is finding people who see you, and who understand you, and who can take some of the things that have been the most difficult in your life and share that weight with you, and maybe illuminate some light on it.
So even though things might not always turn out great in the big battles – there’s never any guarantee in the big battles – but if I had a friend like Dolores, or like Maeve, kind of wandering around and holding my hand in some of the harder chapters of my life, I feel like that would have been wonderful. And so, hope for me isn’t about the macro story. It’s about all the moments that we live and the ways in which we bring light into them.
ERW: I always cling to that saying, that “evil never wins, it just never dies.” For all the bad that we see in the world – and by design we’re pretty much fed all of the bad images and stories all of the time that keep us afraid and divided – there is just as much good as well. And on the show, even with the hosts, all of the good things about them were based on something good about human beings, since they were sort of made and in their likeness. And I think Dolores even said something along those lines, at the end of Season 3, that they knew enough about love to give it to us and to give us the understanding of love. And so those things do exist. I just think we don’t see them as much. So I have some hope. I’m also terrified. But I definitely have hope.
Follow Us