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1 Sophie Thatcher has revealed in an interview with Metro that her character in the new movie Companion is ‘one for the incels’.
Sophie, 24, stars as Iris in a new horror romance that received glowing reviews with a whopping 90% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
The 97-minute film titled Companion is from director Drew Hancock and focuses on a romance between Iris – played by the Heretic actress -and Josh – played by The Boys star Jack Quaid, 32.
The couple decides to take a trip with a group of friends to a remote house and things almost immediately go south and it’s revealed that Iris is a ‘Companion’ robot.
Iris is disgusted to learn that her life is a lie and she is a glorified sentient ‘sex-bot’ and her boyfriend is in fact her owner and not her lover.
While in conversation with Metro, Sophie explained that she deliberately worked with the costume designer to create a style for Iris that she felt appealed to the type ‘incels’ who would be interested in this advanced type of robot.
‘I really just wanted to approach her in the most naturalistic and grounded way, rather than thinking about, you know, too Stepford wife-y,’ she said explaining why she wanted her character to have ‘quirks’.
‘Vanessa, the costume designer, and I got close. I brought up, like, all these French new wave actresses, because I thought that by the time that Iris has been made, they’ve customized their robots enough that she can have quirks and she’s not totally without personality.
She then laughed as she revealed the customer she envisioned for her character.
‘I always think that Iris would have been for, like, the film bros of the world the incels,’ she said with a giggle.
‘Like they wish she was her and be like, “Oh, I’ve seen her in movies before.”‘
After appearing in The Boogeyman, MaXXXine, and Heretic, the star has carved out a career as a scream queen in Hollywood.
‘I think it’s kind of just the way my career has mapped out, because people see me in something and they’re like, Oh, she could do that. She can scream and cry and be tortured,’ she said.
‘It’s always a really great acting showcase,’ she added. ‘They’re exhausting, they’re emotionally demanding, but they’re always really I leave feeling confident and like I worked my ass off because there’s no way of cutting around a horror movie.
‘You really have to put everything you have into it.’
In one scene, Iris is questioned by a police officer while covered in blood and mud while wearing ‘tight little shorts and barefoot’ after escaping from the house.
Sophie revealed the scene, which saw her speak entirely in German, was a gruelling shoot considering she was ‘freezing her ass off’.
‘The German scene was hard because it was, it was like 20 degrees. It was freezing that day. For some reason, we were also super behind’
She explained that production had taken a break because of the writers’ strike which meant she had time to over scrutinize her performance.
‘I had all this time to overthink the German scene and dread it, and let it play in my nightmares. So finally came to the day I was freezing my ass off. I think there was something actually great about freezing my ass off, because it had me less focused on f*****g up. And I was just like, just get through it. Just get through it. I went into survival mode.’
Sophie joked that rather than her flawless German, she is most proud of the fact that she managed to not look freezing cold in the final edit of the scene.
‘We had like, two takes, truly, like two takes to do that scene. One, close-up, one wide shot. And I was like, “Well, as long as I don’t like freezing, I’ve done something,” – and I don’t!’
Sophie also plays the teenage Natalie ‘Nat’ Scatorccio in the TV series Yellowjackets, a thriller drama series which touches on some horrifying themes.
She explained that much like Yellowjackets, Companion is not quite as it appears.
‘I grew up obsessed with the genre, and I guess it was kind of because Yellow Jackets is as well,’ she says. ‘I’m attracted to projects that aren’t one thing or seem like one thing and completely change.
‘And this movie is the perfect example of that.’
Although the trailer for the film that Iris is a robot, both Sophie and Jack think that it’s best for audiences to go in blind to this film – without too much additional knowledge about the plot or the various twists.
‘My friends have been like, “What the hell is your movie about?” And I’ve told them, You know, I’ve told my close friends, but I think ignorance is bliss in this case,’ said Sophie.
Companion is released in cinemas on January 31.
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