For Drew Hancock’s upcoming robot girlfriend thriller Companion, Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Jack Quaid (The Boys), who play the film’s lead couple, bonded over their admiration for the comedy team turned horror filmmakers behind Barbarian. The duo signed on as soon as they heard who was on board with the film. According to Thatcher in an interview with io9, “I mean, Barbarian, anybody involved with that movie” meant she was game.
Thatcher stars as Iris, a woman who has no idea she’s her boyfriend’s emotional support fembot—which sounds it could be the plot of a rom-com, but in this case it’s definitely a gaslit thriller. “I met Drew, and the script was so amazing, everything just kind of fell into place, and I felt so much for Iris, and I thought that I could learn from Iris as well,” Thatcher said.
Quaid plays Josh, a classic “nice guy of the internet” type. “On the flip side, I felt like with Josh, I could learn everything about what not to do,” he shared. “It was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read in my life, and it really raised the bar in terms of like what I consider a good script, and just going to Barbarian for a second: I’ve also been a fan of Zach Cregger for a very long time. When I knew he’s producing this—I mean, I’ve been a fan of his since like, Whitest Kids You Know and I do sketch comedy, [so he was] instrumental … his Abe Lincoln sketch alone. [It’s] just incredible then to see him get into horror in such a cool way. I was like, I have to be part of this.”
Thatcher and Quaid pair geeked out over not only their mutual love for horror and comedy, but also Star Wars. When we asked Thatcher if there was a possibility that she’d reprise her role as that other (partially) robot chick she played, Drash in The Book of Boba Fett, she responded, “Yeah. Star Wars is a crazy world to be in. I just can’t go on Reddit, that’s it.”
By that, she meant that she too has been hit by the toxic part of the fandom. “I learned that the hard way. They called us Power Rangers. But I would love to. I mean the costumes, the world building, I can go on and on. A lot of it was green screen but there was a lot of practicality too.”
Quaid—who voiced Boimler on Star Trek: Lower Decks—is also a fan of that other Star sci-fi property. In fact, Star Wars was one of his first fandoms. “I think I was about six, five or six, they released these VHS box sets of the first three Star Wars movies. I watched A New Hope constantly, to the point where I like even forgot there was more,” he said, before imitating imitated his six-year self. “‘There’s more?’ [My parents] would be like, ‘Yeah, we’ll put on Empire.‘”
Companion is out this Friday.
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