Jack Quaid Didn't "Want to Be a Moustache Twirling Villain" in 'Companion'

"He's the antagonist of the movie, but from his perspective, he's the hero," says the actor

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

BY Alexander MooneyPublished Jan 30, 2025

"Find someone made just for you," reads the tagline for Drew Hancock's buzzy debut Companion. Anyone who's watched the film's trailers, or encountered its poster displaying a doll-like Sophie Thatcher with eyes eerily glazed over and lips curled into a twitchy grin, has already gathered that this is a movie about a robot. More specifically, to use the casual parlance of our hardwired companion's so-called boyfriend Josh (played by Jack Quaid), Iris (perhaps an anagram for Siri?) is a "fuckbot." This horrible revelation takes place shortly after Iris and Josh's arrival at the not-so-rustic cabin in the woods he's dragged her to for a weekend getaway, where his friend group's unfurling ulterior motives collide with her renewed will to survive the situation on her own terms.

Speaking with Exclaim! after a promotional screening in Toronto, where the actor dropped in unannounced on a crowd of amped-up attendees, Jack Quaid eagerly discusses the film's various polarities — and transfers — of power: "She's literally in my control at the beginning of the movie. We play on toxic relationships and how she slowly starts finding her own agency."

A tech angle allowed Hancock to implement tangible setbacks and achievements throughout Iris's struggle to regain that agency. "The most interesting part of making this movie," Quaid says, "was working with Sophie Thatcher and Drew Hancock and negotiating who has the power when, because it's always shifting."

As most horror filmmakers these days are keenly aware, images of feminine entrapment have populated the genre since its inception. Wading into a contemporary zeitgeist of tradwives and cybertrucks, Hancock sets this trendy thriller (in theatres this Friday, January 31) in an italicized near-future that forms a winking reflection of our present moment. His characters stumble through a world of self-driving cars and love on demand with a wise-cracking absence of self-awareness, perpetually one step behind the film's gear-shifting plot. The only character resourceful enough to tip things in their favour is made of metal, and even her fleeting victories are reduced to numbers games on a tablet.

The screenplay caught Quaid's attention right away, and the actor pursued it with the determination of not just an incipient collaborator, but a groupie. "What makes me want to choose a project is whether or not I would see it or be a fan of it if I wasn't involved," he explains.

His admiration had less to do with an affinity for genre (which he tends not to think about when choosing his roles) than the way the film flips the script on stories of inconvenient women. "He's the antagonist of the movie, but from his perspective, he's the hero," he remarks, clarifying his interest in the role of Josh, who wrests the spotlight from Iris in several passages. "His day is being ruined. He has this whole plan that's going awry, and Iris is ruining it for him.". 

He adds, "You don't want to be a moustache twirling villain or seem like you're somehow outside of the story," he adds, maintaining that Josh's motivations ballast the mounting stakes of the central conflict. It follows, then, Companion's snarky tone is most successful through Quaid's commitment to his petulant character's fumblings and frustrations.

To get in touch with the character's unfounded notions of betrayal and entitlement, Quaid watched movies like Her and Grosse Pointe Blank. Tapping into Josh's headspace — where an '80s romantic played by John Cusack might rent a sexbot free of cognitive dissonance — became productive for Quaid, who took "inspiration from people [his] character was delusional enough to think he's similar to."

Another unlikely source of creative energy came from the SAG-AFTRA strike, which paused Companion's shoot from July to November of 2023. Picking up where they left off in the winter posed some challenges; the summer shoot had them in T-shirts for scenes where they navigate surrounding wilderness (these had to stay on even in the cold weather), and painstaking prop work went into maintaining the impression of full foliage in the background. "But I actually really liked that we had a halftime," Quaid explains. "While we were on the picket lines, Drew was able to look at what he had. I think, because of that, he was able to dial in the tone even more. When we were coming back for the second half, the clarity was just right there. We were able to make our movie the way it was supposed to be made."

Quaid describes his experience on set with visible nostalgia, fondly recalling the eclectic, sometimes clashing tastes and sensibilities within the group that strengthened their collaboration. He especially admires Hancock, and feels like he's been very lucky to have worked with seasoned filmmakers like Martin Scorsese (Vinyl) and Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) while also taking part in the visions of a newer generation.

"I love finding these people that are making the big movies and working with them if I can. I also love seeing if I can work with these people who are up and coming," Quaid says. "People like Drew who are just incredible at what they do. It's exciting to be part of someone's journey in that beginning stage."

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