‘Westworld’ producers on Maeve’s heartbreaking tour, Elsie’s fate

Entertainment Weekly interview with Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, exec producers of the HBO series ‘Westworld’, answering some questions about Episode 6: “The Adversary”. Spoilers included.

I loved the scene of Maeve walking around upstairs to the orchestrated version of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” it’s sort of like a redux of our introduction to the upstairs level in the season premiere, only this time done through a host’s point of view. Between the music and Thandie Newton’s performance in that scene, I think it elevated that moment to another level.

Joy: It’s one of those moments where you realize as a writer that sometimes the best thing you can do is step back and let the actors and the director and mood and the music [take over]. On the page, it sounds like a cool scene. But then you see Thandie’s performance, and Jonah is a huge fan of Radiohead and has been very involved with making all these musical calls. So Jonah cut it together with our amazing editing team and when I saw the scene I started crying — I had no idea it would be this emotional. I didn’t know it would be the most important scene of this episode.

She’s seeing scenes of hosts fighting, hosts in love, hosts being born and dead, scenes of nature — it’s summarizing the human experience and then it culminates with Maeve watching a trailer for her own life where she’s both a captive and the star. I thought it was terrific.

Nolan: It’s a beautiful piece of music. Chris Kaller, our music editor, found that version of the piece. We put it all together and what could have been a gotcha moment — oh, she realizes what this place is — there’s an emotional impact and there’s also a weird dark beauty to it. The bison being moved around, the hosts learning their behaviors … a huge amount of decoration and design when into this. It’s one of our favorite scenes.

I’m really enjoying this show, especially Maeve’s arc which is an especially compelling one. Thandie Newton is incredible in the role, her ability to convey emotions through tiny facial movements is amazing.

How about you? Fan of ‘Westworld’? Thoughts on where it’s going?

For the rest of the EW interview, go here.

For the ‘Westworld’ website, go here.