Back to the near-future

Westworld tests the boundaries of intelligence in a life and death conundrum, writes Seanna Cronin

WESTWORLD takes the concept of sticking to the script to another level.

HBO’s acclaimed sci-fi drama is incredibly complex – at times overwhelmingly so. Set in a near-future where lifelike android hosts allow humans to indulge every and any appetite at heavily-guarded theme parks, Westworld explores the murky moral waters of artificial intelligence.

In a world where reality and consciousness are fluid concepts, the possibilities are almost endless and Westworld’s scripts continue to surprise Aussie star Luke Hemsworth, who plays security boss Ashley Stubbs.

“You don’t get that on a film – only in the medium of TV and in particular this show, where the rules of life and death are stretched. It opens up a whole world of possibilities and I think that’s where we get the joy when we get the scripts by discovering things that you just have no way of guessing,” he says.

While the hosts – led by rogue android Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) – may have gone off-script last season and turned on their human overlords, the show’s actors must strictly adhere to what’s written on the page.

“It’s quite regimented … you basically cannot change a word unless everything is discussed at depth because every word means something and has an intense flow-on effect,” Hemsworth says.

“People (fans) know everything about the show down to when Evan (as Dolores) sits and is in diagnostic mode that she puts her left hand on top of her right hand. But without that following, the show dies.”

The 38-year-old actor, older brother to film stars Chris and Liam, says avoiding spoilers is one of the hardest parts of the job.

“I watch it with my wife and I don’t tell her anything so I get to watch her discover it,” he says. “Then we break it down … you have to debrief – I think that’s true for a lot of people. It’s a hard one to binge watch.”

Season three moves out of the confines of the park after Stubbs allowed Dolores and a handful of other hosts to escape.

“We know that when we left Stubbs he’d hinted at his past being that of perhaps being a host and he bizarrely let the hosts slip out of the park,” he says. “We get to tease that out and dive into that, which is awesome. It’s a beautiful progression for me and another level to the game. It’s something we haven’t seen before.”