‘I like this kind of grown up love story’
◆ Dark Matter’s Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Jimmi Simpson and showrunner Blake Crouch tell Rachael Davis about the existential sci-fi series
We’ve all wondered what life might have been like if we’d taken the path not travelled. If we’d had a different job, moved to a different town, even married a different person. Who might we be if everything was different?
Dark Matter, a deliciously existential sci-fi thriller coming to Apple TV+, explores exactly that. Adapted from the 2016 novel of the same name by Blake Crouch, the series follows Jason Dessen, played by The Great Gatsby and The Boys In The Boat star Joel Edgerton, a Chicago physics professor who is kidnapped on his way home one night. Taken hostage by a masked man, he is asked: ‘Are you happy in your life? Haven’t you ever wondered who else you could have been?’
Jason is abducted into a parallel universe where he sees an alternate version of his life, but he soon realises he needs to find a way back to his normal life – his wife Daniela, played by Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly, their son, and his career in academia.
As he explores the mystery, he meets dozens of versions of himself and delves into a multiverse of alternate lives he could have lived, and is forced to confront all the choices he’s made.
Despite the heady plot, Edgerton, 49, couldn’t wait to get stuck in when he first read the scripts for Dark Matter.
“I was like: ‘Great, I get to work with myself!’ I’ve heard I’m a fantastic person to work with, and now I finally get the chance,” he jokes.
“I was very excited by the idea of the challenge of playing two versions, or two sides of the same coin… But also, mainly, the idea that we get to explore these rich ideas that we all experience in life through the prism of this science fiction, realist sort of science fiction conceit.
“I thought it was a perfect harmony of those things. I mean, I love watching science fiction, but I often get lost in pure science fiction. The idea that this is very human and grounded, and for the most part, we’re in Chicago, in this modern time.
“But there’s this little thing, that is a way for us to explore these really rich human ideas. That was very exciting to me.”
“I think we all wonder about: What if we had done certain things in our lives differently?” adds novelist Crouch, 45, who is showrunner and writer of the series.
“Certainly, that was on my mind when I was writing the book, and working on the show. I think we all wonder about the path not taken.”
It’s a philosophical subject matter, one that is also rooted in complex quantum mechanics and quantum theory: it’s no coincidence that Jason is a physics professor.
Emmy-winning actor Jimmi Simpson, known for roles in House Of Cards and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, also stars as Ryan Holder, Jason’s friend and fellow physicist whose reunion with his college classmate at a local bar sets the plot in motion.
“It was a lot to sink my teeth into, but I’m also a voracious reader, I love conceptual writing, I love sci-fi… And I also love to think about what it’s like to be human,” says Simpson, 48.
“It’s just always kind of on my mind through our realities. And when Blake Crouch was investigating this human truth, this human daydream of: ‘What if I’d made the other choice?’ I was first really interested in: how is he going to follow through with this? And then to realise he’s kind of getting a little bit more deeper and articulate than anyone has before.
“This human daydream is often followed with a little fear of, like: ‘What if I like what the other option would have been, if I’d made the other choice? What if that seems like it would have been better?’ And what Blake, and the story, does is it kind of answers that for you, it kind of goes deeper than you’ve ever gone.
“When I got to the end, it was just so clear and evolved and satisfying that I just was pretty stoked that someone was able to pull it off.”
Despite all the physics and existentialism, Dark Matter remains a distinctly relatable and human tale thanks to the love story at its heart.
“I liked that there was this kind of like, grown up love story around a marriage in the middle of all this other really visually exciting stuff, action sequences, and then you just have this guy trying to get home to his family
– I thought it had a lot of interesting elements to it…” says Requiem for a Dream and A Beautiful Mind star Jennifer Connelly, 53, who plays Jason’s wife Daniela.
“I thought it was a beautiful portrait of a marriage, it’s kind of like a way of looking at this guy who’s like, they’ve been married for 20 years, and maybe he’s got some thoughts about what he could have done and regrets of, you know, like, having left his work behind, and feelings of jealousy for his friend who’s at a different place and made different choices.
“And then he’s on this journey, where he’s separated from his family, and he’s living in that world where he made different choices, and experiencing that, and navigating those feelings, and confronting all of it in a very real way…
“But I think it’s really moving… feeling how much he wanted to find his way back home.”