In AppleTV+’s “Dark Matter” mini-series, Joel Edgerton’s Chicago physicist is suddenly confronted with an alternate identity and an entirely different reality.
Edgerton’s Jason Desson goes out for a late night walk and returns home, not to his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), but Alice Braga’s Amanda Lucas! Almost immediately he’s on the run, trying to figure out how to get back to what once was – while living alternative realities.
“Something about the concept of this show allowed it to really live in a real world of thoughts that resonated with me,” Edgerton, 49, said in a Zoom interview from LA.
“Dark Matter,” adapted from Blake Crouch’s critically acclaimed novel by the author, illustrates, “That with all of us, how your accumulative choices have led you to exactly where you are today.
“Whether you feel those choices were the right ones for you — or you’d perhaps like to take a peek into what your life might have been if you’d have done another thing. Whether it’s about relationships, career or in regards to your own health, for example.
“There’s also that gratitude for one’s life when you look at it from an objective point of view. This concept, I thought, was thrilling. As propulsive as it is on one hand, it’s also a way to ruminate on things.”
As executive producer, Edgerton worked with the author for a different approach to the two Jasons.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ‘distinctively different’ but there are a couple of bonuses here for people who have read the book. For me, a significant set of the family’s backstory deals with grief. That doesn’t exist in the book. It does a lot to not only galvanize the family but creates a scenario that the Jason who’s the imposter version of my character, is ill equipped with understanding.
“Because he doesn’t have the 15 years of experience with this family that he’s taking over. There’s certain things he doesn’t know that he should know. Or that would serve him best to know in order to be a good imposter.
“So that was a really good addition to the story. The core of both versions of Jason are the same. They’re relatively decent people with different hindsight experience.
“Rather than playing Jason like some villain — which he can appear to be for the audience because he’s stolen the life — Blake and I thought it was worth exploring the guilt that could be attached to that.
“The remorse and the regret of making that decision to steal someone’s life — and how that would lead to a slightly different resolution between the two versions of the same character.”
AppleTV+ streams 2 episodes of “Dark Matter” May 8