‘The Beast in Me’ Boss Introduces Claire Danes & Matthew Rhys’ Complicated Dynamic

Below, Howard Gordon introduces Aggie and Nile’s characters, their game of cat and mouse, and ponders a second season.

Introduce Aggie and Nile and what they have in common, even if they might not want to admit it to each other or themselves.

Howard Gordon: Well, the one thing about both of them, and it was very evident, is they’re the best at what they do. They recognize in each other a kind of excellence, and it’s a kind of excellence that is a lonely excellence really. I think people who are good across whatever field, I’ve observed this over the course of my pretty long lifetime, where people who appreciate each other, even across fields, get each other. They’re both clever. They’re both alone. And the fact that they find each other in this improbable situation, I think, is what really gives it an extra dimension — aside from the sort of plot machinations and the cat and mouse of it all.

Speaking of that cat and mouse, it’s there from their first scene. What had you wanted to do with that dynamic from the start?

Yeah, it was a classic in the meet cute and the pretext of their meeting as neighbors … What was super important was understanding where Aggie’s coming from, kind of anchoring her loss, anchoring her stuckness, that she’s bought this big ass house that is falling apart, that she can’t afford. The Shining is what came to mind. If this is a movie, which I hope it kind of is, it really sets a tone and sets the table for a woman who’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown — or maybe even past the verge of that nervous breakdown — and, in a strange way, professionally, Nile becomes kind of her lifeline to a subject and actually winds up holding up the mirror to her that forces her to — I called it being stuck. She’s so deeply stuck in her grief that it’s this subversive, perverse relationship that winds up unsticking her, but also forcing her to [face the past]. … The story really is about everybody who’s in a certain place using each other, helping each other and even getting their sort of karmic comeuppance.

It feels like Nile is used to getting what he wants and knowing what to say to get it. But how does or doesn’t Aggie turn that around on him?

Well, ultimately, it is two very, very clever people who don’t trust easily variously, sequentially coming to trust each other. I think one of the cornerstone scenes was in the pilot at that lunch where it was very important that they’re just enjoying each other’s company and these two wary people circle each other and the very act of her pitching herself to him as the author of his biography or the thing that’s going to be his get out of karmic jail card. They’re manipulating each other with their own things that they actually believe. He trusts her to tell his story. He genuinely thinks that the power and the momentum of that relationship and that trust is going to repair his image even though it’s irreparable.

There is the question of what happened to his wife. What can you preview about what we’re going to see, how that plays out, and how Aggie’s investigation is going to start, and what kind of trouble she might get into?

That is the case as Abbott, the FBI agent, personifies or dramatizes as the character who’s, for reasons that we don’t know right away, obsessed with this guy whom he failed to take down. And Aggie is playing with fire and putting herself in the lion’s cage, whatever metaphor you want to use. The trick here is, how does the past play into the present? That was something that we had to feel our way through from episode to episode: what’s enough to make people satisfied, to get closer to answering the question, but keep people leaning in without telling them everything.

There’s also the matter of the loss of Aggie and Shelly’s son. What can you say about how that’s affected their relationship?

It’s literally destroyed it. I think Aggie is squaring herself with both her dereliction as a mother, her narcissism as a writer, and as a partner. And I don’t — if you saw the movie, it was a great movie, Anatomy of a Fall, won the Academy Award — but the idea, my wife is a writer, I’m a writer. There’s professional jealousies. It felt like a really rich relationship. The loss of their child and the tragedy of their marriage in all its complexity really was something that we argued and talked about ’til the very, very end.

This is billed as a limited series, but could there be a second season?

I plead the fifth. The short answer is, I would say, sure.

Talk about casting.

Claire was cast before I came on the project — she is a producer, so she was always Aggie. In fact, she brought me the script. But Matthew was, I would say, the far harder part to cast because it reminds me a little bit of Damian Lewis in Homeland where a lot of people had ideas of what this character looks like and what he might be. It was very hard finding his voice, I will tell you, in the writing of it on the page. I think he had to be by turns kind of charming and seductive, but also dangerous, and he’s funny. I mean, he’s genuinely funny and has a sense of humor and catches you by surprise. But I think Matthew just is able to sort of hit those notes. And I was blown away, honestly. Whenever you cast, you just don’t know. You give your best educated guess. Matthew, at this point in his career, doesn’t read. He accepts offers, and fortunately, we were able to make one. You hold your breath, and you wait to see dailies, or you wait to see them on the set for the first time. I have to say, he so wildly exceeded my highest expectations for the character.

I smile every time I watch, and I’ve watched obviously every scene 3000 times. I still enjoy it, which I take is a good sign. I usually hate everything after I’ve done it.

The Beast in Me, Series Premiere, Thursday, November 13, Netflix

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