‘The Beauty’ Star Ari Graynor Talks Diana’s Secret Backstory, Sparring With Ashton Kutcher & More

After doing Byron’s (Ashton Kutcher) bidding and abducting Cooper (Evan Peters) and Jordan (Jessica Alexander), the Assassin (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) immediately found themselves being captured by Corporation’s goons. Then, they were trapped alongside the feds in a filthy holding pit where other prisoners had just been brutally gunned down. Instead of being murdered, though, they were saved by rappelling strangers who acted on behalf of a new player in the game: Dr. Diana Starling, portrayed by Ari Graynor.

Diana gained an axe to grind with Byron after he decided to ruthlessly pull the plug on her project, thereby threatening to unplug a generation of robots she lovingly called deacons. For her, it was an unimaginable mistake for Byron to choose the Beauty, and so he became an existential threat to her and her life’s work. She arranged for the rescue of this quartet in order to sic them on her boss and put an end to that problem.

Throughout both episodes she’s been in so far, Diana has proven to be a formidable (and fashionable) force that might just be the ticket to changing the fates of everyone who’s been duped by Byron. That still remains to be seen in the final episodes, but for now, TV Insider caught up with Ari Graynor to get some behind-the-scenes intel on the sharp newcomer to The Beauty!

I know there aren’t that many women billionaires, but did you look to anyone, maybe someone like Elizabeth Holmes, or any of these kinds of personalities to shape your character’s persona?

Ari Graynor: I didn’t really on this because the first thing I got was the big scene in Episode 9 [in which] I’m sort of working the room, and this eight-page monologue that had so much in it. It had so much information, it had so much backstory, it had so much vibe. It really was just this incredible character on the page. And because I was coming in later in the game, I hadn’t read the earlier scripts, I didn’t know where it was going, so I was learning about her in real time. And I think the great thing about Ryan shows, and this one, you can just get this one scene, and there’s an entire human being, an incredibly fun character to play. So I just was like, “Let’s see how much fun I can have with what’s here.” And it was really, really fun. I’d never played a character like that. So it was a real pleasure.

So one of her characteristics is that she wears some very sharp outfits. I mean, every single episode that she’s in, it’s just a new power suit or a new power outfit. How much did that help you get into the character?

Massive, massive. The way I feel in a fluffy, ripped sweater versus an incredible leather Balmain gold jacket… And the locations were so incredible, too! And, yeah, it’s an amazing thing — especially, again, getting such a gift when you’re coming in later into a process, and it’s not like you’ve been doing character work for months, and I can go on really deep dives when I’m coming into something early and looking at a whole arc. And this is like all the elements when you’re coming in to help create the person in real time. So Dr. Diana would be nothing without those incredible clothes and that sharp, sort of severe hair and lipstick. It really changes the sense of self from the outside in, for sure.

She did not take the Beauty, right? It’s hard to tell!

She has not taken the Beauty, but thank you! [Laughs.] … Hey, you know what? I guess we don’t know, but my understanding is that she did not take it. I think she was never a strong fan of the Beauty. She obviously has her own strong agenda about how she wants to change the world, and the Beauty just seems to be getting in her way.

A lot of your scenes are with Ashton. What was it like for you to kind of spar with him, especially the scene in the office where there’s almost a little bit of romantic tension?

Yeah, I mean, it was so fun to play with him. That was the first day we met. It’s always nerve-wracking when you’re coming to work, and you’re meeting somebody for the first time that your characters have all of this history with, and sometimes you read a scene and you really have a sense of how it’s going to be played. And sometimes you read a scene, and you have no idea how it’s going to be played. And in this case, it was a total surprise, what we found and this dynamic, and there was this backstory that he, in his previous form, had found me on like a tech Reddit board and then had been my mentor and brought me up since I was 18. And I think reading between the lines of some of what was in there, it feels likely that there was something that happened with them in the past, not in his Ashton Kutcher form, but in some other form. And so it just gave us a whole world of tension and power dynamics and sexual dynamics to play with. And I think they’re both. She is made in his image. So it’s really fun to have these two really strong characters that, even though he’s the Corporation and the one in charge, he has basically groomed and taught this woman over the course of her entire adult life, yeah, and now you better watch out.

I love that backstory. You can definitely read those innuendos for sure. What do you think it is that gives her this sense of moral superiority over the Beauty with her creation? As someone who’s skeptical of technology, I’m not sure I understand why.

Yeah, I mean, I believe that she believes in what she’s doing, and I believe that she believes she’s right, and I believe that she wants to sell herself to them as coming at this from a deeply moral standpoint. I also believe that that is not her soul, feeling, and intention. I think she’s a shark and a business person, and has a lot of her own power ego. She references herself as “the mother.” To say that you are the mother of the next iteration of humankind, you also have your own god complex. So I think she does believe that the Beauty asks some really tricky moral questions and shouldn’t be around. But I don’t think it’s necessarily because she’s so pure of heart. I think it’s coming from a lot of different places.

To put a pin on it, do you think she’s like a villain type or a hero type, or do you think it’s somewhere in between?

I mean, I think all villains think they’re heroes. So it’s really just a matter of where you’re standing in the story. I think she’s maybe a little bit of both!

The Beauty, Season Finale, March 4, 9/8c, FX

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