Companion is billed as a new kind of love story, and it is exactly that. It follows a young couple, Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher), as they go away for the weekend with two other couples. Things quickly take a turn for the worse and what follows is a weekend getaway that none of them expected.
Companion stars Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid are both incredible actors who viewers will recognize from many projects. Quaid has starred in The Boys, Scream, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, just to name a few. Thatcher is one of the leads of the series Yellowjackets, and most recently appeared in Heretic and The Boogeyman.
ScreenRant interviewed Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid about their new film, Companion. Both explain why they urge viewers to go in blind, seeing as little about the film beforehand, but also defend that if you know the big twist, you will still enjoy the movie. Quaid details what the key is to playing a good villain, while admitting that Josh is arguably worse than the serial killer he plays in Scream. The two also discuss the incredible stunts in Companion, as well as which ones they drew the line at performing themselves.
Sophie Thatcher & Jack Quaid Urge Viewers To Go Into Companion Blind
“I think that adds for interesting layers.”
ScreenRant: What is your approach to playing a character that maybe the audience doesn’t know everything about at the beginning of the film?
Sophie Thatcher: I feel like it’s different with Iris, because she doesn’t know anything about what’s going to happen with her, so she’s there with the audience. And I think that’s also why it could be important for audiences to go in blind, because then you get to follow Iris’ journey from her headspace, and it’s just as much of a shock to them as it is to her. I think that adds for interesting layers.
Jack Quaid: Yeah, I’m right there with you. I think going in blind to this movie is the way to go. Obviously, you know, it’s not a, I would say, twist movie, where, if you know the twist, you know the movie. I think it still stands on its own outside of that. But that’s definitely the way to go in.
Jack Quaid Explains The Key To Playing A Good Villain
“All I was trying to do on set was to find empathy for the character.”
ScreenRant: Jack, you play a lot of nice guys. You also play some not-so-nice guys. Richie in Scream was not so great. Josh is definitely not.
Jack Quaid: No. Arguably worse. And Richie is a serial killer.
ScreenRant: What do you think is the key to playing a good villain?
Jack Quaid: I’d say the key to playing a good villain is the fact that, when you’re playing the character, they don’t know they’re the villain. I think Josh is a really good example of that. Really, all I was trying to do on set was to find empathy for the character, because he really is despicable.
Ultimately, it came down to, I just think he’s a person who hasn’t heard the words “I love you” a lot in his life. He’s super insecure, and that causes a person to do, sometimes, terrible things. So that’s kind of where I operated out of.
Sophie Thatcher Explains That Iris Doesn’t Know She Is In A Toxic Relationship
“When you’re in a toxic relationship, you’re not aware of it until afterward.”
ScreenRant: Iris is stuck in a controlling, abusive relationship. Can you talk about getting into that headspace?
Sophie Thatcher: It’s strange, because she doesn’t know that. She’s not aware because she’s given herself wholly to him and doesn’t know what she wants or what she needs, or that she has her own mind, and she can make and decide her own actions, which, of course, she can, but she’s not aware.
It’s interesting when you’re in a toxic relationship, you’re not aware of it until afterward. So that was interesting, playing the naïveté, but it is so real within that.
Sophie Thatcher & Jack Quaid Reveal Their Most Challenging Stunts On Companion
“I’m in projects with pretty gnarly things happening. And that, for some reason, was my line, I don’t know why.”
ScreenRant: There are some incredible stunts in Companion. Is there one that was most challenging for you to pull off?
Jack Quaid: I definitely didn’t do as many as [Sophie] did, but there was one that, it’s in the trailer, so I feel like I can talk about it, at one point, his hand gets slammed in a car door. And I didn’t, I didn’t. I had my double do that. There’s something about it. And I’ve done pretty crazy…
Sophie Thatcher: It was awful. It was awful having to act that out.
Jack Quaid: Yeah, because you’re the one doing it. There’s a little thing stopping it, so it’s not actually getting smashed, but it’s just too much. I think I have actually crushed my hand in a pretty heavy door one time, and it was just, nothing broke, but I remember that day, I was like, Can we please have a stunt double do this?
Sophie Thatcher: Yeah, that was brutal.
Jack Quaid: There’s something about it. So, like, just getting the fingers, I don’t know, and I do, you know, I’m in projects with pretty gnarly things happening. And that, for some reason, was my line, I don’t know why.
Sophie Thatcher: No, I get it. I get it. Yeah, for me. I mean, you’ve seen the trailer, me being slid across the mud with Harvey, that was always difficult, because you’re also, I mean, I’m used to being covered in mud and blood, but something about that, just because it was a really H๏τ disgusting day, I was like, Man, this sucks.
Jack Quaid: Yeah, it got really H๏τ and gross for a second there.
More About Companion (2025)
New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you “The Notebook”—and the unhinged creators of “Barbarian” cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story…
Check back soon for our other Companion interviews:
- Drew Hancock
- Harvey Guillèn, Lukas Gage & Megan Suri
Companion comes exclusively to theaters on January 31.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
