The Beast in Me is a Netflix limited series that features Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys as two morally ambiguous characters locked in a deadly dance of cat-and-mouse. Driven by a breakneck pace and unpredictable plot twists, the series explores the intriguing, yet unnerving, relationship between Aggie, a journalist investigating a new neighbor, Nile Jarvis, and Niles himself, a shadowy figure with a dark past.
What a thrill, then, to see these Emmy winners go toe-to-toe in The Beast in Me, an eight-episode Netflix limited series launching all at once on November 13. As Danes rightly points out, “The success of the show rests almost entirely on the dynamic between our characters.” It’s a brainy, stylish cat-and-mouse thriller driven by two slithery performances—each impossible to pin down, but vividly compelling from start to finish.
The show required two stars who were experienced enough to roll with the punches of a fast-evolving TV series, and have fun along the way. Danes and Rhys had only seen three scripts by the time filming started. “You kept turning to me like I was hoarding some answers and just being sneaky,” Danes says to Rhys. “You didn’t believe me when I said, ‘No, we have no fucking clue.’” Conan O’Brien was also attached as a producer. But despite the names already involved, the team had trouble pinning down Aggie’s counterpart, Nile Jarvis—a wealthy tabloid figure who’s just moved into Aggie’s small town in Upstate New York, trailed by ugly rumors that he killed his missing first wife. Nile takes a wary interest in Aggie, who then takes an even warier interest in him. “He was harder to define,” Danes says. The Beast in Me’s momentum stalled. Years later, Danes, also an executive producer, asked her old Homeland boss, Howard Gordon, to oversee the project as showrunner and writer. Gordon brought in writer Daniel Pearle as an executive producer. Pearle reworked the pilot with Rotter, while The Staircase’s Antonio Campos came on as lead director. The new team worked to streamline the story; Gordon says most of its original producers, including Foster and O’Brien, were no longer creatively involved (though they remain attached to the show). “Because of the complexity, it honestly had gotten overdeveloped,” says Gordon, who has won best-drama-series Emmys for both 24 and Homeland. “I call it putting five gallons of shit in a two-gallon jug. There were just too many ideas that were fighting for space.” The main task was figuring Nile out as a worthy counterpart to Aggie, and honing their dynamic: “The character, when Gabe initially wrote it, was a kind of Tony Soprano mobster. He became a rap mogul, and then finally a real estate developer in the Durst-Trump mold.” Even that final iteration was hard to crack until Rhys stepped in. “He was really the big epiphany,” Gordon says. “It’d always be tricky to play that character, because it really could get arch or cheesy—you just don’t know what it’s like until you hear it or see it.” For Rhys, “It was like my Home for the Holidays. I felt like the Robert Downey Jr. character stepping into this beautifully, ready-made family that had all this shorthand together.” “In that moment, I realized that this whole experience was a relationship between two people that was going to be incredibly muscular, challenging, athletic, invigorating, exciting,” Rhys says. Danes adds: “It was just effortless, playing with Matthew. You can serve anything, and he’ll serve it right back in a direction that you can’t quite anticipate.” The show similarly swerves with unpredictable gusto. Its engine revs up as Aggie, struggling with writer’s block, realizes her next subject is sitting before her. They come to an agreement: She’ll allow the jogging path if he’ll let her write about him for her new book. Then things go haywire. The young man responsible for Aggie’s son’s death suddenly goes missing, and Aggie suspects Nile may be involved. Nile’s new wife (Brittany Snow), a gallerist, takes an interest in Aggie’s painter ex-wife (Natalie Morales). The Hudson Yards–esque development project spearheaded by Nile and his imposing father (Jonathan Banks) starts bumping up against loud public opposition. And a spiraling FBI agent who’d previously been investigating Nile (David Lyons) pops up, spotting an opportunity for belated justice. All of this action informs the show’s central dynamic. “You had to believe that they were equally matched adversaries, best friends, and soul enemies. It was a really surprising love story, this wild, undeniable attraction of the mind,” Danes says. “They kind of rescue each other. They find company in each other. These deeply isolated characters finally discover a really perverse friend.” Rhys gives The Beast in Me an intoxicating menace. He came out swinging without even knowing the depths of Nile’s madness. “At times, I said, ‘I feel odd. I feel real mustache-twiddling,’” says Rhys. He credits director Campos with encouraging him to commit to the bit. Gordon says the actor managed to set the tone by balancing “voluble, articulate fuckery” with mysterious quiet. “On one hand he’s charming and seductive; on the other hand, there’s a flash of something that we’re not quite getting,” Gordon says. “Sociopaths are really tricky to write.” The Beast in Me is Gordon’s first streaming limited series
Thriller Claire Danes Matthew Rhys Thriller Netflix Limited Series Dark Mysteries Suspense Psychological Thriller
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