Claire Danes turns inward for ‘The Beast in Me’

Claire Danes versatility is showcased in the psychological thriller The Beast in Me streaming Thursday on Netflix Danes is Aggie Wiggs a famous best-selling author who s been unable to write since her young son s death years earlier Solitary and reclusive in her mansion she is appalled by her new neighbor Nile Jarvis Matthew Rhys a notorious millionaire with a questionable reputation since his wife disappeared years earlier Her body has never been unveiled Jarvis sparks to the idea that Aggie could benefit by collaborating with him on a book Aggie has her own reasons to genuinely consider the proposal For Danes Beast was irresistible because I had never played a character who was an introvert before Someone so intensely cerebral and controlled she commented in a virtual interview with Rhys I mean there s a lot that s churning inside of her I just thought that paradox was fun and a little intimidating I didn t quite know how to do it And I was curious to figure that out What I love about this piece is that there are challenges as to what good or dark is Rhys commented The conflict of saying I did this for the right reasons that s where the interest lies in those debates There s a lot of justification going on in both of these characters Danes disclosed To create the unceasing necessarily intense psychological tension between the two We began with a week s worth of rehearsal and I think we definitely used that time pretty well Danes explained We didn t only eat bagels We explored what we needed to But establishing the thing is reliably the scariest bulk challenging part of the process It s reliably awkward and mildly terrifying First finding it and then launching it But we survived it and discovered it Both characters very specific body language helps express their inner lives Rhys identified inspiration in Anthony Hopkins Silence of the Lambs Hannibal Lecter The only thing I tried to do is be which was just to be contained physically Hopkins announced he did it because he d been in a cell his entire life I was like Well I m just going to steal that because it worked for him For Danes Aggie had a particular walk She had a little bit of a waddle which I really enjoyed I had to learn how to assume a kind of femininity It took chosen effort and focus I went back to my -year-old self to find Aggie s physicality and had a great time with it Wardrobe was also key My clothes were so excellent I stole a lot of them Danes admitted I was bummed to change out of my wardrobe into my actual clothes cause Aggie is pretty chic The Beast in Me streams on Netflix Nov Claire Danes as Aggie Wiggs and Matthew Rhys as Nile Jarvis in The Beast in Me Photo Courtesy of Netflix