Please welcome Thandie Newton.
(cheering and applause)
What a lovely, warm welcome.
-Oh, they're wonderful. -Hello, hello.
They're wonderful. And you are wonderful, as well.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
I am delighted to be here.
I am such a huge fan of Westworld.
It's one of the most frustrating shows I've ever watched.
-Why? -Because, like, you're always like,
"It's... They're gonna kill...
"That's the person. That's the robot.
No, that's a real... That's a..."
And then it happens again, and you're like,
-"No, don't do it again. -Yes, I know.
-Don't do it again." -You should try
-actually acting in it. It's just as frustrating. -No.
It's just too much. It's just so much.
-But that clip, for me, -Yeah.
that we just played really, in many ways,
sums up, for me, your character on the show.
-Ooh. -A powerful woman who knows how to use the tools
that men use against her against them.
Is that how you see your character on the show?
Wow.
Um, against them, against him... Mm.
Well, first and foremost, she's a robot.
She's not, you know...
She's a thing.
-Is she a thing, though? -A thing, my darling.
-If a thing thinks... -Absolutely.
If a thing thinks, though, like us,
is it still a thing?
Is that not the only thing that makes us...
That's one of the things I love about the show,
is that we see Maeve as a woman.
-Right. -You see her as a woman.
-Right. -I... By the end of season one,
I saw her as a woman.
She's a robot. She is a thing,
and that's one of...
that's what gets tackled, really, I feel like,
-in season two. -Right.
It's just, like, constant reminders
that she's a thing, that they're things.
And that's... I mean, really,
that's where the harsh reality of the show
finds its, you know, finds its core, is that...
Um, what do you...
You know, how do you... how you treat a thing.
-Right. -And we've got to really think about this,
because we consider other human beings as things.
-Let's face it. -Wow.
Um, and that...
Yeah, I think that is where Westworld does reflect life,
'cause people say, "Oh, you know,
"if you could go to Westworld,
would you want to go, and..." (stammers)
And I think, "Well, actually, I feel like Westworld's
happening all around us."
You can go places where you can
-do horrific things to people and nothing happens. -Right.
Aid workers go and do their jobs overseas
-and do horrific things to people, -Right.
even though they're aid workers.
We're seeing this stuff happen all the time.
So I feel like Westworld is here amongst us,
and we're just not seeing it, we're not accepting it.
We are treating human beings like things.
That is a terrifying prospect when you think about it,
-because the show... the show... -It's not a prospect.
-It's actually (bleep) happening! -Right.
But I'm saying... but I'm saying the fact that Westworld
being the world is, like,
a terrifying idea, because Westworld is...
it's all concentrated. It seems like it all centers
around violence, and-and it's-it's this...
-it's this world... -No, you can go... you can go and have
-a watercoloring holiday. You can, -(laughs) That's true.
you can. I mean, you know, you see people painting shit.
If you were to go to Westworld, what would you choose to do?
I wouldn't go to Westworld until it was affordable for everyone,
-because it's very expensive to go. -No, but if you could go,
-what would you do? -I couldn't, 'cause I couldn't afford it,
-babe. -But if you could go. You have to give me...
That's what I'm saying though. What if... If you could go.
But that's why I don't want to go,
'cause it's got to be affordable for every (bleep) person!
I like... I like that you are the...
-you're the Bernie Sanders of Westworld. -But that's...
-Oh, no! Really? -I like that. That's so much fun.
You're just like, "I don't want to go there."
Let me ask you this question, when-when Westworld premiered,
I remember there was, like, a lot of criticism.
They were like, "Oh, this show
"is just about objectifying women.
-"It's just about having women naked... -Well, that was wrong.
"naked onscreen, and these women have no power,
-no agency, no nothing." -Wow.
-And then you watch the show develop, -Oh, yeah.
and, all of a sudden, the women are the ones
who are running the revolution.
They're the ones who are changing what's happening.
Did you... did you want to, like, tweet out spoilers, maybe,
to the fans who were just like, "This is not about women!"
Did you want to be like, "Shut up! Here's what happens."
I knew, I knew. When I first, um, met the showrunners,
um, Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy,
um, I was a bit weirded out,
because I knew that it was, you know, naked
for 75% of the show and playing the madam of a brothel.
I'm like, "Do you know that I've been a-an activist
"fighting violence against women,
sexual violence against women, for 20 years?"
It's like, "Why are you calling me? This is weird."
-Um, but I was intrigued, 'cause I wanted to hear. -Right.
How could you possibly? 'Cause they're really smart people.
I love the work they've done before.
Jonah's work as a writer. Inception,
The Dark Knight. I mean, amazing material.
-Memento, one of his first movie. -Right, right, right.
Um, and then I realized that they wanted to subvert
this stereotype.
And I was like, "Get me naked.
Get me naked." And this... Here's the thing,
I've been naked in movies, and I've been exploited.
I've... And I've-I've literally....
I-I was sexually abused.
My-my na... my nakedness,
my nudity has been the source of deep trauma and shame
-in the environment of-of the film industry. -Right.
So for me to take my clothes off,
all of them, is a statement
that I never thought I would make.
And I did it because, this show, what it is doing
to empower women and to make us really, really understand
the vulnerability of a defenseless human being,
not just a woman but a defenseless human being,
and the only way we could do that is by, you know,
the shock factor of-of nudity
and also seeing nudity not in a sexual way
but in the way where you don't really want to look,
because they are being treated like animals in a factory farm.
-Right. -It is simply not sexualized.
I am so excited for season two.
I'm one of those people who binges all of it.
I do not need spoilers. I do not need to get anything.
I just need to know that you're in the show and you're gonna
-be amazing. Thank you so much for being here. -Oh, I love you.
I appreciate every moment of you onscreen.
Season two of Westworld premieres April 22
at 9:00 p.m. on HBO!
Thandie Newton, everybody!