Empire actress Meta Golding says her high-tech thriller Rabbit Hole reflects the uncertain times in which viewers are living.
The show about corporate espionage operatives taking on a power-hungry villain with a global reach is wrapping up its first season Sunday on Paramount+.
From writer-directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, it stars Kiefer Sutherland, Charles Dance, Enid Graham, Jason Butler Harner, Walt Klink and Rob Yang.
"Living today, in this world, there's so much data. Even today, just to get the Wi-Fi, I had to give so much personal information about myself," Golding told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"Also, there are so many conspiracy theories coming out of the [coronavirus] pandemic, so it felt like this is really timely when I read the script."
The actress also loved how nothing is what it seems to be in this twisty story.
"It was a smart script and there was some funny stuff there. It was multi-layered," she said. "When I was reading it, I thought, 'I would watch this.'"
Game of Thrones alum Dance agreed with Golding's assessment of Rabbit Hole.
"There's nothing two-dimensional about the thing," he said. "It is multi-dimensional and really intriguing."
ADVERTISEMENT
Even before taking on this role, the actor was suspicious of technology and how it can be abused or manipulated for nefarious reasons.
"I have nothing whatsoever to do with social media. I loathe it," he said. "I don't need it and I don't want it, thank you very much."
Golding wants the series to remind people to always question their news sources as photos or video footage may be doctored to influence people.
"I hope that viewers have a really fun time when they watch this and I hope that it makes them think a little bit about the society that we are living in," she said.
Golding's character Hailey Winton becomes an ally of Sutherland's corporate spy John Weir, but not right from the start.
"I play a woman who seemingly meets Weir innocently and he immediately doesn't trust me," the actress said.
"Then, his life explodes and my life explodes and we both kind of don't trust each other and then the story begins."
Dance added: "I don't want to tell you too much about my character because, otherwise, I'd give the game away.
"But you find out pretty early on that I am Kiefer's character's father. More than that, you won't know until the thing develops and you find out more of their history and so on."
The show packs a lot of action and story into eight episodes, which meant its stars were always on the go.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I was exhausted because I was also training and doing a lot of physical activity. It was really, really fun, but it was a pretty hardcore pace. I'm sure, for Charles, it was not because he is a superhero," she teased.
"But, for me, I was like, 'Oh, my God!' because there were explosions and I'm fighting with this one or that one."
Dance's challenges were more of the verbal than the aerobic variety.
"For some reason, Glenn and John threw a lot of lines at me - pages and pages of the stuff," he recalled.
"My memory is pretty good and I've been doing this job awhile now, but when I see a page of monologue staring at me, I think: 'Oh, my God! Not another late night learning this stuff!' I like to come on set knowing what I am saying and then I can play around with it. I'm very lucky to be doing a job that I love."