Jack Quaid says crew rooted against his villain in ‘Companion’ during filming

Ever walk into a room and get the feeling that everyone hates you? Jack Quaid lived that experience every day on set while filming Companion.

The Boys star subverts expectations in the twisty romantic thriller from writer-director Drew Hancock — when he first appears onscreen as Josh, he seems like the quintessential “nice guy” who just wants his nervous girlfriend Iris (Heretic‘s Sophie Thatcher) to get along with his friends during a weekend getaway. He can sense that she’s feeling uncomfortable as they arrive, so he gives her a pep talk and her space. But as the wickedly sharp movie hits the ground running with the reveal that Iris is actually an android bought and programmed by Josh, it becomes quite clear that this isn’t just a toxic relationship, but that Josh is also a really, really bad guy with dark secrets of his own.

Quaid relished the chance to play the true villain of the story, but he tells Entertainment Weekly that had unintended consequences during filming. “There’s this kind of interesting thing that happens on a movie set or a TV set where — and it makes sense! — the crew will kind of rally around the character who’s the protagonist,” Quaid says. “They’ll root for the protagonist, and that’s great, you want that. I remember they would kind of say little joking asides about Josh, which are totally deserved, but I had to kind of tune them out.”

The actor laughs as he admits he can’t remember any of the specific jokes he endured from the crew during filming. “But it was just kind of a general vibe,” he adds. “I tried to see it as a good sign. I think it is, if the crew, who’s your first audience, is rooting for the protagonist and against the antagonist, that’s a thousand percent what you want. And I basically just decided to take it as ‘Okay, we may be on the right track here.'”

Quaid had always experienced that phenomenon on the other side, but he still didn’t anticipate quite how much the crew would root against him during filming. “I’ve been there when that’s been done to the person playing the antagonist, and that makes sense, but you have to kind of tune that out,” he says. “You have to trick yourself into believing that the character you’re playing is a good guy, and I’m so happy that I don’t have to do that anymore, because he’s a real s—head. But that was the challenge of it, because I don’t do that too often.”

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But the actor wants to make it very clear that he wants you to root against his character, and hopes that audiences won’t question who the hero is by the end of Companion after things take a very bloody turn for the group at the cabin.

“Josh is very much the antagonist of this movie, but he’s a villain that does not know he’s the villain,” Quaid says. “He very much thinks that he’s the hero of his story, and I think the best villains have that mentality. The biggest challenge in playing him was I’m trying to find empathy for him — after, now that I’m done with the part, I can be, like, ‘Screw that guy,’ but while I’m playing him, I have to make sure that I’m not judging him too hard.”

As Quaid dived deeper into what makes Josh tick, he came up with a rich backstory for how he became the person he is at the start of the movie. “He’s a character that has not heard the words ‘I love you’ a lot in his life,” he says. “I think he’s a very, very insecure person. He’s probably the most insecure person I’ve ever played, and I think ultimately that’s what drives him to make all of the pretty despicable decisions that he does.”

Companion is now playing in theaters.