Megan Suri on ‘Companion,’ toxic masculinity, and rebelling against men

Zachary Lee: The production notes that Drew and company were having a hard time finding the right person for Kat but that your audition tape blew them away because you balanced Kat’s ambition, strategy, and vulnerability. Can you recall what scene you did?
Megan Suri: You know what? It’s so crazy that it all ended up working out because when that audition first came my way and I did my audition tape, I hated it. I didn’t even send it in and even though I loved the project and I loved the film team, I told my team, “I'm sorry guys, we're just going to have to pass on this because I can't produce something good that I want to send to anybody to see.” So two weeks went by and my team then informed me that they still hadn’t cast anyone for Kat and encouraged me to try to audition again. So to not answer your question, I don’t even know what scene I did. I didn’t even watch the tape back after I did my audition. I just sent it in and let the universe take care of it. Then three days later I was headed to (upstate) New York for filming, which was insane. I’m so grateful I tried one more time.

ZL: It’s a testament to your work and speaks to how what you performed matched Drew’s vision. Whenever a director tries to do the trope of “friends go to a secluded place and things go awry,” I’m always curious about how the cast worked together to make that communal dynamic feel lived-in. Did you consciously build any backstories for your character or envision Kat and Sergey’s meet-cute?
MS: [Laughs.] I don't think Sergey and Kat had a meet-cute.

ZL: That was also my thought.
MS: Yeah, their first interaction was probably scandalous, if anything. But to your question, it’s a testament to our lovely cast. I know this sounds so cheesy, but nobody had egos. Everybody has been on some big projects and meeting them all, it felt like I was meeting friends that I've been friends with for my entire life. We were all working together in this beautiful mansion location. It felt like we were all at camp.

Kat is the first adult role I played and to get into character, I wanted to feel like a bad girl. We were filming in upstate New York and one thing that helped me enter her headspace—and this is not something I’ve ever had to do with my past characters—was I’d drive to set with a cigarette in my mouth and listen to songs that I never would've listened to before to kind of get into that “tough girl” vibe. I don't know if it worked, but it made me feel differently, and that helped with making me feel Kat-esque. I'm a square.

ZL: Love the ol’ “listen to songs to get into the headspace of your character” trick. Do you remember what songs you played?
MS: I honestly was just listening to some random radio station in Fishkill, New York. I was leaning more towards alternative rock vibes and old-school rock. It just felt right.

ZL: I went to school in Ithaca so I see how those genres define that part of New York.
MS: This was the film that made me realize how large New York was. There’s the city, but then you go a couple of hundred miles and there’s this whole forest.

ZL: It all feeds into the isolation and therefore the freedom from consequences the characters feel. Watching you in Companion, made me think of your role as Sam in It Lives Inside. Both characters are wrestling with some form of assimilation, whether it’s Sam trying to hold onto her Indian identity in predominantly white spaces, or Kat being the only human woman in the friend group. Have you thought about the connection between these roles and this throughline of your work?
MS: I didn't make that particular connection because I'd like to just focus on one thing at a time, but I do think that it is telling that I keep coming back to these stories. Companion holds up a mirror to society and how women—specifically women of color—are expected to fall into certain toxic standards and roles. One thing I do appreciate about Kat is that she's aware of the role that she's playing, and she's unapologetic about it. She owns it and tries to see where she can exploit others' expectations.

ZL: On the point of objectification, while the film is plenty gnarly, the violence of the film begins at the script level. Hearing Josh talk to Iris, language that seemed innocuous is recontextualized to be more cruel in light of knowing her origins. This is also well encapsulated in that interaction Kat has with Iris where you say, “You make me feel so replaceable.”
MS: I think a big part of this movie is this question of, where do we draw the line? One of the core themes of this movie is as we inch closer toward technology, we are also simultaneously taking a step further away from humanity. How do we bridge that gap? Where do we draw the line and how do we tap back into our humanity and treat people with respect? Why do we give dignity to our devices and other things instead of humans? How does all this translate to how we as a society treat women?

ZL: Your role is an interesting nexus of all these questions because Kat is also aware of what she’s “expected” to do and she is clever in how she manipulates those preconceived notions.
MS: What stands out about her is that her awareness is her greatest asset. Kat isn’t afraid to stand up for herself when it matters and as a result, is someone who Iris wants to model and embody. I took a real power in being a source of inspiration like that.

ZL: An underlying tragedy is that Kat and Iris are pitted against each other from the start when in reality, there would be great power if they worked together.
MS: To take that a step further, I think that Kat's really the only character who treats Iris with any real respect because she's treating Iris for who she is: a robot. She’s not playing into this game that the others are, where they try to tiptoe around the fact that Iris isn’t a human; Kat just keeps it real. 

ZL: You’ve also previously shared your fears around AI and how it may impact your vocation as an actress in the industry. Has working on this film or playing this character recontextualized any of those fears?
MS: Although the AI bots that we see in Companion aren’t a part of our present reality in the same way, it won’t always be like that; people are working on making them more of a mainstay and it does worry me. I don't know how many more movies we have to make about AI for us to realize that that may not be a good idea.

ZL: I want to offer condolences for your father’s recent passing, and I know it must be difficult to promote this film in the midst of grief. You’ve shared he was a support and anchor throughout your career, and I’d love to hear of a fun memory you have of him supporting you while on set or when doing press.
MS: You're the first interviewer to ask me about my dad, and I'm so glad you did. I love talking about him. I’m wearing his bracelet right now. He was so excited to watch this movie and I feel his presence with me and I know that wherever he is, he's so proud. He was the best dad, and I'll talk about him way more. It will be the only thing that I post on Instagram. This doesn't get talked about enough about South Asian men, but Dad is the man who taught me and my brothers that it is a beautiful thing to cry and to be emotional, and it doesn't make you any less of a man. I think especially for a film like Companion that highlights toxic masculinity, my dad was someone that embraced that emotional side of him and encouraged us to be like this. So I'm infinitely grateful to him.