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Claire Danes is sharing what drew her to The Beast in Me
The actress spoke with PEOPLE about her role as Aggie Wiggs and why the character got her attention
“I loved this character who was just kind of a wild amalgam of qualities that I hadn’t quite played before,” Danes says
Claire Danes‘ Aggie Wiggs is unlike any character the actress has played before, which turned out to be a big part of why she was drawn to The Beast in Me in the first place.
Netflix’s twisted miniseries, which arrived on Thursday, Nov. 13, follows Danes, 46, as a grieving mother and author who finds an unexpected potential book subject in her unusual neighbor, Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), a real estate mogul suspected in the disappearance of his wife.
Beyond the overall “world” of the show — which also features performances from Natalie Morales and Brittany Snow — Danes found herself pulled in by Aggie’s story, she tells PEOPLE. “I loved this character who was just kind of a wild amalgam of qualities that I hadn’t quite played before,” she says. “She’s really quite introverted and controlled and contained, but also has this animalistic energy, and that was in an enjoyable contrast.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys in ‘The Beast in Me’
“And she finds this very unlikely, very dangerous soulmate in her neighbor,” Danes adds of Rhys’ character, who she soon becomes friendly with. “It felt a little Hitchcockian to me. Tasteful and grisly.”
Also speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the series’ release, Rhys agreed with Danes’ assessment of The Beast in Me as mirroring a “classic Hitchcockian thriller.” The connection between Aggie and Nile, he says, felt like something he also hadn’t explored before in his previous work.
“It was certainly a relationship I’d never got to play before,” Rhys, 51, adds. “And that was the kind of crack in the center of it for me, that when the real suspense is just in two people talking, then you’ve got gold.”
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Aggie and Nile are “only one impulsive move from being each other,” Rhys teases of the new neighbors. “And it’s paper thin,” he says.
“The kind of membrane between is paper thin and thereby the grace of God goes the other one,” Rhys continues. “And I think they see that in each other. That it’s at any given moment, given how impulsive the two of them are, the stories can be switched so easily. And that’s when it’s kind of electric.”
Rounding out the cast are guests Jonathan Banks, David Lyons, Tim Guinee, Hettienne Park, Deidre O’Connell, Aleyse Shannon, Will Brill, Kate Burton, Bill Irwin, Amir Arison and Julie Ann Emery.
The Beast in Me is now streaming on Netflix.
Read the original article on People
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