Jessica Lu – Reverie

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I have a short that I cowriter and coproduced and costarred in that is making its way through some festivals. That’s been taking up some time.

Q) What made you want to be a part of the show “Reverie?”

A) Well, when I read it…It was just such a good script. When it’s pilot season you’re going out for a bunch of parts. I’m not an offer only actor so sometimes you read scripts and think you’ll go in for it. This one I read all the way through and cried all the way through, especially with a reveal about my character. It’s really touching. Also, I’ve never been able to read for a character that is this smart and one of the leading roles that wasn’t super sarcastic or kind of there as filler or background. I just read it and I was like, “Is this the role I’m going in for,” because she’s so young and capable and she’s the CEO of this company. She invented this virtual reality program and I’ve never been able to go in for a role like that. It just excited me so much that Mickey Fisher (the creator) thought this up and then I had this opportunity. It’s so cool!

Q) How was your character Alexis Barrett originally described to you?

A) Originally, she was described as a genius. They said she is really hip and eccentric. She’s a little enigmatic, defensive and humorless. I had to fight everything that I had. [laughs] I like to go in and pop a joke and Alexis is not that. She’s a workaholic. It’s hard for her to open up to people and I think a lot of people will see her as cold and not personable, but she has her reasons for doing so. I think a lot of stuff happened to her in the past where she feels like if she gets close to someone she may get hurt. So, she doesn’t allow herself to have a personal life or get close to anyone. She’s always working. The fact she is so young and a female in this tech world there are a lot of people waiting for her to mess up, so they can take the company from her. The investors are just waiting for Alexis to mess up, so they can say, “See! She’s too young and not capable of running this company so we’ll take over from here.” It’s her program and her company so she doesn’t have to walk around and smile at everyone because she’s busy. She’s busy making the program better and expanding upon everything to see how good it can get.

Q) Was there anything you added to her that wasn’t in her initial breakdown?

A) I think she harbors a lot of pain and that wasn’t really in the breakdown. It was just stuff that I know. I know when people are defensive…The more defensive someone is there is a reason for it. There is a lot of pain and a lot of trust issues. She’s not angry. I think a lot of people are misinterpreted when they are not friendly or come at you with a smile. People interpret that as anger and unfriendly. Alexis isn’t that. As the season goes on you’ll see she has this brother/sister relationship with Paul (Sendhil Ramamurthy). She has a father/daughter relationship with Charlie (Dennis Haysbert). She’s wary of Mara (Sarah Shahi) when she first comes in because she’s always been the fixer. She sees the problem and sees it from an outside perspective. She is like, “I can fix this,” but she doesn’t really have the personable skills that Mara does to be able to do that. So, I think when Mara first comes in she’s a little wary thinking, “Do you care about this program as much as I do? How are you going to be the one who saves it and fixes these problems and gets these people to come out? You can’t you just go in there and tell them to come out.” That’s how Alexis’ mind works. It’s not that simple because if it was that simple we just be able to get our clients to come out of the program. So, I think she harbors a lot of pain and doesn’t let herself heal from it.

Q) What was your process for getting into character?

A) I made sure to breath. I know that’s really obvious. [laughs] I think especially when I was on “Awkward” or anything else my characters were always very fast and quippy and always had something to say. I had some sort of relief if the situation was tense. I think with Alexis everything is internal and calculated over and over again. She might not respond with words, but she just kind of takes it in. So, anything that Mara, Charlie or Paul will tell her she will kind of just sit back and keep listening. I think that was the main thing. I had to remember to be still because, like I said, any of the isms like an eye roll I just had to fight anything that Jessica Lu would do. It was really interesting because I move a lot it turns out. [laughs]

Q) Do you think Alexis realizes the potential downside to her technological creation?

A) I don’t think so. In the first episode Charlie says there are seven users who are refusing to leave the program. For me, that’s millions of people in the program and that is a fraction of a fraction. It’s not that big of a deal. They’ll come out and we’ll figure it out. She really did create this to help people and to create something where we can experience the past, the future or really anything your mind comes up with. It’s a bridge to connect people and I think in her mind until it turns out to be a problem with more users who really don’t deal with their every day lives (they prefer their fantasy world) that’s when it will be a problem. I think the thing with Alexis is she really views this program as an opportunity to make the world better. I think when she sees someone is getting addicted to it…It can be that way with anything. You can get addicted to the internet, food, a relationship, etc. People get addicted to a bunch of things and I think that’s how she views these clients. It’s not meant though for you to escape your life. That’s how the company is advertising it – an escape from reality – but that’s not how she came up with it.

Q) Talk about working alongside costars Sarah Shahi and Dennis Haysbert.

A) They are so cool! I loved everyone equally. Most of my scenes are with Sarah and Dennis. Dennis was really like a father figure to me. We’d have so much fun and we’d be singing and hanging out. We’d be at craft services a lot and always be eating. He’s just like Papa Bear! He just has this warm energy. With Sarah, she’s just so charming and has this infectious smile. I feel like every time we had a scene together my character was so moody. We can never really have fun. [laughs] The dynamics between Alexis and Mara is kind of on ice a little bit that I can’t wait for our characters to have fun together. There is a little bit more in respect to the end of the season with the two of them, but I just really loved watching her work. She’s so good and so specific. Sometimes I would watch and get a little bit lost. [laughs] I’d be like, “Oh shoot! I have to pay attention.” She’s just so fun and it just really was a warm set to go on every single day. Even with Sendhil he’s really like my brother in real life now. We talk on the phone and Facetime all the time. Our conversations never last less than an hour when we talk once a week. We just have so much fun and laugh. Kathryn [Morris] was also like a sister to me. I also learned so much from seeing her work and just talking to her and hanging out. It’s just really, really cool to work with these people that have been doing this way, way longer than I have and are probably way better at it than I am. [laughs] We were at a Comic Con in New York last year and watching everyone flawlessly answer these questions…I was like, “Wow! How do you do it?” Everyone is so nice and wonderful and also professional. That’s the main thing, they’re professional. We goof off in the hair and makeup trailer and in our respective trailers, but we go on set and are like “now it’s time to work.” Everyone is heard and trying to bounce ideas off of one another. I hope we get to do this for a long time because everyone is so cool.

Q) What do you think it is about “Reverie” that will make it a fast fan favorite series?

A) I think on top of the concept being so amazing, we’re not that far off. There is so much virtual reality happening in our day-to-day lives. Some people will say, “Oh, that’s too way in the future,” but it’s not! This is going on right now. Everything that we talk about on the show with the program…Elon Musk mentioned something I think last year called “Neuralink” and he talked about having a computer linking between the computer and the human brain. His proposal is that you inject it into your brain and we made it a little bit friendlier, so people wouldn’t get freaked out. It’s an injection and then it goes through your neurons and that’s how you connect to the program. This is all happening and it’s very soon. There is a lot more of it in entertainment like Ready Player One and “Electric Dreams.” I think on top of that there is a fantastical world where we can start watching as an audience and think, “If I had the opportunity to do that and it was right outside my door or in my living room, what is it I would do? What would I dream up?” I think with each episode there is a lot of heart. With these people, whether they go into the program for a memory they can no longer experience or something they’ve always wanted to do, I think they will start to realize that doing things alone or doing things solo isn’t going to fulfill you. It really is about the personal relationship and experiencing things with other people. Each episode wraps up and it’s really heartfelt. I think people will cry, but in a happy way. In a “Oh man, I’m going to call my parents or hang out with my friends,” instead of staying at home and being stuck on your phone or watching TV. It’s going out and enjoying the life that you have. I think even though the show is about a virtual reality program where you’re in doors and into yourself, it is something that will get you to come out of your shell and get you to talk to other people about it and start a conversation.