CraveOnline: Who has the most difficult jargon?
Scoot McNairy: I would say we all do.
You play a debugger, Kerry.
Kerry Bishe: I have some. You, Mackenzie and Lee have a lot.
Scoot McNairy: Jargon and technical things are more of a backdrop to the story. A lot of the dialogue is focusing on the characters’ emotions and how they relate to each other. The conversations that happen focus more on relationships. I guess there’s computer jargon in there. What episode do you have?
Kerry Bishe: Four.
Scoot McNairy: Yeah, there’s some areas we have a whole bunch of jargon but all in all it hasn’t been some huge hurdle to overcome.
Kerry Bishe: What I like about the jargon though is that we have really great people like Carl Ledbetter working with us, consulting on how it’s all actually done. I love when people are good at their jobs and I love how specific it is. These people are really brilliant in this area that I know nothing about, so I love to watch them be good at what they do. And I think all the technical stuff and the specificity that the writers and everybody insists on goes a long way to proving to me that they’re really as intelligent as they purport to be, and I love that about them.
Which props did you like playing with the most?
Kerry Bishe: I bought some Speak & Spells on eBay before we started and took them apart with one of my brother’s friends, Dick Whitney. So we had a bunch of Speak & Spells and Mackenzie came with me out to Pasadena and in his garage took apart these Speak & Spells because I wanted to have a little hands on experience with what it was like. So I have some affection for, and also I think some nostalgic affection for that toy.
Is it a debaucherous time for the tech industry in the ‘80s? I guess it still is now.
Kerry Bishe: There are a lot of strippers on our show.
Scoot McNairy: I think the ‘80s, that era was very debaucherous but I don’t necessarily think this show and the creators of it and AMC are [focusing on it]. There’s a little bit of that but it’s not really a focal point.
Kerry Bishe: But it was inspiring. It was thrilling. It was what young people did. It was what they wanted to go to college for. I went to a Cal Tech party after the Facebook movie came out and there were kids in dark rooms coding because it was cool again. That movie made it cool to sit in a room at a party and write code.
I think we haven’t seen that in a long time and I think the last time that they did was in this period when it was exciting and thrilling and new and awesome, and you could do it at a party without being embarrassed.
Scoot, you’re in the Marvel universe now. Are there more plans for you after the One Shot All Hail the King?
Scoot McNairy: I’d love to speak openly about that, but as you know I’m unable to do so.
You were in Gone Girl also. Is that a very faithful adaptation to the book?
Scoot McNairy: You know, it’s David Fincher’s spin on it. I unfortunately can’t answer that question as well. It’s more for the viewer, but yes, there are some things that obviously whenever you turn a book into a film, unless it’s “True Detective” and you have nine hours, it’s really hard to compile all of it.
The general tone, the feeling of a totally psychotic, manipulative woman that concocts this plan to do what she does, that meat’s all in there. That was the most exciting thing about the book for me, the fascination that this woman had thought all of these things through and thought about all these things, backup plans and even the twist of how she gets out of it in the end.
I haven’t read it so it’ll all be a surprise to me.
Scoot McNairy: You should read the book. They jump from her perspective to his perspective to her perspective. Once it gets going, it’s a good read.
