Companion’s Jack Quaid Says He Apologised Inbetween Takes

Drew Hancock‘s 2024 comedy horror Companion tackles the brutality of power dynamics in relationships and touches on the unfortunate way some men treat women. It even got to a point where lead actor Jack Quaid had to apologise to our leading robot icon Sophie Thatcher in between takes.

Warning, this article features spoilers for Companion. Continue at your own risk, bestie!

If there’s one thing I truly love about horror movies, it’s the final girl trope. While the final girl is usually the innocent female lead who all of a sudden has the adrenaline to destroy the killer (or monster, or whoever is wreaking havoc in god knows what), in Hancock’s Companion, the ‘final girl’ is a robot named Iris, played by Sophie Thatcher.

To give you the world’s quickest recap (with hopefully not too many spoilers), Iris is a companion robot owned by Josh (Jack Quaid) who unfortunately finds herself in a sticky situation when a trip to a secluded cabin in the woods turns into a blood bath.

While Iris is a robot, Companion explores the dark topic of how some men treat women — which can, unfortunately, be like property, disposable possessions and to be frank, like sex robots — throughout the whole film.

Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher). (Image source: Warner Bros / Companion)

It’s explored during scenes between Iris and Sergey, a mysterious foreign billionaire played by Rupert Friend, and the relationship between Iris and Josh, which gets absolutely rancid.

With such intense scenes that include a lot of blood and violence, Quaid admitted that he apologised to Thatcher after multiple scenes because the character of Josh was so terrible.

“Josh is obsessed with power,” Quaid told PEDESTRIAN.TV.

“I think I struggled in the beginning… I had to find empathy for him, but he is a very despicable character, and I remember at the beginning of the first week, I think I started apologising to [Thatcher] after certain takes.”

Reflecting on Companion, Thatcher admits that there is an atmosphere in real life where there are many power imbalances in relationships and how that is echoed through Iris and Josh on screen.

“There’s so many power struggles within the movie and it goes back and forth,” Thatcher began.

“And I think there is that feeling within women of lacking control in this atmosphere that we live in right now, but I think when [Iris finds that power], it’s all the more empowering and exciting.”

While a horror comedy is something most people wouldn’t reach for think pieces and commentary on relationships and power struggles, Companion does a great job at tackling those difficult topics.

I also believe Companion is an amazing tale and exploration of Artificial Intelligence and how it plays into dating. After all, we are in the year where women are supposedly fucking robots more than men, according to this viral tweet by The Sun.