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Oliver Jackson-Cohen wants Surface to keep you guessing

British actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen has been working continuously since 2007, but American audiences have only begun to get to know him. His performance in Netflix's 2018 hit horror series The Haunting of Hill House not only terrified, but captured many hearts as Luke, one of the youngest and most haunted members of the Crain family. Over the next several years, he continued his scares with The Invisible Man and another Netflix horror series The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Currently, he costars on Surface, a new thriller on Apple TV+. He plays James, the husband of Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who has just awakened from a suicide attempt with absolutely no memory of her past or who she is. But... as she starts to recover, questions about her husband, their relationship, and whether or not she truly attempted to kill herself begin to swirl and she wonders if she might really be in danger.

Speaking over Zoom with EW, Jackson-Cohen gets into why he likes to play toxic men, what drew him to the thriller, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What initially attracted you to join this project? I know you've worked with Gugu before, so was that part of the allure?

Gugu and I worked together like 450 years ago when we were babies and it was only like a day or two, but we've known each other since that time, we were about 18, 19. But I genuinely think it was the scripts. It was a combination of things — it was the scripts, I think Veronica West had written these. I'd never read anything that was such a page-turner. It was so compelling to read and not really knowing where it was going to go and then thinking, oh, I knew where it was going. And then the whole thing being twisted on itself again. And then it was Sam Miller, who was our main director, who did I May Destroy You, which was one of my favorite shows from last year. I just think it's just genius what they did and what he and Michaela [Coel] managed to do with that show. So it was that. Then also Hello Sunshine, they are so good at this type of stuff. You know what I mean? It was a combination of all of the things that all came together.

Was there any concern because you have a history now of playing these type of men? Was there any-

[Laughs] What does that say about me?

Exactly. Actors used to be afraid of getting typecast and doing the same role over and over. I don't think this role is the same, but it starts out thinking it's the same. What was your reaction to that?

Well, I actually think that's why they came to me from the get-go. Listen, I think all of us are afraid of being seen as one thing. I think that what was interesting specifically, if we just go for the past couple of years of doing Hill House to then going to do Invisible Man felt like a really ... Definitely creatively, felt like a really interesting move and then came Bly. That was like a villainous role and then I remember being like, I feel like I'm done with Bly, but then Maggie [Gyllenhaal] came along with The Lost Daughter. I feel like I can say this because I'm in it for 12 seconds but I just think Maggie is incredible and just that whole experience was just so life-affirming. But I think that there obviously is a concern and I think as well, you want to be pushed as an actor.

But I was like, "Oh, I guess this is different." The Lost Daughter character is a very different type of ... I mean, all of these men fall under a banner of toxic men. But hopefully, I think what I've tried to do is I've tried to differentiate all of them and find the humanity in these people. I think that's what's so interesting about Surface is that and if you go back to sort of previous stuff, I feel like the aim with something like Bly Manor was to find the human being where he's flawed and all of that. I think that what I've tried to do is to bring a certain amount of humanity into these people, that it creates a bit of a gray area of, the behavior is toxic. But are we all just bad? And so I guess it all becomes about choices and about the choices people make. But it's been a fun couple of years, exploring these very, very complex men that hopefully, well I feel, are very, very far away from me. That's been great fun. You know what I mean? Going to work every day and just tapping into all of this dark s--- that you don't want to look at.

What I usually hear from other actors is that the villain role is typically their favorite to portray. Because you can really play and explore.

Yeah! You can definitely play. Yeah. I think we do it with Surface, which is we constantly change people's expectations of who you think people are. We've been given these big lists of, "Don't say this and don't say that." So it's hard to talk about without giving too many spoilers away. But I do hope that with that show James is not what he seems for good or for bad. You know what I mean? That it lies in this sort of gray area where people will constantly change their mind about it, hopefully.

Women's roles have definitely been changing in the horror/thriller genre. Creators are now recognizing the complexities of humanity — allowing characters to neither be totally good nor totally bad. I think that's what you alluded to with your character here. But how do you think roles for men have changed?

Well, I think that it's about f---ing time that we start telling these complex stories. And it's been brilliant in the past couple of years that we're no longer telling the story just from a f---ing white men's point of view. It's become so clear that is not the world that we are in, that we have to have voices. I think that's where the most interesting drama lies, in these great characters. Nothing can be binary and nothing in the world is binary. It's never like this or like that. We all behave in ways that are contradictory in our real lives. I love that with Surface that, again, without trying to spoil any of it, that all of the characters, you basically amass all of this information and then you can decide and it will constantly change. Hopefully, what we've achieved is that you watch the show and you feel a certain way about someone in one scene and then 10 minutes later you can feel somewhere completely different.

So, if you lost your memory and you started to learn about you like Sophie does in the show, would you like yourself?

Oh wow! That's a really good question. Yeah, I reckon so. Without sounding like an a--hole, I think I'm pretty decent.

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