‘Mrs. Davis’: Jake McDorman and Andy McQueen Discuss ‘Completely Original’ Peacock Sci-Fi Series

Peacock’s Mrs. Davis has delivered a season full of nearly unbelievable adventures and mind-boggling twists, but now it’s coming to a close. This week, the Season 1 finale debuted, and it is every bit as stunning as we expected. We won’t divulge any season finale spoilers but suffice it to say, one result has been a brand partnership between Peacock and Buffalo Wild Wings.

The genre-defying adventure series was created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, and stars Betty Gilpin as Simone, a nun seeking to take down a world-dominating Artificial Intelligence. Earlier in the season, PopCulure.com had a chance to chat with two of the show’s stars: Jake McDorman and Andy McQueen, who play ex-bull rider Wiley and the mysterious Jay, respectively. During roundtable interviews which included other outlets, we had a chance to speak with two about the “completely original” show, their characters, and what they loved most about being part of the project. Scroll down to read more!

Pop Culture: Mrs. Davis could be described as a comic-book show that’s not based on a comic book. That’s very much the vibe, right?

Jake: Totally. A hundred percent. It’s very much the vibe. There’s a lot of good descriptions that have been floating around… Betty’s got a good one. She says, “No Country for Old Looney Tunes.” That was hers. It’s hard to top that one… Somebody had also been like, ‘Oh, it kind of feels like Watchmen.’ And obviously, they’re really different. But I know the similarity is that they’re both in a not-too-distant future, alternate future, and a heightened kind of reality. But the difference is, even though Damon (Lindelof)’s HBO Watchmen was a sequel and its own original take on Alan Moore’s comic book, Mrs. Davis. And you would think, it has so much lore baked into eight episodes, that, “How would there not be source material somewhere?” But there’s not, which I think is a testament to all of the writers. It’s pretty cool.

PC: OK, Andy, cards on the table… Jay turns out to be Jesus Christ. So, what I’m curious about is how much of the character did you know going into the project? Was it revealed to you over time, or did you know from the start?

Andy: The audition that came to me was just sides. I didn’t know who he was. All I knew was that he was Jay and he was the confidante and the love interest to Simone. Come the callback, a few months later, I found out that he was in fact, Jesus Christ. And so that changed things only in the sense of there was a lot more nerves and a lot of, I felt intimidated at that time. And then going into the camera read, having all that information going into the show, it was a lot of fun to have that, to bring that character to life.

PC: Jake, can you confirm or deny that getting to rock that sweet handlebar mustache was one of your favorite aspects of your character?

Jake: [laughs] It just recently left my face. We wrapped in November, so it stuck around for a long time. Yeah. It was a long … I mean, as were a lot of the choices on this show, because it’s such a vibrant show set-design-wise, costume-wise, look-wise, makeup, hair, all that stuff, it was a very … I mean, there was a lot of talks about that, and whether it should be a mustache, or it should be shorter. Or should it be stubble, or what? And we finally settled on the stache, and I’m so glad we did. Because I think it goes into, again, just the way Wiley wants people to see him.

I think we all agreed on the stache, and then retroactively Tara started writing jokes in the script about the stache. So she got Betty, or Simone, to start calling him out like, “What the f— is this? What are you doing?” Then, even in the scene in episode three with the flashback at the board meeting, where Bo walks into the board meeting, they made him have the stache that Wiley has in the future. So it’s almost like this subconscious trying to earn his boots, trying to emulate what he thinks it means to be a man. But all that aside, I did like it. I wore it a long time.

PC: Andy, did you do any reading or anything like that on the historical versions of Jesus, or did you just decide in your mind, “I’m going to do this character the way I would imagine him to be?”

Andy: I said to myself that I would pay respect to this character by doing my best to honor the script and what was written and what was in front of me. And that was a character who is compassionate, loving, caring, kind, and a confidante to Simone. And I think working off of that, I had a lot to work off of. It’s also a testament to working with Betty Gilpin was the best experience of my life, and it was a really fun rollercoaster of an adventure. So getting to that final, the last episode, it’s like having lived something very, very special in that particular space, which is very cool.

PC: Jake, I want to ask about working with Chris Diamantopoulos, because he’s so freaking funny in the show. What was the experience like working opposite him?

Jake: I’ll tell you what, that character was not Australian in the script. That is a-hundred-percent Chris Diamantopoulos. He came up with that on the spot in his audition with Tara and Damon, and Owen was like … Because he was like, “He might not even be Australian. I think he’s just doing an Australian accent.” Because the resistance is a bunch of losers that work out a ton, and kind of idolize Fight Club and masculinity, and it is boys playing with toys a little bit. So, I think … They’re not losers. I love them to death. I have a soft spot for the Durdens and the resistance. But there is a level of pretend. I mean, I think that is why Wiley ends up blowing up headquarters. Because he’s like, “No more pretend. Everybody needs to go out and actually get a life, and I’ve created this sandbox that’s just not healthy. It’s as unhealthy and dependent as an algorithm. Let’s get rid of it.”

But anyway, to answer your point, I think Chris was like, “Who knows? This guy could be from fucking Detroit. But I think he’s just so into this resistance and Fight Club that he just wants to take every Hemsworth brother and mold him into one, with a dash of Russell Crowe from Gladiator. And he sounds like this.” That was all him. And I can’t imagine that character any other way now, with any other actor. Plus, stripping down to my underwear, and trying to lock eyes with Chris in the desert, and stay deadly serious was probably the biggest challenge I had on the entire series. He’s just great, man.

PC: Andy, do you feel like playing the role of Jesus, and spending that time in that, impacted you as a person?

Andy: I do. I think it’s allowed me to also understand better what I would love to pursue going forward in terms of roles and in terms of characters and in terms of who I want to work with. This was the best experience, the best people, cast and crew. Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof and all of the directors. It couldn’t have been any better, the chemistry of it all.

So I’m very trepidatious going into the next project, but I’m hopeful that great people like this exist everywhere and nice people who are great at what they do. So I’m hopeful for the future with regards to what other roles look like. I just finished playing a really big bad villain in Outer Banks, and now I’m playing a really nice guy over here. So I think I’m going to stick to this side of things.

You can watch all 8 episodes of ‘Mrs. Davis’ now on Peacock. Keep it locked to PopCulture.com for more great TV and streaming news! [Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for time and clarity.]