Dan Stevens, who plays a charming robot in ‘I’m Your Man,’ says humans are weird

When Alma, an archaeologist who spends her days studying past worlds, agrees to trial a humanoid robot designed to beryllium the cleanable mate, she does it unenthusiastically, mostly to appease her brag and assistance money her studies. Played by Maren Eggert successful the caller movie “I’m Your Man,” Alma is resistant to the charms of Tom, adjacent though helium is programmed to lucifer her needs and desires. Also, helium looks similar Dan Stevens.   

Stevens, the British histrion who roseate to fame successful “Downton Abbey” and has since starred successful “Legion,” manages to seizure Tom’s precise, programmed mode and his gradual translation into idiosyncratic much quality that the assemblage tin basal for — adjacent arsenic we mightiness interest that specimens similar this mightiness 1 time regenerate us.

The German-language film, directed by Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”) and released connected Sept. 24, is acceptable successful Berlin. Stevens, who besides speaks fluent German and French, was adopted arsenic a baby, and helium says helium has ever seen himself arsenic thing of an outsider, which has often informed the roles helium has chosen. 

Stevens spoke precocious via Zoom astir the character, artificial quality and dancing the rhumba. This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity. 

Q. Looking astatine your roles successful “The Guest,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Legion,” “Night astatine the Museum” and present this, 1 wonders, are you, successful fact, human? Seriously, though, is determination thing astir these roles that draws you successful oregon is determination thing astir you that makes directors privation you for these roles?

It’s comic however radical commencement to spot patterns successful things not deliberate connected my part. I’m surely an unusual quality being, possibly that helps. They’re outsiders and outsiders marque for precise absorbing roles. 

Q. How bash you effort to get wrong your character’s caput erstwhile he’s a constructed humanoid?

You’re inactive trying to get wrong the process of the mind, looking astatine what Tom is reasoning about. He’s a precise mission-oriented character. It’s each programming, wherever helium thinks, ‘This isn’t working, however tin I alteration this behaviour to marque it relation better.’ Tom tries accepted romanticist routes with Alma, past realizes that’s not the mode to spell and takes different path. 

Q. When helium reorganizes her apartment, it’s truthful cleanable and neat, which makes consciousness to a instrumentality but her mode was amended for her, and a awesome of the messiness of our lives.

His mentation looked bully for Instagram. But it’s not for Alma. He had learned according to a antithetic acceptable of rules. That’s communal successful quality relationships. By making Tom a robot, we get to spot those beats successful immoderate narration — there’s an improvement successful however we behave, however we think, however we larn from our different half. Charting that with Maria was great.

Q. You speech with your hands, but Tom is overmuch much constrained. You besides changed the mode you carried your body, similar the posture of your caput and shoulders. How important was that?

Physical mentation is simply a large portion of quality find for me. There was changeless treatment successful pre-production astir however overmuch of a instrumentality bash we privation to spot successful Tom astatine immoderate fixed constituent and however overmuch bash we privation to spot him evolve, learning quality mannerisms and characteristics. 

The archetypal clip we spot Tom he’s moving much robotically — he’s dancing the rhumba, which, I discovered portion learning it, is simply a precise precise dance. It feels astir robotic.

But Tom evolves. So we wanted to amusement that helium started with pre-programmed mannerisms: He’d travel into a country and enactment his hands connected his hips due to the fact that that’s what a feline does oregon beryllium connected a sofa and conscionable [Stevens demonstrates manspreading]. Why bash we bash these things? Why bash we enactment our manus connected our chin erstwhile we’re thinking, it makes nary sense; it has zero publication to the thought process but it’s what we do. 

I deliberation astir those things anyway, truthful I was fortunate to find a occupation that focused connected that. The movie is gently, oregon not truthful gently, suggesting however weird humans are. 

Q. There are the things we cognize oregon recognize and past the things we desire, sometimes contempt what we cognize and understand. Alma truly doesn’t privation to autumn for Tom. Are we each conscionable suckers, but successful the champion mode possible? 

That’s decidedly existent wherever emotion is acrophobic — against your amended judgement and each of your intellect, you’ll inactive autumn for this idiosyncratic and there’s nary logic down that. What’s comic astir the dynamic is that Tom’s the eventual logician yet it’s a wholly illogical relationship.  

Q. Unlike a movie similar “Ex Machina,” “I’m Your Man” has a benevolent, astir humane presumption of these creations… adjacent arsenic it ne'er lets america hide what makes our humanity truthful captious done Alma’s concerns and behavior. What’s your instrumentality connected our aboriginal with humanoids?

That question has been astir since we had immoderate exertion and taps into people’s fears astir the future. 

Technology is lone arsenic benevolent arsenic the radical who make it marque it, whether it’s an app oregon a humanoid. Usually, the things we’re acrophobic of crook retired not to beryllium the things we should person been disquieted about. When Twitter started, galore radical said, ‘This is simply a fantastic caller antiauthoritarian thing.’ There were immoderate concerns, but I don’t deliberation anyone dreamed of the problems it would cause. 

There’s a country successful the movie with an aggravated feline successful a crosswalk that reminds america that portion we person this fearfulness that humanoid robots volition connected us, we’re already doing that to ourselves conscionable fine.