Oscar Winner Mark Rylance Brings A Wealth of Humanity To His Work In The Artificial Intelligence Audio Drama ‘Spark Hunter’

Mark Rylance is the very definition of a multifaceted actor, able to jump readily from theater to film to television without either breaking a sweat or blinking an eye, having worked with Steven Spielberg on several occasions, including his Oscar-winning work in Bridge of Spies and his box office smash Ready Player One. One area of acting that he’s rarely ventured into, however, is that of the audio drama.

That changed recently with the assistance of Trudie Styler, who provided Rylance with a starring role in the new dramatic podcast series Spark Hunter, in which he plays a genius in artificial intelligence whose finds himself face to face with his most advanced creation (voiced by Rebecca Ferguson), an A.I. which is… Well, let’s just say it’s suffering through some growing pains. 

Decider had the opportunity to chat with Rylance about this new dramatic endeavor, but he was also kind enough to tackle a few topics from elsewhere in his catalog, including the first time he didn’t work with Spielberg, making Bob Dylan laugh, the challenges of his 2001 film Intimacy, and a very unique version of Macbeth. 

DECIDER: I will say that I’m currently halfway into the fifth episode of Spark Hunter, and I’m really enjoying it. 

Mark Rylance: Oh, that’s great!

I’m just sorry I didn’t have time to finish the whole series before our conversation. But I’m definitely at a point where I’ll be seeing it through to the end.

Oh, good! That’s great to hear. So it’s caught your imagination!

To say the least. Well, my first question is the obligatory secret origin story. How did you find your way into this project in the first place? Did they come to you and pitch you on it?

I was doing some work with Kenneth Miller on his ancestors, the Carnegie family, and he brought it up and talked about it with such a deep passion and philosophical interest… I didn’t even understand everything he was talking about! [Laughs.] But I could see it was really a passionate project for him, and…I think at that time he actually wanted to make it a film. But when I read it, I said, “This is very dialogue-heavy for a film. Is there maybe another way of making it in this version? And then you could adapt it or bring it down to make a film version. But this sounds like radio to me.” And I didn’t know much about technology, but he then developed it into a podcast and asked me who would direct. And I’ve always wanted to work with Trudie Styler, so I suggested Trudie, and – bless her – she came onboard, and that made it a great pleasure. So that’s how I got involved!

Well, obviously, you’ve got at least a little bit of sci-fi in your background. Are you actually a sci-fi fan, per se?

That’s the kindest thing that anyone has ever said to me: that there’s only a little bit of sci-fi in my background. [Laughs.] I mean, 2001: A Space Odyssey and stuff, but I haven’t seen Dune yet, and I’m not a great reader of science fiction. So this was very interesting to me. But I have been reading a lot about A.I. and robots ever since high school, when I was in a version of Rossum’s Universal Robots (by Karel Capek), where the word was first invented, apparently. 

How did you enjoy working with Rebecca Ferguson? Did you actually record it at least in her general vicinity or was it a virtual situation?

No, that was very nice: we were all together for a week or so, however long it took. But Trudie and Rebecca and I, and Charles Dance and Sting and…I think those were the people I met that summer when we recorded it. And then later on Vanessa Redgrave and the other people came onboard. But Rebecca and I sat across the table reading it, and that was really fun. We’d look in each others eyes. We played it with each other very close to the reality of sitting together at a dinner table. 

I will say that it feels very much like a theater piece, the way it unfolds with the two of you. Which I guess you’d call a two-hander.

Yes, it could be a theater piece, too, you’re right. It’s a two-hander, yeah. It very much is, the subject matter of it. Though there are incredible things described that you could film, the subject matter, really, is the relationship between the creator and his creation, isn’t it?

It is indeed. And I will say that, in a word where people find themselves forced to multitask, I don’t know that you can fully appreciate this production without solely listening to this. It’s very intellectual, as you said.

Yeah, it’s complex. It was quite a task just to humanize it and make sure it was coming from a real need. That’s why I think we wouldn’t have been able to do it on Zoom. We had to – with Trudie’s help – make a connection and keep the need alive through it. Yeah, it’s an immersive piece in a way, isn’t it? You go down into places where you’re not quite sure where you are, and then you emerge again, and then you go down again. 

But it becomes hypnotic in the process. When I first started listening to it, I was reading email, and then I realized, “I need to stop this and just focus on what I’m listening to.” Which is high praise.

Well, thank you. Good, I’ll pass that on!

So what was your history with audio dramas? This is obviously considered a podcast, but in general, had you done anything like this for radio, for example?

I did earlier in my career. And I’ve read Keats’ poetry, but I think at that time it was for cassette tapes. [Laughs.] I hear they’re coming back, though! But, no, I haven’t really done a lot of this stuff. I’ve been caught up in live theater and, now, in film and television. But this was fun. It was very focused. And intimate. And those are very nice aspects of any job you do. If you can get to those places, you’re happy. 

So would you say it piqued your interest enough to do another one if something else like this came down the pike?

Yeah! Yeah, it was a subject matter that interested me. And the relationship with artificial intelligence is very critical and is happening all over. I mean, you can’t walk down the street without bumping into someone who’s got a closer relationship to their phone than the walkers on the pavement. I was riding down the bikeway along the Hudson this morning, and you’ve just got to be so careful about all of the artificial intelligence in scooters and bicycles and things as they’re whipping along. I was thinking about this, and our inability to know if something is true or not… That seems to be a lot to do with artificial intelligence and our skills at discerning whether someone is lying, making things up, speaking very honestly from the heart… Those are diminishing a little bit, I think, as people don’t talk with each other so much, perhaps, or don’t talk to strangers, or our suspicions of algorithms and different things that are involved in bringing us news and opinions. 

So it’s not so far-fetched, this story about someone having a conversation with an A.I.

Absolutely not. I think there are people who are doing that already. At a cruder level than in this story, obviously. This story is a little bit in the future, and the sophistication of Rebecca’s character is complex. But thinking about that, I think that’s probably partly why it is very dense: because the conversation is between an incredibly dense computer and a human being who was part of the team that created that computer. So it wouldn’t be very believable if it was a shallow conversation, would it?

I wanted to ask you about a few things from your back catalog. You’ve worked with Steven Spielberg a few times in your career, of course, but I recently discovered that you had an opportunity to work with him even earlier than you did, back in 1986.

That’s right, yeah. I thought when I turned down Empire of the Sun, I’d never work with him again nor even see him again. But fate had a different path! That was a powerful thing to turn down, because my grandfathers spent their time in Japanese prisoner of war camps, one of them in a civilian camp like that book and the film described. 

Not long after turning that down in favor of a theater opportunity, you did get another film opportunity, one that gave you a chance to work with Bob Dylan.

[Cheerily.] I did work with Bob Dylan, yeah! Hearts of Fire…or Farts for Hire, as it was called on set. [Laughs.] Hearts of Fire with Bob. I got to play bass with him, because I was a member of the band. I even made him laugh once. I was wearing glasses – I was a shy bass player, like Paul McCartney with glasses – and my glasses had got tilted down looking at some rather violent punk behavior in the crowd, and he raised my glasses to give me confidence, and I said, “Cheers!” And it made him laugh. It was an unconscious joke of mine, but…it still got the laugh!

Has it occurred to you that, in a sense, you’re effectively playing the same character in both Ready Player One and Don’t Look Up? 

Oh, I hadn’t heard that. That hadn’t occurred to me! Yes, I suppose a similar character of authority, you’re right, and of technological advancement. I get the impression that Halliday, he’s the actual Steve Jobs type genius, isn’t he? I mean, he isn’t just an entrepreneur who wants to be considered a genius, which is the case of the man in Don’t Look Up. He’s a businessman who takes great offense when he wants to be considered as an evolutionary force in humanity, doesn’t he? That’s his grandiosity. The other guy, Halliday, wants actually to have privacy and intimacy and humanity and is famous because he has invented something that everyone wants. But you’re right, they’re both interested in control, as all computer people are, I think. Well, maybe that’s too generalized. But most technology seems to be promising or offering more control of your time, more control of your communication. It doesn’t really deliver… [Laughs.] 

On a different note, I’m curious if you think a film like 2001’s Intimacy could be made in 2022.

No, probably not. 

I felt like that was almost a rhetorical question. At the very least, I doubt that it could be made in the same manner.

Well, I suspect it would probably want a more diverse cast, for one. I don’t know, do you think we’ve gotten more sexually prurient or moral, or that a film like that wouldn’t… [Hesitates.] Why do you think a film like that wouldn’t be allowed nowadays?

Well, not so much that it wouldn’t be allowed, but you’d certainly have to have an intimacy coordinator on set. I don’t know if that was something that you had at the time, but I didn’t get the impression that you did.

No, it wasn’t. And, actually, that would’ve been helpful, yeah. I don’t know if that would’ve stopped it being made, but that might’ve helped it be made in a more protected environment. If Patrice Chereau… Bless his heart, he’s passed now, but if a present-day Patrice Chereau wanted to make a film like that and wanted the two players to be abandoned in their intimacy and allow the camera to go where it wanted, I would’ve thought the intimacy coach would’ve been pleased that they had real work to do in terms of looking after everyone on set and those two performers. Much as if you’d offered a stunt man a very dangerous particular stunt, a good stuntman’s going to want to rise to the challenge of that, rather than say ‘no.” Unless it’s too dangerous, of course.

Lastly, is there a favorite project you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?

[Laughs.] Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of ’em! Oh, my, that’s such a great question. Yeah, I did a production of Macbeth once that was based on David Koresh, as a cult leader needing to be brought down by people who adore the cult leader, or at least adore the guru that the cult leader was following before the guru was killed. I thought it deserved better treatment than it got. But I directed it and was in it, so I would think that! 

Spark Hunter is a Realm production, and is currently available on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts and audiobooks.

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)