The following contains spoilers for episode three

Dark Matter recently premiered on Apple TV+. Based on Blake Crouch’s bestselling science fiction novel of the same name, the series follows Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) who is walking home one night when he is abducted by a man who looks exactly like him and sent into an alternate reality where everything is different. In the alternate universe he doesn’t have a wife (Jennifer Connelly), nor does he have a son (Oakes Fegley). Eventually he discovers that the version of himself from that dimension created a box that enables people to jump between universes. With the help of Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga), the girlfriend of his alternate self, he starts his journey traveling through the mind-bending landscape of different lives he could have lived, searching for his way home to his real family. 

Recently, Edgerton and Braga spoke with SciFi Vision about working on the series. Edgerton talked about playing a multitude of different Jason’s for the series and how he balanced their differences, yet inherently same core. “I think it was imperative that the core of who Jason was in any given incarnation was essentially the same,” the actor told the site. “On one level, the swagger of success and science awards and all that is there, but [there’s] this question of, is he even really happy with that success? On the other hand, you've got Jason who thinks he's unhappy, who's then going to find out, he actually realizes, he has a pretty decent life, there's just little differences. I think it was important to lean on the intentions of each character as the differences, rather than presume to want to play an entirely different character, which would have been the wrong way to go.” 

Braga, on the other hand, spoke about Amanda’s motivations for following Jason into the box, even though she knew there was no future for the two of them, as he’s ultimately looking to reconnect with his wife. While it’s partially because she knows she’s part of the company who started it all and he was innocently pulled into it, that’s not all of it. “I think when she goes in the box, she's trying to help him [but] also trying to find herself in her own life,” Braga told SciFi Vision. “She doesn't have anything else in the world that she leaves that is holding her.”

The actress added that it was inevitable. “Sometimes you either fall in love or [are] inspired by someone, even though you know that they're searching for someone else, and even if you don't see it, you're feeling it…It talks a lot about empathy, and it talks a lot about also love in a way, because even if she ends up falling in love with him or just developing feelings for him, I think it's beautiful once you root for someone, and you really desire the best so much for that person…I think it's about that human connection above all.”

To hear more, including whether or not working on the series made Edgerton think about the “what ifs” in his life, watch the full interview below and be sure to check out Dark Matter on Apple TV+.