From filmmaker Steven Spielberg and adapted from the book by Ernest Cline, the sci-fi action adventure epic Ready Player One is set in the year 2045 and follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), as he escapes real life inside of the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days, living as any avatar they so choose and with only your own imagination as a limitation. When the OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), he embedded a three-part contest into it to find a worthy heir for his immense fortune and total control of this virtual world, and as Wade and his friends, called the High Five, take on the challenge, they put themselves directly into the path of danger.

At the film’s Los Angeles press day, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with Olivia Cooke (who plays High Five member Art3mis, aka Samantha) to chat 1-on-1 about what she would want her own avatar to look like, what she thought of her character’s avatar, the coolest stuff she got to do on the film, acting with the motion capture gear, and how long it took her to get over the novelty of working with Steven Spielberg. She also talked about working with Dan Fogelman on Life Itself, how meticulous she is about choosing which projects she’ll sign on for, and what her next film will be.

Collider: In this film, your character gets to create her own avatar. If you could create your own avatar, what would you want it to be, and it doesn’t even have to be human?

OLIVIA COOKE: I think I’d want to be part-bird, part-fish. I’d never have to put my feet on the ground, but I’d be able to swim lengths and be able to fly above the treetops. I don’t know if it would necessarily be human, but it would be a part fish/mermaid/winged thing, maybe with long, flowy hair.

That sounds totally awesome!

COOKE: Yeah!

When did you first get to see what your avatar looked like, and have you gotten used to looking at what your avatar looks like, or does it feel really surreal?

COOKE: I first saw it really early on, when I was going into costume fittings for the film. Kasia [Walicka-Maimone], the costumer, wanted to get my input on what my avatar’s costume would be like, so she had some mock-ups and drawings of what my face and hair was gonna be like. I was with it for quite a few months, before we started filming, and then, what they’ve done with the animation of it and how the motion-capture has translated through that, and how, apart from my eyes, which are these huge anime eyes, the bottom half of my face, you can completely tell it’s me, with my mannerisms. Steven [Spielberg] said it was really fun working on my mouth because I’ve got quite a crooked smile and it holds a lot of emotion there, and you can always tell what I’m thinking with the way I hold my mouth, apparently. So, he had a lot of fun getting that right. I felt sorry for him having to spend that much time, just looking at passes of me. It’s really bizarre because you feel like you’ve been immortalized, in a way.

A lot of actors talk about how hard it is to watch themselves on screen. Is it easier to watch yourself, as an avatar?

COOKE: I think the avatar is a better actor than me. Digitally, I’m sure, if there’s anything that was a bit off with my performance, they can tweak, here and there, and then it’s great. So, I think she’s a much better actor than I am.

It seems like you got to do so much fun, crazy, cool stuff for this. What was the coolest thing?

COOKE: When my character is in IOI, in Nolan Sorrento’s office, having my Indiana Jones moment, infiltrating this corporate company and trying to find something. It just felt like pure Speilbergian adventure, and I was getting to do all these really cool things, running around trying to solve clues and also feeding back to my friends, who were somewhere else. It felt, altogether, like a huge espionage thriller and adventure. Being able to live in this mode of pure suspense, it was really, really cool. I’ve never been able to do anything like that.

It seems like you got to do pretty much every genre in this one movie.

COOKE: Yeah! It’s such a feast.

Did you ever have a day that felt completely awkward and that you wondered how it would ultimately translate for the film?

COOKE: On the first day with Steven, we were doing motion capture, so I had my helmet on, which has four cameras and two lights, and I had all the dots above my face and I was in motion-capture gear. Mark Rylance was there, on the first day, as well, and we had a few scenes with him, and I was trying to do this really nuanced performance. I was really trying to impress, and he came up to me and was like, “You’re gonna have to be bigger because I can’t see on the footage what you’re doing with your face.” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll be bigger.”

You just have to let all self-conscious thought go out the window.

COOKE: Yeah. What Steven is so great at doing is catching you off-guard, and being so humble, so kind and so generous with his time, that you don’t necessarily feel like you’re working with Steven Spielberg.

Did you need to take a day to get passed working with Steven Spielberg?

COOKE: Yeah! It took a couple of weeks to get past that, but then after that, the novelty wore off, in the best way possible, where I was able to just work and forget that it’s him and forget that he’s been an idol of mine, since I was a child. I’ve seen nearly all his movies and I grew up watching him. I had to forget all of that, and then try to do some vulnerable acting stuff.

It’s amazing that he seems to still have the same passion for filmmaking.

COOKE: The energy that he has, the curiosity, and the zest and thirst for life and knowledge, I feel like I’ve never had that. I feel like, even though I’m a quarter of his age, I’ve never, ever been that full of beans, in the morning. It’s just really inspiring. I wish I could be more like that.
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One of the things I really loved about this character is that she is even more active than Wade is. She’s the one that brings him into her rebellion. Is that something that was appealing to you, that she was not just a love interest?

COOKE: Completely! I feel like their relationship works, even if they didn’t fall in love. Not only is she hugely powerful, but she’s crazily intelligent, and she’s so active and passionate. She wakes Wade up to what is actually happening in the world, and schools him a little bit and tells him to open his eyes. She’s at the forefront of that rebellion, from the get-go. I’ve never played weak characters. This notion of a strong female character, I don’t think there is a weak female character. It’s just bad writing. Luckily, Ernest Cline created this amazing character, who not only was famous in this virtual reality world, but she has the power to uphold her legacy, as well.

Art3mis is such a cool character that it seems like a lot of people will want to dress up like her for Halloween.

COOKE: That would be a dream come true!

You’re also in Life Itself, from Dan Fogelman (This is Us). He definitely has a knack for making people cry.

COOKE: I know. I saw an early version of that in October. I’m in it for a tiny chunk of the movie, but I just cried for two hours straight. Also, he catches you off-guard with his comedy, as well, because he’s such a brilliant writer. I’d worked with Dan before. He produced a movie that I did, called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. He was going to write that movie before Jesse Andrews, who wrote the book, adapted it to a screenplay. So, I had known him, and he offered me the role for Life Itself. We’re quite good friends, so I had known of the phenomena that is This Is Us and how huge that had gotten. And also, I loved Crazy, Stupid, Love., as well, which he wrote. I think he’s just a tremendous writer.

You’ve an array of interesting projects and played such cool characters. How do you figure out what you want to do next? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about that?

COOKE: Yeah, I do. I try to be quite meticulous about my choices. Thankfully, now I’m in a place where I can be a little bit more choosy, whereas before, I’ve done things that were a little bit more questionable. Now, I’m in a really good place where I can pick and choose, and I can find an article and get the rights to it, find a writer to write the script, get a director involved, and then go and make a movie. It’s lovely that I’m able to be on the production side, a little bit more, and be able to package a movie and tell stories that I want to tell, starting from just the idea, which is wonderful, instead of just relying on a fantastic script to come in. That’s great, as well, if that happens. I’ve definitely been a bit more snobbish with my choices, these days.

Do you know what you’re going to do next?

COOKE: I’m doing a film with Becca Thomas, who directed Electrick Children. It’s about a woman who goes to work with a Hunter S. Thompson type, at his ranch in Colorado, in the twilight of his career, but the height of his drug-fueled escapades. It’s fun.

Ready Player One is now playing in theaters.