“Devs” represents fairly new territory for both you. How did you two connect?

NICK OFFERMAN: Well, I had been running like I was performing in a circus act, with several figurative plates spinning: acting jobs, touring as a comedian, book writing and woodworking. I wanted to slow down, to create some daylight in my calendar. So I did that, and then miraculously I got a call that Alex Garland wanted to meet me. I’d been a fan of Alex’s for a long time. I was quickly cast under his spell.

When I first sat down with Alex, he told me about some of the ups and downs of his previous projects, which involved clashing with large corporations and standing his artistic ground. And I said, “I am getting ready to propose marriage to you.” As an artist, you always hope your collaborators will be so aligned because you have a much better chance of making good art. The more the captain of your ship steers to the to the tune of the military industrial complex, the greater chance you have of making dross.

ALEX GARLAND: Nick’s character, Forest, is in some ways genial and affable, but in other ways there’s something really dark inside him. Though I didn’t see darkness in Nick, I did see melancholy. And my experience with Sonoya was not dissimilar, inasmuch as there’s something subverting the thing that appears to be there. There’s nothing solicitous about Sonoya or Nick. Many actors operate from a deep-rooted desire to be liked. They play a kind of seducing game with the audience via the camera. And these two just don’t have any trace of that, at all.

Nick and I also just got on really well. All of the people in this cast are serious actor-actors, but they’re also good-natured. When you’re shooting, it’s always going to be difficult, and in the end the personalities you’re involved with become crucial. Nick, don’t you think it’s true that there was very little in the way of the hierarchies that can easily happen on set?