In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Death Stranding star Norman Reedus described Hideo Kojima as a “genius’ genius” while discussing the enigmatic game developer’s directorial style.

While discussing how Kojima directed Death Stranding’s cutscenes – with or without all the necessary actors in the same room at times – Reedus described how oftentimes it was just down to he and Kojima, leading to peculiar interactions.

“A lot of times it was just me and Hideo. He would have a plastic baby doll on the ground and want me to cradle it and act like it’s dead. Then act like it’s alive,” Reedus said, seemingly referencing Death Stranding’s first major teaser trailer. "Then freak out because there’s handprints everywhere. You stand up and he goes, imagine there’s a thousand dead whales in front of you, and you’re like, 'What?!' His mind is on another level. He’s a genius’ genius. He and I got into a shorthand where he would look at me and he would point and frown and make a face and I would just go, yep, I got it. We sort of transcended the language barrier after a while.”

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Reedus also appears to have had such a positive experience working with Kojima, he’d be willing to return for future projects.

“A lot of times a director will say, in this scene I think I should do it this way and they’ve rehearsed it in their head so much that when you throw something new at them they sort of short-circuit,” Reedus said. “There’s not room for interpretation. Hideo is the opposite. You’ll say, maybe I should do this, and he’ll say, yes! And then do this on top of that! He’s a collaborative mind. He wants to hear your input. If you don’t say anything, he’ll think there’s probably something wrong with you. He’s a lot of fun to work with. If he ever did a movie or anything else I would be there in a heartbeat.”

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Despite the success Reedus and Kojima had (even in the face of a language barrier), Reedus also stated he was considerably confused early on in the process about the kind of story Kojima wanted to tell.

“He revealed it in bits and pieces and I’ll admit that some of those bits and pieces I was like, what are you talking about?” Reedus told THR. “As we worked on the game, it began to make more sense to me and now I know what the game’s about, but I’ll admit, there was a good half a year in the beginning where I was just like, I trust him, I’m going to do whatever he says. Now that I know what it’s about, it’s completely different than all the games I’ve seen my son play.”

Of course, fans of Kojima’s work will remember Death Stranding isn’t the first time Reedus and Kojima have worked together. Reedus appeared at the end of Kojima’s P.T. (“Playable Teaser”) – the immensely unsettling horror game demo Kojima released in 2014 as a prelude to the ill-fated Silent Hills project.

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Shockingly, despite P.T.’s cult classic status, and you know, appearing in the game, Reedus has never actually played P.T.

“I’ve seen it! I know I’m the surprise at the end,” Reedus said. “I’ve seen it played and it’s terrifying. It’s a horror film.”

Death Stranding is out on November 8 on PS4, and will release on PC in 2020.

You can check out the brand new release trailer for Death Stranding (below), which clocks in at 8 minutes and seems to contain some significant spoilers. Avoid it if you want to go in absolutely blind.

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In the meantime, you can check out our Death Stranding preorder and special edition guide, and check out Conan O’Brien’s humorous trip to Kojima Productions in Tokyo.

Don’t forget to check out our major theories on all the mysteries of Death Stranding , too.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/bridge baby for IGN.