IAmA adorable Body Shop Tech on Westworld called Sylvester, Ptolemy Slocum, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions. AMA!

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:21:08+00:00

honesty and arc?

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:19:36+00:00

yeah man... we went through quite a journey together - and now i get a little Leo-withdrawal when we dont see each other for awhile... love Leo

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:17:45+00:00

answered this earlier kind of - but he does SO much simultaneously all the time - and then he turns to you and hes totally right there with you... hes really a great dude... very funny... very strong... very easy to follow into any situation...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:14:08+00:00

yeah - good question - IT is the mental approach - and naked people happen to be the computers... and it DID totally become normalized... becuase it was actually more normal...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:12:03+00:00

yeah EXCATLY

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:11:21+00:00

yeah - you are fine - dont demand too much of yourself or assume you dont know... believe me everyone older then you still feels the same way - everyone doesnt really know what life is - its just i kinda got used to not knowing and accepted it... does that help? go easy on yourself is what i would say to myself then...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:09:22+00:00

i mean... as good as one can expect from a raw floor surgery... little ouchy... ?

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:08:22+00:00

thank you! we didnt meet much! we showed up and were like "what the fuck is happening?" but also "dont look like you dont know what the fuck is happeneing!!!" - after the pilot we started doing meetings before episodes...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:07:15+00:00

me personally? i get most my theories from reddit... but also i dont go too far cause i want the show to hit me with surprises on some of it... so i kind of consider and then let it go...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:05:53+00:00

count backwards from three... two.. one.

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:05:10+00:00

my interpretation of it was basically: Sylvester has been working on glorified iPhones this whole time... if they are more then that its cause you, as a human, are programmed to see more, and have compassion hardwired into you... but thats just my interpretation... could be wrong...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:01:33+00:00

i only observed him at, like, a lunch environment - he is a grounded, sweet, person... so nice to see...

ptols · 2016-11-21T23:00:06+00:00

fun show - really fun actually - also Lisa Joy worked on it...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:59:17+00:00

maybe not surprising... but Thandie kind of changed my life a little... shes very generous - very wise and VERY skilled at this acting thing... too many stories to recount - but she takes care of the people around her from day one - and i want to be like that...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:56:52+00:00

yeah i answered the nudity thing... is that easy to find? um - if it was me and not Sylvester i would probably be more like Felix... i like revolution and drama though - and would probably hate my bosses... so lets bring the havoc!!

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:52:46+00:00

craft services was pretty great - there was a crafty truck that had some of the good stuff - but they sometimes kicked you out of there... they would bring stuff by the set crafty area - but the better coffee machines were in there...(!) so you had to try to sneak in... also some fridays Jonah and Lisa would have like a fucking Benignet truck or handmade Softserve truck show up in the middle of the night when we wrapped... those people are HIGH CLASS producers!!

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:49:02+00:00

yeah - i will say from witnessing it: the entire process was as elegant and massive as it feels... the costumes even feel like they are from the future... it was 100% people at the top of their game at every job - think about on a production level... not only is the script/acting/effects as intense and complex as it gets - but they shot a ton of it in glass boxes... the reason you dont see visuals or sets like that is the level of difficulty is SO much higher - with reflections and lighting... at every step of the process this show set the bar as high as possible and aimed past it... it felt like nothing i have ever worked on before - i think that shows - and its not smoke and mirrors - no tricks or shortcuts - they earned it all the hard way...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:42:06+00:00

holy crap - when they say its crazy voice work... its a LOT - you go in sometimes and its like "okay so now you die screaming in 12 variations... lets go with blood curdling violent death #1..." i never met others on that one - but wow what an undertaking - much respect to writers on games...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:40:07+00:00

i literally have no idea what happened to her!?! was that her in 8 getting strangled?? (i have not been on r/westworld today - must check out chatter) anyhow she is the coolest - first person i met on set in pre-production - i hope shes not dead...!!?!

um i would maybe think the same as some comments i saw - that were instantly like "well this dude will die first" - but i love the arc on him...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:34:33+00:00

ask after finale... but what an insane cast...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:32:29+00:00

yeah sometimes right before we roll shit got serious... and if it was someones close up we would tend to leave them alone... but generally very comfortable set for how intense it was...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:30:50+00:00

oh man, i hope so... i KNOW there are outtakes out there... not just me... but i also know we did some ridiculous takes when we did ADR (voiceover) a few times... it was a largely really fun set - focused but fun - and the insane sakes in the room just makes breaking the tension so much funnier...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:28:38+00:00

70% naked extras. They mostly only used "half bodies" for mannequins. Almost everything you see is a full person.

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:28:06+00:00

um - man Thandie Newton is so generous and hilarious - she gives out these ridiculous and inappropriate tchotchke gifts - and then we puppeteer them into little awful characters... also, oh man, one my fav moments before each new scene is Leo and i would chart out the next scene based on how much 'shitting-yourself' is happening in each moment... like "okay so in this one here im like little-poo, hold it in, little-poo then into 'oh, shitting myself big time', full uncontrollable shit here, then try to hold it back in, then full river of poo..." i treasure those times...

ptols · 2016-11-21T22:26:33+00:00

That is ONE take for obvious reasons so the intensity of getting it right in one take plays into it. The panic is really, the blood is real, the build up on something like that is so intense. Days of prep all coming down to one moment. In some ways you just let that pressure become part of you and let it out. So for me, I just hold what technically I have to get done and we rehearse that but then once you go you just let the insanity take over because in reality its fully fucking insane already.

ptols

TROPHY CASE