In Amazon Prime Video's upcoming The Voyeurs, things are never what they appear to be. The erotic thriller, premiering through the streaming platform on September 10, focuses on an artistic and exciting couple (played by EastEenders' Ben Hardy and The Greatest Showman's Natasha Liu Bordizzo) whose lives and secrets are apparently exposed to their neighbors across the street.
When Pippa (Sydney Sweeney, Euphoria) and Thomas (Justice Smith, Detective Pikachu) move into their new apartment, a peek into their neighbors' window changes their lives forever. Soon, Pippa becomes more enthralled with their story than with her own life and relationship. And try as Thomas might to get her to turn her view inward, she can't help but get involved when it seems like her favorite strangers are taking a turn for the worst.
Hardy and Bordizzo spoke with Screen Rant about bringing two characters to life with very little dialogue, exploring deeper than the window-shopping façade, and figuring out how to avoid spoilers with every response.
Screen Rant: How do you each approach characters that, for half the movie, the audience can only understand through the eyes of someone else? We don't know where you're coming from, or what motivates you, but you have to know.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo: We were just saying that it's kind of like putting on a play because we're being filmed from the other side of the courtyard. And I think that's good. I have to credit the writing there, because it was just a choice of what content to involve - whether it be the birthday cake scene, where it's my birthday, and then I'm leaving for a trip, and we have a cute Halloween party we're preparing for. It was just selective looks into our lives that Michael chose to write that I think built the characters when you couldn't hear them yet, or know anything about them.
Yeah, I really am struggling to not to talk about spoilers.
Ben, what is it like to put on what is almost a pantomime?
Ben Hardy: Yeah, I'm trying to not talk any spoilers either. But I suppose there's a certain level of artifice in what they're presenting. What was quite interesting was thinking about what we as a couple wanted to present. I'm really talking in vagaries.
What was quite interesting as an actor is that, with a lot of camera acting, so much reads from the camera being so close. But because we're being shot from the other side in the apartment, it was an interesting study. Just like Tasha was saying, it was like a play, in terms of what actually reads and what clicks on camera. It was a very different experience in that regard.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo: Certain movements didn't read; certain things didn't look big enough; certain things are too big. It was really an interesting filming experience.
Without spoilers again, you each have very significant interactions with Pippa [played by Sydney Sweeney]. What was it like to build your respective relationships with her without regard to each other?
Natasha Liu Bordizzo: I tried to do my performance without any awareness in my mind of where it was going. Because I think sometimes - when you know how it's gonna go, and you know how it's going to end - you project that into scenes prior. So, I tried to do the film without at all bringing what I knew was gonna happen into it. That helped me form the friendship with Sydney's character for the film.
It's so hard not to do spoilers. I'm trying to pick my words.
Ben Hardy: I think, for me, I just very much thought about what my character wanted from Pippa in those moments. Which I think is true of any scene, but there was an extra layer because of this film - again, talking in vagaries. Is it even a word? I don't know. It sounds right.
But, yeah, I was just very much thinking. For me, a lot of Seb was that he's very much the kind of person who wants to get what he wants. It was just a case of that, like with any other person - it was like, "What do I want from this person? How can I get it? How can I get exactly what I want?"
The Voyeurs arrives September 10 through Amazon Prime Video.
