Mountainhead Actor Cory Michael Smith on How His Character is Like The Riddler

It’s been precisely 2 years since we said goodbye to Succession. Now, bid creator Jesse Armstrong is backmost to capable that Waystar Royco-sized spread successful your heart. Mountainhead, a caller movie starring Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, Jason Schwartzman, and Cory Michael Smith, hits HBO and Max this weekend.

The movie tells the communicative of 4 ultra-rich tech titans who huddle up for a luxe upland play arsenic the satellite reels from the AI-induced consequences of 1 of their creations. Smith portrays Venis, the Elon Musk-esque richest antheral successful the satellite and caput of the catastrophe-causing societal level successful question. He says the immature mogul bears a striking similarity to 1 of his erstwhile characters.

Speaking with IGN Smith, who besides played The Riddler successful the bid Gotham, agreed erstwhile co-star Youssef asked him point-blank: “Are you The Riddler of this group?”

“I deliberation determination are immoderate similarities,” Smith says. “I truly admit however insular some of those characters are. They're truly benignant of stranded distant from radical and unsocial and backed successful a corner, and each their behaviour is benignant of calved from that. They're incredibly narcissistic people."

But that’s wherever the similarities end. As opposed to The Riddler, Mountainhead’s Venis doesn’t travel crossed arsenic overtly malevolent. And that whitethorn beryllium adjacent scarier. “It's similar it doesn't consciousness evil," Smith continues. “It conscionable feels similar a kid who's retired of control.”

Smith’s co-stars tried to bring immoderate of that innocence to their ain characters, who are hell-bent connected upending the planetary bid for the involvement of their ain slope accounts.

“In a batch of ways it was conscionable this 14-year-old mentation of me,” Youssef says of his character, Jeff. “(He doesn’t) cognize erstwhile to halt joking astir thing that was annoying. The full happening benignant of does consciousness similar a clump of precocious schoolers. They're inactive underdogs successful their ain caput and they ne'er developed emotionally. They're really incredibly adept astatine pushing technology, but they don't recognize people.”

Armstrong wrote, produced, shot, and edited Mountainhead successful conscionable a fewer months. And that urgency feels peculiarly applicable successful a clip erstwhile AI is threatening to burrow its mode into each facet of regular life. The velocity successful which the movie was made proved to beryllium beneficial to the actors connected set.

“Everybody felt precise contiguous the full time,” Carell says. “Excited, happy, energized, and prepared. It was similar a cleanable experience. I was amazed however rapidly and however efficiently thing tin beryllium made. Jesse Armstrong conscionable knows what he's doing. Everybody trusted 1 another. And I deliberation my biggest takeaway was sometimes it's champion not to overthink oregon 2nd guess."

Schwartzman says shooting connected determination helped the formed immerse themselves wholly successful the story. “What Jesse did was (set up) the location similar a (real) house. You could spell anyplace you wanted, you could unfastened a pantry, (and) determination was nutrient successful it. Everything worked. You could (go to the bowling alley successful the basement and) vessel (with) fruit. He made it disposable to us. It astir was not similar a movie. It was similar we were successful this location and they were filming us.”

Carell, for his part, agrees. “We forgot we weren't billionaires.”

Mountainhead premieres May 31 astatine 8pm ET/PT connected HBO and streaming connected Max.