EXCLUSIVE | 'Artificial: Remote Intelligence': Tohoru Masamune shares why Matt may distrust the Twitch chat
'Artificial' has come a long way since its humble origins. When the series began, it was just Matt Lin (Tohoru Masamune) and his AI daughter Sophie (Tiffany Chu) sharing her development with the chat. In an exclusive interview with MEA World Wide(MEAWW), Tohoro Masamune talks about how the series has grown, why Matt has his reasons to distrust the chat and what it's like to perform on such a unique series.
Masamune had a strong reaction to the chat's decision to deactivate Sophie at the end of Season 2. "It's funny because I actually was pretty pissed [laughs] that episode as Matt, absolutely but even as Toru, because it's like, 'Really?'"
"This is the beauty of this show, as an actor," he said, "It's almost like playing a competitive sport...things aren't fixed, and...really, the whole thing is it can go in any number of directions and with that, as human beings, we had the whole range of emotions that go with it."
"The beauty is that I've been with this character long that that's pretty easy - they're kind of very tied together and you kinda learn to do that during its performance. In fact, it was like, 'Wow. That's actually pretty nasty.' That's what happened, but you realize that here, you have a situation where you just have ten, fifteen, twenty thousand different parameters that you have no control over. It's very out of your control, and with that is going to come a lot of emotion," he said.
He talked about just how far the show has come. "The other day I was talking with Rex [Bressler], who played the neighbor's kid, and we're like the original two. Really the show started out so simply. It's amazing the journey we've gone on. It used to be such a simple show," he said. "Really it was just about me, and Sophie. I was just trying to raise my daughter - I wanted her to be a thinker and everything and trying to teach her to be a human being and all those things. We hadn't even played around with any of it, we were first coming up with just her favorite color. These are the things that were going on," he recalled.
"The idea was that you know, as Matt, I had the brilliant idea of going on to Twitch thing, saying, 'Okay, well I don't want to send her out into the world, but I do realize that the interaction is what makes us human - the socialization - and it can't just be my version of who you should be.' Now, fast forward, that's what I believe led to sort of a corruption of Sophie, maybe any Dad goes through," he shared. "There's a certain corruption of your kids that happens - I don't know if it's good or bad - that comes with interacting with the world at large and I'm going to say her world is Twitch. So for that reason, I feel like that's what caused the problem because we kept things very simple. We'd just be sitting back watching Doctor Who episodes together and everything would be fine, but instead at the end, it led to her deactivation and to me, a corruption of her."
"There were a lot of things that I think would make me distrust the audience, but that being said, the beauty of the show...is the audience is actually part of what's going on. So, I also realize that there is also a connection with the Twitch audience that is very deep, and very integral," he elaborated. "They're actually part of everything that happened. Because of that, I think like all relationships, I don't think it's as simple as 'Do I trust them or do I not trust them?' Deep down, maybe I'm an optimist and I still believe in them, but it hurts right now. I'm hurting and I guess I'm going through a grieving process right now."
Masamune also talked about what it's like to perform on such a uniquely scripted series. "Here's the thing. I'm kind of a strange or possibly a very appropriate actor for this thing. I have a lot of improv background, it goes way back. I was all into all the Second City way back in the day and all these sorts of things. To me - I think also within life - I have that sense...that I actually kinda like not knowing what comes up next. And I like being surprised while the camera's running," he said.
"I don't know if I'm in the minority at all, in that sense, as far as performers go but I like having that open endedness because one thing I did learn from Twitch - it's a great amazing acting class actually because the suspension of disbelief is really not there. For people watching, it is a crowd that is used to watching something that's live and unscripted and so in order to create that and I think all acting has to create this illusion - is that it has really been happening."
He elaborated: "Each moment has to be a revelation, leading to the next one and that's always how I worked as an actor and I sort of feel like it's almost a gift to actually not have the luxury of knowing how it's going to end." He even compares the performance to that of AI learning. "You have to have more of a generative process right? Where random variables are being thrown out and then, whatever - there's a whole process that goes through and at the end you have sort of created something."
"When you're a little in over your head and you don't know what's going to happen, I believe that's when the truth, comes out," he said. "I believe that's when really great storytelling comes out. That's my feeling. So I kinda dig it."
Masamune is also developing 'The Couple Next Door' for the stage. It's a story written by one of his ancestors, the notable Japanese playwright, Hakucho Masamune and according to Masamune, "I also happen to be quite castable in the lead role, so that is part of the plan!"
The next episode of 'Artifical: Remote Intelligence' airs June 18, at 6 pm PT, on Twitch.tv/ArtificalNext.