Mild spoilers below for Mrs. Davis for those who haven’t yet watched.
As fans of Silicon Valley, Arrested Development, and even The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse can attest, it’s impossible for actor Chris Diamantopoulos to provide anything below an A+ performance, regardless of the context. And Peacock’s latest critic-wowing original series, the genre-meshing Mrs. Davis, isn’t the exception to the rule, even if it’s exceptional in other ways. In the bonkers and unpredictable show, which is ostensibly a tale centering on the balance between faith and technology, Diamantopoulos plays the testosterone-oozing JQ, a higher-up in the ridiculously male-centric resistance group that aims to stop the titular A.I. program’s tight grip on humanity. It’s a wild character that manages to stand out amongst all the other attention-grabbing personalities and moments that were brought to the screen by co-creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof.
Chris Diamantopoulos talked to CinemaBlend about the first season of Mrs. Davis, and bringing JQ’s unshakable machismo to the screen. One of the things he immediately loved about the show once he really got into it was the “crackle” of humor sprinkled on top of the adventure quest, but said it was the talents of the co-creators that got his attention in the first place. In his words:
What really sort of drew me to this first and foremost was Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof’s involvement. The minute I heard Betty Gilpin was doing it? There was no question that I wanted to be involved. Then I started reading the material, and I was simultaneously intrigued and confused. The show, to me, asks the very important question of what happens to faith and what happens to religion, when all your prayers can be answered by AI.? And this ubiquitous AI that they've created is sort of this amalgamation of where our social media world is now crossbred with the ultimate search engine that can actually reach out to the people searching - right to the seeker - and actually help them become the seer. And I love that. I love this intersection of faith and technology, of spirituality and sci-fi.
One might imagine most of the Mrs. Davis cast members who read through the scripts came away feeling the same way, although no one else in the cast had to play JQ, who is on a whole other level, even from Jake McDorman’s Indy-esque “hero” Wiley. In Diamantopoulos’ mind, JQ is someone who probably has a couple of particular movies that he watched obsessively, which he talks about below while also addressing the character’s hilariously over-the-top Australian accent.
So JQ, man. You ever fucking seen a character like this? What's the fuck is wrong with JQ? [Laughs.] What the fuck happened in this guy's childhood? So I mean, look, it's like he watched Fight Club a lot of times, and then he was really also into The Fifth Element, and he grew up on the farm next to the Hemsworth family. I've gotten to play some pretty out-there characters, and when they approached me with this, they added the last little caveat right before we went to production: oh, yeah, let's make him Australian. I just thought that that was the funniest fucking thing ever. And not for nothing, but if I had a nickel for the amount of Australians that have taken jobs that I thought that I was gonna get. So it's kind of nice to be able to be like, 'Okay, I'll handle this one. Thank you.'
There are, of course, various ways to read into Fight Club, especially from a filmmaking perspective, but a ton of fans out there are definitely in line with JQ in mainly seeing David Fincher’s flick as an hypercool extension of masculinity. You can almost picture him cheering along in the background during one of Tyler Durden’s fights. Speaking of Tyler, there is indeed a reference made to the character, as well as to the narrator’s “I am Jack’s…” quotes.
JQ always looks like he just stepped out of a comic book, in part because of the Fifth Element-esque wardrobe that he dons throughout the show's eight episodes, largely anchored by those larger-than-necessary glasses. (If you're wearing glasses, you bet your ass JQ's are going to be bigger and more solid and shit.) But there are also moments, as indicated above, in which Chris Diamantopoulos wore very little. Because I mean if you can show up on screen in Golden God mode like this, why would you want to wear overcoats?
Amusingly enough, a large bulk of the actor's jobs don't show his physique off, as he's a fairly prolific voice actor who's portrayed Green Arrow for animated DC features, Aquaman for Harley Quinn, the droid MONK in the just-released video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and a wide swath of characters in shows such as American Dad, Inside Job, The Boys Presents: Diabolical and Mike Judge's Beavis & Butt-Head, to name but a few. But when a snazzy role like JQ comes along, the wardrobe definitely catches the eye. As he joked:
I had a ball. I mean, look, the fucking wardrobe alone was enough to sort of make me go. 'Yeah, let me try that one. It's an orange snap at the crotch. gymnast jumpsuit? Did they have it in an extra small?' [Laughs.]
What’s more, even as he’s wearing not a whole lot, Chris Diamantopoulos is also giving it his all with his physical performances. Whether it involves stunt work or just standing there with his chest (and nethers) protruding in a stoic fashion, he’s there for it. When I asked if he enjoys fight choreography and action sequences as much as he appears to while in the moment, he agreed, and said it’s only after projects are done that he realizes how much pain he put himself through. One has to assume a good deal of post-filming aches happened after the 2012 big screen remake of The Three Stooges, which he namechecked when answering.
I love it. I mean, look, my body doesn't love it, because I still think I'm 20. I'm almost 48 years old. So I go into these things in general - everything from the Stooges to everything I've ever done - and I do whatever is required of me. Sometimes it's falling off buildings, or falling off a car or whatever. Punching, kicking, jumping. Usually a lot of falling, right? My characters often aren't as agile or or dexterous as you might expect. I always inadvertently end up hurting myself, but it doesn't show itself. It's like my actor's will keeps me from being in pain until production is done. And then like, a month and a half later, I'll be holding one of the babies or walking the dog, and I'm like, 'I can't feel my ankle. What the hell's going on?' It's like, 'Oh, now I remember. 83 takes of pretending to slip on the ice,' or whatever the hell it is. Taking a punch and landing on my wrist 104 times. It's like, 'Oh, that's why.' But whatever. It's a nice reminder that I was lucky enough to do the work.
Mrs. Davis will be wrapping up Season 1 on Thursday, May 18, and all seven previously released episodes are available to stream now with a Peacock subscription. Will it end in a way that gives JQ his own spinoff to go out and take down whatever other global mega-threats are standing in the way of ass-whupping justice? Or will it bow out with an ending that sews up all the loose ends and doesn't require a second outing of any form?
I think I know where my vote would go: JQ! JQ! JQ!
