But when an impulsive action sends him down a twisty path, the destination is most unexpected.
Collider: Your episode, The Who of You, is such an interesting story.
ETHAN EMBRY: Its definitely a strange experiment, this one, Ill tell you that much.
At first, he has no idea how to control it.
Its just something that happens to him.
The whole experience was very strange.
Image via CBS All Access
How was it swap bodies with Billy Porter, and to play his character inside of your character?
EMBRY: Billy Porter is a big character.
Hes a broad personality, and I didnt want to go super big with it.
Image via CBS
With each one, I just wanted a hint of what their characters have.
We had a discussion before about whether or not to fully take accents over.
I just tried to figure out the small underlying things that I could do.
EMBRY: The biggest challenge was for Peter, the director, in deciding how to convey it.
But it was fun.
I would say that it was more enjoyable than challenging because of how different it was.
I remember when I first read it, that was the first thing that I asked them.
I was like, How are you doing this?
How is this going to happen?
Am I suddenly putting on this womans clothing?
Is it me in there?
How are you making the swap?
Its a rare experience.
How did it feel to tell the whole story, just in one episode?
EMBRY: Yeah, theres the anthology aspect of it.
To me, its not a complete story.
Its a snapshot of the story.
Its giving you the meat of the sandwich.
That, to me, is the fun part of it.
It just leaves you.
Ive always loved that.
I cant remember the storyline of it, at all.
I just remember being in an insane asylum, or something like that.
And then, he gets thrown into one of the originals.
EMBRY: Yeah, thats the majority of [auditions].
Its like the baseball of art.
The majority of the time, youre gonna lose, and you have to accept that.
Do you think he would have done anything differently, if hed known how things would turn out?
Its a rare episode ofThe Twilight Zone, in the sense that he actually is the winner.
If you track the turn of events, he actually came out on top.
He gets everything that he wants, which is not typically the case inThe Twilight Zone.
Usually, its a hard way to learn a lesson.
But this guy actually gets rewarded for being a piece of shit.
So, no, I think hed do it all again.
If anything, he learns that taking advantage of people and manipulating people is the way to success.
Its the American way.
The Twilight ZoneSeason 2 is available to stream at CBS All Access.
