‘Twisted Metal’ Stars Talk John & Quiet’s Reluctant Partnership and Everyone’s Lack of Trust

[These interviews were conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]

“There’s no trust in the world of Twisted Metal,” according to Anthony Mackie (who plays John Doe and is an executive producer) about the Peacock series based on the PlayStation game (premiering July 27).

In the action comedy, Mackie’s character is on a mission — to deliver a package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland and to figure out who he is since he doesn’t know anything about himself or his life. “John’s kind of a lost wandering soul,” the star told TV Insider. “He’s really trying to find his way in the world and figure out where he’s from, who he is. He doesn’t remember his family, his background, anything. He just knows that there’s something out there that he’s connected to.”

On his journey on the road, he encounters Quiet. “It takes a lot to get her to talk. I think she acts on instinct most of the time. This is the kind of character that hasn’t thought it all through,” Stephanie Beatriz shared. “It’s mostly about what she needs and wants, especially in the beginning of the series, where what she really wants is revenge.” It’s because of the reluctant, “very unlikely antagonistic bond” she forms with John that “she’s kind of almost forced to finally speak up.”

In Quiet, John sees “a friend,” Mackie said. “Stephanie Beatriz, for what she brought to Quiet, was so amazing because she was so stern and so mean and so rude that John was excited by it. He was like, ‘Wow, I really actually get to banter and talk and go,’ and she was so smart. He’s a glass half full kind of guy and she’s a glass half empty kind of girl, so they kind of supported each other in a perfect way.”

Meanwhile, Quiet sees… a car (which she tries to steal when we meet her), Beatriz admitted with a laugh. “That’s it in the beginning. This is a world where you need a car. A car is life and death in this world, and if you don’t have one, you better get one.”

So what changes? They counter a certain “absolutely deranged, rage-filled killer clown,” Beatriz previewed. “That’s the only reason that they are on the same side. It’s really to save their own asses.”

Skip Bolen/Peacock

This common enemy of theirs, described as “very chaotic both externally and internally,” according to Joe Seanoa, is Sweet Tooth. (Seanoa plays Sweet Tooth, with Will Arnett doing the voice). To prepare for the character, he had to understand that he has “these massive mood swings at any moment in time” and “that when it comes to what emotions you’ll be tapping into, you’re going to hit ’em all probably in the [same] scene.”

As already glimpsed in a sneak peek, things will get wild between John Doe and the clown. “Sweet Tooth admires John,” Seanoa said. “He understands that he’s on a mission, and Sweet Tooth knows that he needs to find his own way out in the world, and they’re kind of like kindred traveling spirits.” Whereas John wants answers, Sweet Tooth “just wants to find love. It’s just unfortunately he goes about it in the most horrible of ways,” Seanoa acknowledged.

The other main player of Twisted Metal is Thomas Haden Church‘s Agent Stone, once just a young police officer in Topeka. Before the apocalypse, he was “a decent guy” who had “integrity” and “a moral compass” and knew “how to uphold the law, but to do it in a respectful way,” Church explained. What happened after and the man we see in the present-day has “become really this hardened veteran of law-breaking vengeance and judgment and is this sort of self-proclaimed judge and jury of anybody that he crosses his paths with that he believes is a criminal. [He has] a much darker view of the world.”

Going back to the matter of trust, the stars all agreed that doesn’t come easy in this world. So while John and Quiet team up, “there’s no way anyone would trust [her],” Mackie insisted. That being said, he continued, “we find John in an interesting place in his life because he wants that connection. He wants to find that family, that drive, that reason for being, and Quiet just happens to initiate that and become a part of it.”

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On Quiet’s part, she trusts herself “number one, until she doesn’t,” Beatriz teased cryptically.

And while Agent Stone has people working for him, it’s not like he trusts them. Rather, Church described them as “foot soldiers” that his character “doesn’t like losing because they serve a purpose: to bring lawlessness to an end, to control society in the way that it was controlled before.”

As for the killer clown, Sweet Tooth “desperately wants to trust somebody. He desperately wants to belong. He desperately wants to be included. Unfortunately, his social skills leave much to be desired,” Seanoa said.

Get ready for one wild road trip.

Twisted Metal, Series Premiere, Thursday, July 27, Peacock