Austin Abrams Dishes About Netflix’s Do Revenge

I’m excited to get into the film. It was thrilling. It was very Hitchcock in tone. I’d love to know what it was about the project and your character, Max, that initially attracted you to the film.

First, I was reading the script, and there’s certain twists that I wasn’t expecting at all. I was reading it and thought it would be more of a straightforward script. Then I got to those parts, and I was really thrown and didn’t expect them at all. That’s what initially got me attracted to it, [thinking], “This isn’t really what it seems to be,” and [thinking about] the possibilities of what it could be. This character is [also] really fun. I’d never really played a character like that before, who was such a peacock peacocking all the time — and so incredibly ego driven and the popular person wanting everything to be about them all the time.

I want to get into your character specifically as well. As you said, he’s peacocking; he’s got this sordid, frat-boy, revenge-type energy. How did you get into character? Where did you source inspiration from?

I feel like we’ve seen the popular guy in the past, and [because] you know that archetype, there was definitely an idea of, how can this be more up updated? There was a lot of being inspired by an amalgamation of the popular guys right now and pop culture and the way they dress and the way they talk and things like that. That was definitely inspiring to … So it was, how do you have that person and then make it updated and use the people around that we all watch now as inspiration?

I’d love to know in what ways that challenged you or challenged your preconception of the popular archetype.

It was definitely challenging because Max is really, super outgoing and really wanting to draw people in all the time to them and wearing more outlandish clothing. It was freeing in that way. It got me more interested in [how] I can wear this or wear the buttons all the way down, and it’s fun. It taught me something about attraction or what attraction could be. It challenged me in that way of feeling uncomfortable wearing this or looking like this, but then getting past that and finding something else.

I’ve got to ask about the cast because you join some amazing cast members. Camila Mendes — we all know her from “Riverdale” — and Maya Hawke is on this “Stranger Things” tide. Sophie Turner, of course. What did a day on set look like? Take me back to those production days.

It’s fun. You are working with a lot of great people, people that have a lot of inspiration. Maya’s very smart. She has a lot of great ideas. The days on set were fun and creative.