Among Us stars Elijah Wood and Yvette Nicole Brown spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese about their roles in the new Paramount+ TV show. The show is now streaming after a surprise launch during Summer Games Fest.
“Among Us follows a group of eccentric, monochromatic Crewmates of a ship transporting junk across the galaxy who must root out an Impostor in their midst before they fall victim to its villainous designs. The series is based on the globally popular multiplayer social deception game of the same name,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Elijah, there’s an innocence to your character, Green. What do you like most about this Idealist intern character?
Elijah Wood: Just that he’s so keen, man. He is so keen and wants to please and do his best. Very plucky, very wet behind the ears. And within that innocence, there’s a lot of fun to be had. You know, he’s sort of silly and goofy, but means well, you know?
Yvette, we’ve all dealt with HR people. A lot of the time, they can feel robotic, and you kind of wonder how they live their lives outside the corporate setting. What did you try to like hone in on for Orange?
Yvette Nicole Brown: You know, Orange… I’ve worked in corporate America, so I’ve been around HR people, and then also one of my closest friends was the HR person for years, and I knew her HR side and her regular side. When it was time to do HR, I was like, “Well, good morning, and welcome to…” So, I knew that there was a duality to these people, and so I just kind of tapped into that part of her, the sunny side. Everything’s great, the company’s wonderful. We’re happy to have you. All of that is HR stuff.
Elijah, this show is so funny, and it builds off the video game in a lot of smart ways. You’ve done some cool work in the gaming space with Double Fine in the past. What did you like most about this show’s approach to staying true to the source material, but since it is all multiplayer-based, they really get to tell their own unique story about it?
Elijah Wood: Totally. Well, I think taking the idea of the game and applying it to a narrative because obviously there are strict character definitions for each of those characters in this, you have to have. And it just turns it into the structure of a murder mystery. And I just thought that was so clever and fun.
Getting to really define these characters, I think, was also really quite delicious because they’re all these sort of shapeless, formless things. So to then write these characters with such intention and with such differing personalities was just so much fun.
Yvette, you’ve done a ton of voice work over the years. What’s been most rewarding about getting to lovingly expand all these huge franchises like DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Minecraft, and now Among Us?
Yvette Nicole Brown: I joke all the time that my career is really like Forrest Gump. I am not ambitious. Like, I don’t have five-year plans and 10-year plans. I just literally say yes to everything that comes my way that I think would be fun, and that it’s become this type of career is crazy. Like, how do I get to be on a show from a game that everybody played during the pandemic?
I don’t even know where to unpack it. Just that I’m grateful, and I hope that I continue to do a good job for everybody that is kind enough to hire me, you know?
Elijah, my last question. You’ve got the Hunt for Gollum coming up. How is it returning to your character that you’ve been away from for over a decade? Is that weird to get back into that head space or does it always kind of live with you?
Elijah Wood: We’ll see [laughs]. I mean, I think there’s a part of him that’s definitely in me forever. You know, I went back to New Zealand last year for some camera test stuff and sort of got dressed up as Frodo for the first time for a very long time.
There is a sort of muscle sense memory of just being in that environment and with those people and in that outfit with the wig and hair and everything. So there is a kind of baked-in my DNA sense memory of it. But, you know, we’ll see when it comes time to go and play the character, I’ll probably rewatch the first movie just to kind of get myself back in that space again.
You’ll know it’s time when you get the hairy feet again.
Elijah Wood: It definitely does something to you, though. After we lived in those costumes with that makeup for the better part of four years. So it is kind of baked into us a little bit now, I think.
Thanks to Elijah Wood and Yvette Nicole Brown for taking the time to talk about Among Us.
