Posted in: Netflix, streaming, Trailer, TV | Tagged: clickbait, interview, netflix, Phoenix Raei, preview

Clickbait Star Phoenix Raei Discusses Dangers of Social Media & More

Netflix's recently released Clickbait is a character-based psychological thriller that views the dangerous world of social media misinformation. An eight-episode limited series told from revolving points of view, Clickbait is a compelling, high stakes thriller that explores the ways in which our most dangerous and uncontrolled impulses are fueled in the age of social media, revealing the ever-widening fractures we find between our virtual and real-life personas. Recently Phoenix Raei (Stateless, The Heights), who plays Detective Roshan Amiri- a detective with the Oakland Police Department who finds himself at the center of a media storm as he investigates this case, sat down with Bleeding Cool to discuss the script, his character, and why we should all be nicer on social media.

You're playing Detective Roshan in Clickbait now available on Netflix. I just want to say I love this show. It's so well written and so well-acted. I have a couple of questions, but let me start with have you ever been involved in a catfishing situation yourself? 

 Phoenix Raei: Fortunately, no. I don't have a big online sort of presence persona. I don't go in there a lot. So I haven't been, and I hope I never will be catfished.

What about this story? I love that every character is reacting in a pretty natural way, not in a sensationalized way to the situation around him. And everybody is kind of seeking out their own interest. What about the script attracted you to it the first time you read it? 

PR: That's right. Yeah. I love the perspective aspect. You know that each episode shows a perspective on each character and their view of the world and the way you know when we spoke with some of the directors on this, everyone wanted to make sure that they shoot it in that way. It has that sense of you entering this person's world now and seemingly now you're entering this person's world. And I think that was really interesting when I first read it. 

Your character is pretty central to the story and helps leads the audience through it. What was it about the character that attracted you to this project? 

PR: You know, Roshan is sort of quietly obsessed about moving forward in his career. That was really interesting. But the arc where the burden keeps building upon his shoulders as he gets what he wants. You have to be careful what you wish for kind of thing. There's a sadness that enters his heart when he realizes that he couldn't get to the point to save Nick. I think that that was interesting for me, the arc of that.

We deal with a lot of different topics as far as the pros and the cons of social media and technology in general. Do you think is this movie meant to place a mirror in front of society or is it meant to be a warning of what could possibly happen? 

PR: Look, as you said, like with the world right now, with the Internet, you can be super secretive, but you can also have everything you ever known exposed to the world at the same time. I guess what we wish that people could take was some form of awareness that both of those things are true. I hope that there's going to be a day where we judge less and also we are more careful with how we treat each other online, you know? 

Although set in Oakland, California, this series is filmed in Australia where you're from. Did you have any trouble acclimating some of your Yank costars to the set to Australia? 

PR: No, I think that I know, Adrian's been to Australia a couple of times and I think Zoe was the first time. I think they were just so busy working that the outside world was kind of it kind of felt like coming from the US, getting into a room, getting out of the room, going on location or into a studio, kind of still felt like the US, everyone speaking in the American accent, the cars are on the other side of the road, the plate numbers are American and the door handles are like, oh, we're in America. So I think if I may speak for them, I think it felt sort of home away from home.

Nick Brewer (Grenier) is a loving father, husband, and brother, who one day suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A video appears on the internet of the badly beaten Nick holding a card that says "I abuse women. At 5 million views, I die". Is this a threat or confession? Or both? As his sister (Kazan) and wife (Gabriel) rush to find and save him, they uncover a side of Nick they didn't know existed. 

 Clickbait stars Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America, The Deuce), Betty Gabriel (Get Out, Counterpart), Adrian Grenier (Entourage, Affairs of State) Phoenix Raei (Stateless, The Heights) Abraham Lim (The Catch), Jessica Collins (Revolution), Ian Meadows (Dead Lucky), Daniel Henshall (Okja), Motell Foster (Foxhole), Jaylin Fletcher (Snowpiercer) and Camaron Engels (Malibu Rescue) from Tony Ayres (The Slap), David Heyman (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Harry Potter, Gravity), NBCUniversal International Studios and Australian-based Matchbox Pictures. Co-written by Ayres and Christian White, Clickbait is the first Netflix original series to be made in Victoria and will be produced at Melbourne's Docklands Studios, employing the Oz government's Location Incentive program; with support from Film Victoria's Production Incentive Attraction Fund.

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