Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Westworld Season 4.
Westworld actress Aurora Perrineau has revealed that she was kept in the dark over her own character's twist, which was unveiled in the fourth episode of Season 4.
Perrineau, who plays a character known as C on the HBO series, told The Hollywood Reporter that she only received breadcrumbs of information about her character's identity and backstory. She admitted that she "had an idea" of what might be coming, but could never confidently predict her fate as she didn't see the scripts until the cameras started rolling.
"I didn't know anything," Perrineau said. "I got the scripts prior to each episode — you get it right before the episode and then you shoot it. So it was always a surprise. My first episode, I was like, 'Oh, I get to work with Jeffrey Wright and Luke Hemsworth. That's so f***ing cool.' It turned into like, 'OK, cool, I don't know who this girl is, but that's fun.'
"Then I got the script for four while we were shooting already and that was a big surprise. I had no idea. I called one of the producers and I was like, 'Wait a minute, am I Aaron's daughter?'," she continued, adding that she had a vague idea of her character's backstory after picking up a few more puzzle pieces from the script for the third episode.
It was revealed in Westworld Season 4's fourth episode that Perrineau's C is actually the older version of Frankie, the daughter of Aaron Paul's Caleb, who wanted to prevent his offspring from growing up in this world. Perrineau remained secretive about Frankie's involvement with the rebellion, but asserted that her character's motivations are now much clearer.
"It reinvigorated things that I already felt in thought," she said, explaining how the revelation helped her to shape the character. "It also then gave me even more of a purpose to why I'm doing the things that I'm doing, which was super helpful for the rest of the season. It's nice to know this is why you do these things, as opposed to just making a random guess."
Westworld Season 4 "Generation Loss" aired on HBO on July 17. IGN's review of Episode 4 recognized that it was a "wickedly exciting chapter" that "brought two big storylines together (while also tethering the third) in an action-packed, emotional ride filled with harrowing answers and harsh revelations," which resulted in one of the best episodes to date.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.