Back in Los Angeles.
Cassius had barely slept one night when the phone woke him at five in the morning. It was Nolan's studio.
[Urgent script discussion meeting. 9 a.m. Warner Bros. conference room.]
Small print underneath: All lead actors must attend.
Cassius checked the time, sighed, and dragged himself into the shower. The Iceland training still had his muscles screaming.
This was brutal. Capital really didn't treat actors like human beings.
He thought again about how much he'd envied actors' paychecks in his last life. He hadn't expected the capitalists to turn them into perpetual-motion machines.
Nine a.m. sharp, Warner Bros. conference room.
When Cassius pushed open the door, the room was already full. Nolan sat at the head of the long table with Jonathan Nolan beside him. On the left sat Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine. Several seats on the right were empty.
"Cass, sit here."
Nolan pointed to the first seat on the right.
Cassius sat down and scanned the room. This was his first time seeing Jessica Chastain in person. She played adult Murph and had almost no scenes with him. She was reading the script; when she noticed him looking, she gave a small nod. Michael Caine, the old gentleman, nodded politely.
"Everyone's here. Let's walk through the script from the top."
Nolan opened the folder in front of him. "First scene—Cooper in the cornfield. Cass, tell us your thoughts."
Every pair of eyes turned to him.
Two months ago he might have needed a moment to organize his thoughts. Not anymore.
Cassius cleared his throat. "Cooper used to be NASA's best pilot. Now he's growing corn in a place corn was never meant to grow."
"In the script, when he's fixing the tractor his movements are skilled but impatient. That balance matters. Too skilled and it looks like he's accepted his fate. Too impatient and he doesn't seem professional. He has to be someone who knows exactly what he's doing but doesn't want to be doing it."
Jonathan's pen stopped mid-note. "How did you get that level of detail?"
He hadn't expected Cassius to understand the character so deeply just from reading the script. Most actors needed to be on set, fully immersed, before anything clicked. Reading alone rarely gave that kind of visual sense.
Little did he know Cassius had actually lived Cooper's entire life inside the dream instance. He had felt that helplessness firsthand.
But Cassius obviously couldn't say that.
"I spent three weeks on a farm in Alberta," Cassius said slowly, his voice already slipping into Cooper's rhythm. "Up at five every morning driving the tractor, fixing irrigation pumps, harvesting corn. I wasn't farming. I was fighting a world that was dying."
The people around the table felt, for a moment, as if Cooper had stepped out of the script. Even without special-effects makeup, Cassius's young face carried exhaustion and quiet despair in his eyes.
Anne looked at him, genuinely surprised.
[Anne Hathaway favorability +1 — Current: 88]
Nolan spoke slowly. "Keep going."
His own surprise showed. He hadn't expected the actor known for commercial films to deliver something even stronger than his audition.
Nolan was more certain than ever that his choice had been right. Even with all the online backlash, controversy only meant heat. Cassius had always thrived in it. Maybe it was time to lean into that heat for the movie.
Cassius didn't know what Nolan was thinking. He flipped ahead in the script. "Cooper and Murph's father-daughter relationship."
"In the scene where Murph talks about the ghost, Cooper's first reaction isn't denial. He listens carefully. He respects his daughter, and deep down he's still a scientist—curious about the unexplained. That detail has to land. It can't just be simple father-daughter sentiment."
Jessica Chastain looked up. "I agree. A lot of adult Murph's personality comes from the respect her father showed her as a child."
"Exactly," Cassius said, turning to her. "So when she becomes a scientist later, it's not coincidence. It's inheritance."
Nolan and Jonathan exchanged a glance.
For the next two hours Cassius dominated the discussion. He wasn't analyzing the script—he was restoring it, as if he had lived every moment.
When they reached the scene where Cooper decides to leave Earth, he said, "The most painful part isn't leaving. It's the lie. Cooper tells Murph he'll definitely come back, but even he doesn't know if he can."
When they reached the wormhole crossing: "The script says Cooper grips the controls so tightly his knuckles go white. Good detail, but not enough. Under extreme pressure, breathing shallows, vision tunnels to a single point, and the body goes into overdrive. Those physiological reactions matter."
When they reached the five-dimensional space scene, he even pointed out a logic gap. "Here it says Cooper sends data to past Murph through gravity waves using Morse code, but how does he know she'll receive it? The script doesn't explain."
Jonathan frowned. "You think we need to add something?"
"Not necessarily add it, but the actor needs an answer in their head," Cassius said. "My take is that in five-dimensional space Cooper can see the timeline. He knows exactly when Murph is in her study, so he chooses that moment. He's not guessing. He's making a deliberate move."
The room went quiet for a few seconds.
Michael Caine smiled. "Young man, you've prepared more thoroughly than this old man."
"Flattery. I just thought about it a little harder."
Right then a silver attribute orb dropped from him:
[Perfect Script Interpretation +300]
[Role Conviction +50]
Cassius blinked. He hadn't expected the silver orb he'd been waiting for in Iceland to appear right here.
He absorbed it instantly. Fragments of Cooper in his mind snapped into place like a new mental slideshow. Any memory he wanted, he could flip straight to the right page.
[Reputation-Building] progress +3% — Current: 48%!
His progress bar had just jumped three percent in one go.
Nolan closed the script and looked at him. "You're right, but audiences might not consciously notice these details."
"They might not be able to explain why it feels good, but they'll feel the difference between real and fake. If Cooper is just a template hero, this is just a special-effects movie. If he's a living, breathing person, the movie can actually move people."
Even Jessica nodded. "I agree."
"Murph's the same. She's not a daughter waiting to be saved—she's another savior. Father and daughter are two parallel lines, each fighting their own battles until they finally intersect."
"Exactly. That's the point."
Cassius nodded in agreement.
Nolan looked at his two leads with open approval.
Seeing everyone starting to look tired, he said, "Fifteen-minute break."
People stood and stretched. Anne came over to Cassius.
"Did you pull an all-nighter reading the script yesterday?"
She was genuinely curious. They'd only been apart one night—how had he improved this much?
Was this what it felt like to be left in the dust? She'd been sleeping while someone else was grinding through the script. Maybe she should pull an all-nighter tonight too.
"I didn't have the energy to read last night. I passed out the second I hit the bed. Today's performance might just be because I got too deep into the role."
Cassius half-joked.
Anne clearly didn't buy it. She was already planning to have her assistant bring coffee—she was pulling an all-nighter reading the script tonight. If her co-star was working this hard, she couldn't slack off.
While they talked, Jessica walked over.
"Cass, those things you said earlier—did you pull them from the character bible, or—"
She was curious about him too.
"Mostly instinct."
Cassius hadn't expected his analysis to land so hard, so he just shrugged. "I put myself in Cooper's shoes and asked what I would do. Some details came from training—like when I was in the NASA simulator, I kept wondering what Cooper felt the first time he stepped into a real ship."
[Jessica Chastain favorability +5 — Current: 65]
The three of them chatted until the meeting resumed.
This time Nolan shifted the discussion. "Let's talk about the relationships between the characters."
"Cass, you and Anne have the most scenes together. How do the two of you see the relationship between Cooper and Amelia?"
Anne answered first. "They're comrades, and in a way, soulmates. But the movie never turns it into romance, which keeps it from feeling clichéd."
Cassius added, "Because they have a bigger mission. In an apocalyptic setting, personal emotions get compressed. Cooper loves Murph. Amelia loves her father. That love is the driving force, but it's not the main thread. The main thread is humanity's survival."
"Then what's the chemistry between them?" Jonathan asked suddenly. "No romance, but trust—even dependence. How do you play that?"
"Through shared experience," Cassius said, adding his own thoughts. "Facing danger together, searching for hope in despair—those experiences build a bond stronger than romance."
"So the actors training together ahead of time is necessary. Those days Anne and I spent in Iceland were really about building that bond."
Anne paused, then nodded. "Right. Now I understand why Amelia trusts Cooper—because in a crisis you can only trust the person who walked through it with you."
Nolan wrote the line down.
"Good. Now let's talk about the ending."
He flipped to the last pages. "Cooper enters the black hole, crosses the five-dimensional space, and when he's finally rescued, decades have passed. This scene has the highest emotional density. Cass, how do you understand Cooper's state in that moment?"
Cassius was quiet for a few seconds.
He had lived this scene in the instance. The feeling was hard to describe.
"First, the physical sensations," he said, pausing as if recalling the instance. "Cooper experiences time distortion inside the black hole. His body might only be there for a few hours, but psychologically it feels like years. That dislocation has to show."
"Then the psychological level. When he sees adult Murph, his first reaction isn't excitement—it's strangeness. The little girl he left behind is now an old woman. That impact is bigger than any special effect."
"Finally, reconciliation," Cassius continued smoothly. "Cooper's lifelong obsession was coming home. But when he finally returns, home has changed. He has to accept that and keep living. That shift can't happen too fast—it needs layers."
Jonathan set down his pen. "Can I see the character bible you wrote?"
"I didn't write one."
"You didn't?"
"It's all in my head."
Cassius tapped his temple.
Nolan stared at him for a few seconds, then nodded.
"All right. However you're doing it, keep this state. During filming I need you to completely become Cooper."
"I will."
Cassius nodded.
After leaving the conference room, Cassius exhaled.
In the hallway, Anne was waiting.
"What did the director say?"
"He praised me a bit and told me to maintain the state."
"As he should."
Anne smiled. "You blew everyone away today. Jessica just told me she's never seen a young actor prepare this thoroughly."
"You seem to really understand every decision Cooper makes—even his pain."
Anne said it with a touch of envy. "When did you get so good at this? Maybe you can help me understand my role from your perspective sometime. It might spark new ideas."
"No problem."
Cassius agreed right away.
"How about tonight?"
Anne issued the invitation directly. "My assistant just stocked up on coffee. We can go through the script while we drink."
"Huh?"
Cassius was caught off guard. He hadn't expected Anne to be this direct. During training he hadn't picked up on that side of her.
It seemed his performance today had made a real impact. Her fellow lead had suddenly pulled ahead, and anyone would feel unsettled.
"Sure, why not."
Cassius thought about it. He really didn't have other plans tonight.
At eight p.m., Cassius rang the doorbell to Anne's hotel room.
The door opened. Anne was in casual loungewear, hair loosely tied back, no makeup.
"Come in. Coffee just finished brewing."
The room was a suite with a large living area. The coffee table was covered with the script, pens, notebooks, and a laptop.
"You came prepared."
Cassius looked at the mountain of materials.
"You motivated me."
Anne poured him a cup and handed it over. "Watching you in the meeting today made me feel like I wasted the last few months reading the script."
"It wasn't that bad."
"It was."
Anne sat across from him, studying him seriously. "When you talked about Cooper, it didn't sound like you were analyzing a character—it sounded like you were remembering your own experiences. How do you do that?"
Cassius took a sip. The coffee was hot.
"Actually, I have a method."
"What method?"
"Completely become that person."
Cassius set the cup down and started sharing. "Not just thinking about what he would do, but thinking I am him. What would I do? From morning to night—eating, walking, sleeping—all from that identity's perspective."
Anne looked thoughtful. "Did you figure this out on the farm?"
Cassius smiled inside. He hadn't expected Anne to hand him the perfect excuse.
"Yeah. Those three weeks I wasn't Cassius. I was Cooper—a former pilot growing corn at the end of the world."
The two of them started going through the script.
Anne flipped to several key scenes for Amelia. "The hardest scene for me to understand is the breakdown in front of her father's video recording. The script says she cries silently, but there's anger in her eyes. How do you play that kind of complex emotion?"
Cassius thought for a moment.
In the instance, he had seen this scene. Through Cooper's perspective he could feel Amelia's emotions.
"First of all, she's not a weak person," he said. "Amelia is a top scientist. Rationality is her armor. The breakdown isn't from fragility—it's from her rationality being shattered."
"What do you mean?"
"She always believed science could solve everything. When she realizes decades of persistence were built on something false, that collapse isn't emotional—it's at the level of her entire worldview."
Anne froze, her pen stopping on the paper.