‘The Beast in Me’: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys have a ‘volatile and risky’ relationship in Netflix show

A twisted series about obsession, isolation and survival, The Beast in Me on Netflix, starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys, is full of mystery and suspense. Created by Gabe Rotter, with Howard Gordon as showrunner, who’s reuniting with Danes after their work on Homeland together, the eight-episode series is an incredibly unpredictable thriller.

The show begins with Aggie Wiggs (Danes), who found success writing a book about her relationship with her father, but is now struggling with her next planned novel about the friendship between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. She’s also grieving the loss of her son, who died in a car accident involving a drunk driver, and Aggie and her wife divorced following the horrific incident.

Nile Jarvis (Rhys), a real estate mogul, moves in next door to Aggie, with his wife Nina (Brittany Snow). Nile was previously the prime suspect in his wife’s suspected murder after her disappearance years earlier.

One night, a drunk FBI agent shows up outside Aggie’s home, warning her to stay away from Nile, who is “not like us.” But she becomes fascinated with Nile and his reputation, and he becomes the subject of her next book.

Drawn in by the mystery

What initially sucks you into the series is the mystery surrounding the lives of Aggie and Nile, as you try to figure out where this show could be going. And that’s something that really appealed to Gordon about the story.

“If you watch the first 10 minutes, it could become a horror movie for all you know,” Gordon told reporters during a press conference.

“It was a very lonely woman at the center of it, and creating that and establishing that and understanding the sort of psychic space she was in.”

Following his work on shows like 24, The X-Files and Homeland, Gordon added that he was particularly interested in a show about “loneliness.”

“Oddly, these two people who are so desperately alone … find each other, and how those narratives bend, [the] gravitational pull of these two characters, was just wonderful,” he said.

Claire Danes as Aggie Wiggs in Episode 101 of The Beast in Me (Netflix)

Aggie and Nile are both ‘lonely in their brilliance’

Danes and Rhys are an incredible duo, with Danes stressing that it was a great experience portraying Aggie, who gets to “spar” with Nile.

“It was kind of surprisingly dynamic, and there were a lot of competing forces at play,” Danes said. “I think they are pretty isolated, both of them for different reasons, and brilliant, and a little lonely in their brilliance.”

“So I think they are so relieved to be able to kind of play and spar with somebody who is equally matched. … It’s also really volatile and risky, because they’re both not so stable. But it makes for great television.”

“To me, it began as an attraction that becomes obsession, that ultimately becomes survival,” Rhys added about the relationship between Aggie and Nile.

A highlight for Danes was also the opportunity to play an “introvert” for the first time.

“I had never played a character who was an introvert before,” Danes said. “So intensely cerebral and controlled. … I liked her wit, I liked her discernment, and I liked her bad-assery, her kind of deceptive bad-assery.”

Aside from the state of mind of these characters, both Danes and Rhys explored specific physicality for Aggie and Nile.

“The only thing I tried to do is be, which is an absolute steal from Sir Anthony Hopkins, which was to be … contained physically,” Rhys said. “Hopkins said he did it for The Silence of the Lambs because he’d been in a cell his entire life. And then I was like, well I’m just going to steal that, because it worked for him.”

“She had a particular walk. She had a little bit of a waddle, which I really enjoyed,” Danes added. “I had to learn how to assume a kind of femininity. … It took some effort and focus. And I kind of went back to my 11-year-old self who hadn’t yet gotten that memo, and that’s where I found Aggie’s physicality.”

US actress Claire Danes and producer Howard Gordon attend the premiere of Netflix’s “The Beast in Me” at The Plaza in New York on November 5, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

‘You’ve already developed so much trust with each other’

For Danes and Gordon, aside from their desire to take on the story and characters established in Rotter’s script, there was a real ease to work together again.

“First and foremost, just a tremendous fan of … Claire as an actor and as a person and as a collaborator,” Gordon stressed. “It’s easy and it’s a pleasure, and we communicate pretty directly and openly and honestly.

“And that process, honestly, was a huge draw, and this really was the other way around. Claire came to me after she’d been involved in the project, so it was an interesting exercise from that perspective. And I’m always blown away and surprised, and it was a wonderful experience from beginning to end.”

“It really is such a gift to be able to work with people who you have a deep and rich and happy history with,” Danes said. “It just gives you such an advantage from the beginning, because you’ve already developed so much trust with each other.”

“We didn’t know where this would land when we started filming. Those episodes had not yet been written, but I had no anxiety at all. … I was on so many runaway trains with him over the course of Homeland‘s run, and I’ve always been protected and held beautifully by him.”