Jason Dessen, a college professor and family man, is sent on an emotional whirlwind in Dark Matter when he is abducted and dumped into an alternate reality. Desperate to find a way home, Jason realizes an alternate version of himself has taken over his life, putting the life he built and his family in danger. As Jason does everything he can to return home, the alternate Jason learns that this life isn’t all he imagined. When Jason finally finds his way home, things become even more complicated than either Jason could have imagined.

Blake Crouch is the creator of Dark Matter, bringing his acclaimed novel to life on screen for the first time. The cast of Dark Matter delivers countless incredible performances with each cast member playing at least two versions of themselves. Joel Edgerton plays countless versions of Jason, finding humanity in each, even the more villainous ones. While Dark Matter is a science fiction story at its heart, the series is about love and family, as Jason does whatever it takes to return home and protect the ones he loves.

Screen Rant interviewed Dark Matter star Dayo Okeniyi. He broke down his approach to differentiating the two Leightons both in their physical attributes and how they see the world. Okeniyi also explained how he and Edgerton cultivated the dynamics between the different Leightons and different Jasons in Dark Matter.

Dayo Okeniyi Breaks Down His Approach To Playing 2 Different Versions Of Leighton

Okeniyi explained his approach to playing two different versions of Leighton. Where Edgerton wanted the differences to be more nuanced, Okeniyi wanted the contrast between the two Leightons, both in their physicality and mentality, to be obvious. He also shared how Crouch was supportive of this direction.

Dayo Okeniyi: Well, first of all, it’s on the page. I have to give a lot of credit to Blake, his wife, Jacque [Ben-Zekry]. They wrote a lot of the episodes. It was right there on the page. I just had to read the page and hit my mark and hit my light. But honestly, it just comes down to I’m the kind of actor, I follow breadcrumbs. If you have a world and you have a Leighton, who was raised by a grandfather that actually gave him the tools to be the best version of himself possible. Discipline, respect, legacy, and giving him this company, Velocity. He would carry himself differently, he would see himself differently, see himself with purpose and try to live out that purpose, maybe to an evil end, who knows?

But you could also have this other Leighton who didn’t have any of those things. That grandfather died and he’s raised by absent rich parents. So he has no purpose in life. He has no direction. He leads this existential, or rather this hedonistic existence. So I just follow those breadcrumbs and that informs everything. The way they dress, the way they walk, the way they carry themselves, all that. The way he addresses people outside of himself and just try to be as realistic as possible. But I really wanted to push. Because I knew talking to Joel earlier when we started filming, Joel told us the differences are going to be very slight.

He wanted to really put a nuance, but he’s playing like 20 versions of himself. So I think he had the bandwidth to do that. Those of us who were playing three or two versions of ourselves, I really wanted it to be as distinct as possible. I really got to give it up to Blake. Blake was like, Do it, push it. You want blonde tips? Go ahead. You want the earrings, you want tattoos. Push it as far as possible, and Apple never said no. So we just get pushing and I’m happy it turned out well because that’s a very dangerous slope where now you create this clown character. I think Leighton passed that litness test.

Dayo Okeniyi Explains The Different Dynamics Between The Leightons And The Jasons

Okeniyi also discussed collaborating with Edgerton on the dynamics between the two Jasons and the two Leightons. He explained why Jason2 and the Leighton from his world had such a close relationship compared to the that of Jason2 and the Leighton of Jason1’s world.

Dayo Okeniyi: It really just came from a relationship with Leighton1. The first Leighton we meet. Him and Jason have a very old relationship. They built this company together. They’ve been working together for a very long time. And so there’s a very close familiarity there and a real trust and a real brotherly bond between the two of them. That was very apparent from the beginning. Then with the second version of Leighton, he hasn’t seen his friend Jason since college. He’s wealthy and he’s a man of means, and he’s being approached from friends out of the woodwork for, Oh, finance, this thing, or give me money for this company, this business.

So there’s that distrust. There’s that, yeah, I’ll posture. Come into my house. Sorry about the mess, but I’m not giving you any money. There’s that distance. These are very slight conversations that we would have as to how warm am I, how approachable am I? That was very interesting play because when he’s like, I’m not giving you any money. He shuts him down, it really feels like he’s pulling the rug from under him. He in the beginning was so nice.

So just all that fun stuff. But really a lot of it was on the page. I would just say I just come in and just do a little sprinkling on how big I would go with the performance. But Blake had everything in his head completely thought out and Joel as well. So my thing was I’m going to go as far as possible, I’ll leave it to the editors and the producers to pick my performance in the editing world.

I fully, by the end of this was like, I need a spin-off just watching Leighton’s adventures through the multiverse

Dayo Okeniyi: Leighton’s Adventures. For sure.

About Dark Matter

Based on Blake Crouch’s international bestseller. Jason Dessen is abducted into an alternate version of his life. To get back to his true family, he embarks on a harrowing journey to save them from the most terrifying foe imaginable: himself.

Check out our other Dark Matter interviews here:

• Joel Edgerton & Alice Braga
• Blake Crouch & Matt Tolmach
• Jimmi Simpson
• Jennifer Connelly
• Blake Crouch and Jacque Ben-Zekry