[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Miracle Workers, Season 4, Episode 3, “The MatriXXX.”]
Miracle Workers continues its dystopian comedy tour in the latest episode, “The MatriXXX,” in which married couple Sid (Daniel Radcliffe) and Freya (Geraldine Viswanathan) try to bring a little spice back into their relationship with the help of killbot TI-90 (Karan Soni), a.k.a. Tai.
Together, they agree to enter the “MatriXXX,” a big void filled with various sex toys where they are asked to unlock an array of fantasies from their minds in order to reignite the missing spark. At the helm of it all is Tai who dons “Laurence Fishburne‘s actual Matrix jacket,” according to Soni.
The actor excitedly reveals that most of the wild toys seen in this void were actually real. “It was just so crazy. And there were things I have never seen that were on there. The props people just went to Hollywood Boulevard to [one of those sex shops] and just bought all the stuff and built that [wall],” Soni explains.
As for the jacket, its Fishburne origins make a bit of sense as Soni points out, “That’s why it’s a little bit too big on me. It was from the second Matrix movie. The lining had his name on it ’cause it’s from the Warner Brothers costume house, so that was really cool.” Decked out in the gear, Tai tries to get Sid and Freya to break out of their shells.
He’s rather disappointed when they bond best over an imagined date out with live music and appetizers rather than one of their more twisted fantasies, which range from electrocution to a strange attraction to boulders. While the experiment works for the couple, Tai continues to see how well-suited to suburbia Sid and Freya are.
Will that cause concern? Only time will tell. For now, Soni is reveling in his Matrix moment. “I love The Matrix. And there was a weird thing where I put on [the jacket] and it just kind of felt like a second skin. It was very fun.” See Soni and his costars have even more post-apocalyptic fun as Miracle Workers continues on TBS.
Miracle Workers, Season 4, Mondays, 10/9c, TBS