NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Fatal Attraction, Castle Rock and Party Down actress Lizzy Caplan says her character in the new limited series Zero Day is enmeshed in a family drama set against the backdrop of a national crisis.
Premiering Thursday on Netflix, the six-part thriller follows George Mullen (Robert De Niro), a former U.S. president suffering memory issues and auditory hallucinations, who is called to head up a special investigation into a nationwide cyberattack that has led to the death of thousands of people.
Caplan plays George's Congresswoman daughter Alex, while Jesse Plemons plays Roger Carlson, Alex's boyfriend and George's trusted confidante. Other cast members include Joan Allen as Sheila, Alex's mother and a former first lady with political aspirations of her own; Connie Britton as Valerie, the ex-White House chief of staff who years ago had an affair with George; Angela Bassett as the current president, Evelyn Mitchell; and Dan Stevens as Evan Green, a firebrand media personality.
"The stakes could not be higher on the world stage with everything happening plot-wise," Caplan, 42, told UPI in a Zoom interview Wednesday.
"What made it very compelling for me was the interpersonal dynamics -- all of this unresolved stuff that she has with her parents, with Roger, this family history that has some sordid elements to it that's all been swept under the rug and how not OK she is with that," she added.
"Every scene, there are layers of things going on for Alex, truly every beat of every scene. It was a challenge, but a welcome challenge."
The actress said she thinks the fictional story may resonate with viewers because it explores what could happen if technology -- including computers, cell phones, tablets -- that we use every day is compromised.
"These are issues that we're facing. This show really holds a mirror up to what could happen and not in some distant future, but today," she emphasized.
"We are all vulnerable. We all are signing up for this level of vulnerability. Just the level of technology that's integrated into all of our lives and I think that it's worth reminding ourselves that maybe that's not the safest position to put yourself in."
The series sees George working with the CIA, FBI, White House and local authorities to arrest and interrogate possible perpetrators, suspending citizens' constitutional rights along the way in the battle of safety versus liberty.
"in many ways, this country, America has been set up to protect us from some of those bigger questions and in some ways it hasn't and it's very topical for that reason," Caplan said.
When the show opens, Alex and George are estranged and the tension between them only rises when she begins criticizing how he decided to handle the crisis.
"We don't really name names and we don't even say Democrat or Republican in this show," Caplan said, noting she sees Alex as siding with those on the far left of the ideology scale.
"But I think that Bob's character represents an older school style of doing things, where the point was to reach across the aisle, the point was to try to serve as many people in the country as possible as president," she added. "Alex is in the newer school. It's much more divided, the Congress that she entered."
Caplan was thrilled to play the daughter of De Niro and Allen.
"Amazing. I've been a fan of both of theirs for as long as I can remember, my whole life," she said. "They delivered in terms of being epically talented legends, but also being very kind people."
