Dan Stevens Insists His ‘Zero Day’ Character Isn’t Based on Tucker Carlson and Details Going ‘Face-to-Face’ With Robert De Niro: ‘It Was the Perfect Dynamic’

variety.com:

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events In Netflix’s new political thriller series “Zero Day,” Dan Stevens plays Evan Green, a brash, outspoken internet star who becomes enmeshed in a White House investigation into a global cyber attack.

Robert De Niro stars as George Mullen, a former U.S. president who comes out of retirement to lead the investigation. In one scene, De Niro and Stevens are practically nose-to-nose as Mullen interrogates Green. “It was the perfect dynamic really because there’s this character who is suddenly face-to-face with Robert De Niro, face-to-face with Mullen, face-to-face with this giant figure that’s sort of been looming over the story, it was kind of thrilling,” Stevens tells me on the new episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “But it is sort of the perfect encounter that you could imagine within it.

Rather than having to be all sort of cozy and chummy with him, it was like, “Oh, OK, I’m a little bit intimidated here.” I spoke to Stevens on Zoom from his Los Angeles-area home.

The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to it in its entirety at “Just for Variety” or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Are you the type of person when you finish a scene or wrap for the day, you send a text home to family or friends saying, “I just acted opposite with Robert De Niro?” I don’t exactly put out a big group message.