From creator Molly Smith Metzler and inspired by the best-selling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land, the Netflix series Maid follows Alex (Margaret Qualley), a single mother who escapes an abusive relationship only to find herself desperate for a better life for her daughter (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet). Taking a job cleaning houses while trying to keep from being homeless and figure out her next step, Alex’s resilience is tested every step of the way while refusing to give up on a better future.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, Nick Robinson (who plays Sean, an alcoholic who often becomes abusive, leading Alex to wanting better for herself and their daughter) talked about what appealed to him about this project, the scariest thing about taking this on, what he’s learned from the variety of roles he’s done recently (including Love, Simon and A Teacher), understanding Sean’s toxic behavior, and his favorite scenes to shoot.

Collider: This is certainly pretty heavy to watch and I would imagine pretty heavy to explore, as an actor too.

NICK ROBINSON: Totally, yeah. It’s not light watching. Not at all. Not in the slightest. We’re also dealing with a lot of heavy material, which we largely pulled from the book, so we didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

When this project came your way, what most excited you about the opportunity to do it and what were you most scared about?

ROBINSON: When it first came around, the first thing that I noticed, actually, was just the fact that it was set in the Pacific Northwest. I’m from Seattle, and telling stories that are central to that part of the country was exciting for me. And then, I read it and Molly [Smith Metzler]’s writing was so engaging and fresh and had such a unique point of view that it just immediately drew me in. And also, I’ve worked with Margaret [Qualley] a few times now and she’s incredibly talented, so that was exciting. The challenge was exciting. It was definitely a departure from any role that I’ve played before, so that was an exciting opportunity. But also, the scariest thing about it was stepping outside of my comfort zone and playing kind of a villain.

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Image via Netflix

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And to himself more than anyone else.

ROBINSON: Totally, yeah. Sean is his own worst enemy, along with sort of everyone else’s. That character has a lot of demons that he’s wrestling with and is negotiating with, over the course of the show. He ultimately somewhat redeems himself at the end, but it’s a rocky road to get there.

Between Love, Simon and A Teacher and now Maid, you’ve definitely been playing some very different characters from each other. What have you learned about yourself, as an actor, from doing some of the very different recent projects that you’ve done?

ROBINSON: I’ve learned that I like doing these different types of roles, where it’s not the same thing, over and over again. The older I get, the more I have been able to try, at least, to take more agency over my own choices and projects, and trying to be specific and as intentional as possible with what I’m picking and what I have the opportunity to do. I’ve learned that sometimes the stuff that scares you is the stuff that, more often than not, you’ll be most proud of at the end of the day and will garner the most attention. You have to not let yourself get in your own way, in terms of falling too much into a comfort zone or a complacency, and try to make sure that you’re always going a little bit further into the deep end.

This character is an alcoholic and he’s in a toxic relationship. We see that so much of his behavior is rooted in his family, even though that’s not an excuse for him hurting other people. How did you approach getting inside the mindset of this character? Were there things that helped you in understanding those issues with addiction and abuse?

ROBINSON: Yeah. The first reference point was the book, but Stephanie [Land] wrote that book about her life and very much relegated the same character I was playing in the show to the sidelines. You don’t get to know much about him. Beyond that, I felt like I knew some people in my life who had similar issues as Sean and saw the way that they could lash out. There’s one family friend, in particular, in Seattle, who I had a heart of gold and would give you the shirt off his back, but then also just really struggled in certain areas of his life and could not get out from underneath that.

I think Sean is an example of somebody who allows himself to just fall victim to his own circumstance. He’s trying, but like you mentioned, he has a lot of trauma in his past with his family and that has gradually gotten passed down to him, so he copes in the only way that he knows how and the way that his behavior was modeled, which is alcohol and drugs, in order to ease some of that trauma and pain in his past. He loses control of it, multiple times throughout the series. It was just such a well-written character too. Molly spelled it all out on the page, so it made my job a lot easier.

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Image via Netflix

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Yeah, that definitely helps. How do you feel about where things end up for him? As someone who lived with him for as long as you did, do you wish things could have been different for him? Do you hope that maybe somewhere down the road, he gets himself together more?

ROBINSON: Yeah, absolutely. I hope that Sean is able to get sober and tackle his demons and be an active part of his daughter’s life. Hopefully he is able to forgive himself and ask for forgiveness from the people around him, for his actions, and move forward with his life. Where you see him at the end is definitely a low point, but he also has a moment of clarity and does the right thing, in letting his daughter go on to hopefully have a better life than he did. It’s this last act of kindness that he ends it on, and hopefully he is able to get his life together after that, but who knows.

Did you have a favorite scene to shoot? Were these all challenging, difficult scenes, or were there scenes that felt lighter and that you actually had a little fun with doing?

ROBINSON: There are a few different moments throughout the show that I actually had a lot of fun shooting. There’s the birthday party sequence, when Alex hosts Maddy’s (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) birthday party at her new house. Just the way it was shot was really fun. It allowed us a lot of freedom. There was a lot of roving camera stuff where there wasn’t necessarily blocking. You just went where it felt natural, and they’d follow you. That was really fun. A lot of the sets, like the trailer for example, even though it was a dark space, it was fun because it was a practical set. It was just a single wide, and you could have free reign to go and open a drawer and find utensils. Everything was set up and created this whole world to play in, which is really credit to the production designer, Renee [Read], and the art department. Those things were always really fun, either in the trailer or in any ensemble setting where you just felt very free to do what you wanted. I’d say those were probably my favorite.

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Image via Netflix

This seems like the type of project where everybody would really have to be all in, no matter how difficult things might get.

ROBINSON: Totally, yeah. It was a group effort and everybody was in it, a hundred percent. It was infectious, for sure. You felt that, as we went along, and it made for a fun environment. It was fun to come to work.

Maid is available to stream at Netflix.