“USS Callister” might’ve been one of the most enjoyable Black Mirror episodes in the show’s history, featuring a dynamite cast with a narrative that goes from “oooooh this is a fun parody” to “oh shit I hate modern technology” in a matter of minutes. You may have been reveling in the episode’s intergalactic adventures so much, in fact, that you missed some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos from Kirsten Dunst and Aaron Paul — with one even appearing at a pivotal moment at the conclusion. Speaking with THR, director Toby Haynes spilled how Aaron Paul was tasked with providing the voice of a gamer the spaceship encounters after they successfully escape from their tyrannical captain. (“So are we going to blow each other, or are we going to trade?!”)
“We went through about three versions looking for the right accent,” Haynes explained. “It was a hard balance to get; where the voice wasn’t patronizing and yet was still a letdown. You get this idea of a slacker voice and when I asked Charlie what kind of accent he wanted he said, ‘How about Jesse from Breaking Bad, like, Hey ya’ll?’ We mentioned that to our casting director and she suggested we just ask Aaron, so we picked up the phone and he said yes. That shows you the power of Black Mirror.”
Additionally — and much more on the shorter side — Kirsten Dunst makes a brief appearance in the non-intergalactic Callister Inc. office as an employee at the company, who nonchalantly walks by the main characters as they have a group conversation. “She was sitting on set with Jesse [Plemons, her fiancé] and was like, ‘Can I play?’” Haynes recalled. “I said, ‘sure,’ and we placed her in the background.” Ah, the benefits of being engaged to talented character actors.
