The Creators of Westworld Share How the Magnificent Faceless Drone Hosts Are Made

In a wonderfully revealing behind-the-scenes segment from the HBO show Westworld, the creators of the show opened the figurative doors to share exactly how they make those faceless drone hosts, the magnificent creatures who were working quite efficiently on a secret project when Bernard got in the way. The drone hosts are actually very convincing latex costumes, not CGI, which are cut, sewn and tailored to the size of the tall, incredibly athletic actors portraying the roles, one of whom is a ballet dancer.

The concept of these hosts are interesting, specifically because since they never had to interact with guests, they never needed to be fully finished yet despite this lack they take on an eerie human form.

So with all of the hosts in Westworld, everything is done with an eye towards deceiving the guests. They should look and feel as real as possible. We wanted to see what a host would look like if you stripped all of that away. …it’s your base model without the covering. …They don’t need eyes because they’re these drones. When you take away something’s eyes, when you take away its ears and you take a human form and you get rid of the central unit, you create something that feels like us enough that you begin to attribute agency. You’re looking for the soul in this thing and it’s not there.

The scene in which Bernard encounters the drone hosts.