In the heart of all the new chaos is Dusty, a seemingly satisfied schoolteacher who'd been whistling his way through midlife until the Morpho machine made him question everything he knows about his place in the world. Played with equal measures lightness and unease by "The IT Crowd" and "Bridesmaids" star O'Dowd, Dusty is a down-to-earth everyman tossed into the midst of an existential earthquake.
"It's right to draw the distinction between destiny and potential," O'Dowd told me on "Salon Talks," "because somehow destiny is so depressing. Always has been." Potential, on the other hand, has a duality that suits O'Dowd's Irish temperament. "You realize when you come from Ireland that comedy and humor is almost a currency," he said. "We use it often as a way to get out of tragedy, or even to f**king ridicule tragedy. I think there's something very noble about that." And as Dusty, O'Dowd gets to explore both the comedy and tragedy of discovering one's potential.
