What would happen if we explored the limits of how technology can affect human relationships? How would a marriage change if you could know every thought that came into your spouse's head? And in a world like that, what does divorce look like? These are questions that come to mind while watching the new HBO Max series Made for Love, which begins with Hazel (Cristin Milioti) emerging, dazed, from both a mysterious portal in the desert and (as we come to discover) a very complicated and problematic relationship with tech bro Byron (Billy Magnussen).

There's more than one reason to think of the show Black Mirror when considering Made for Love — beyond the subject matter, there's the fact that the show stars Milioti and Magnussen, who previously appeared together in the Emmy-winning installment "U.S.S. Callister." But as they discussed with Collider alongside co-star Ray Romano (who plays Hazel's struggling father Herb), there's plenty to set the two stories apart, most especially the extremely specific tone created by directors Stephanie Laing and Alethea Jones and executive producers Christina Lee and Alissa Nutting.

Below, the cast talks about how they first got involved with the series, the Black Mirror connection, and how Hazel's situation might bear some resemblance to another famous marriage that just made the headlines. Also, not to name drop, but Romano tells a very funny story about shooting The Irishman, which is more relevant than you might expect.

Collider: To start things off, what was your introduction to the project?

CRISTIN MILIOTI: I was sent the script — I think I was sent the first episode and I remember the image of her popping out of that desert. There were so many things in that first episode that really stuck its hooks into my brain, for lack of a better metaphor. I really had never read anything like it, ad I thought it was so singular, and then the more I read...

I had never seen relationships portrayed in this way. I'd never seen a marriage portrayed this way. I'd never seen a marriage like this. I'd never seen the relationship between a father and daughter explored in this way. And I loved that it was this extremely heightened world that is so much fun to play in as an actor, but actually explored relationships we all have, and that we all struggle with. And I just thought it did it in such a wonderful roundabout way, where you don't realize how it's sneaking up on you. So that's why I signed on.

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Image via HBO Max

RAY ROMANO: Yeah. My agent told me, once you read this, it's interesting, your character at the end of the first episode, he has a relationship with a sex doll. And I went, okay. My ears perked up a little. Not that that's a good thing, but it's a different thing and that's good — there's got to be something there.

I got seven episodes. And the reason I knew this is something I wanted to be a part of is because when I was reading one episode, I was looking forward to reading the next one, you know? Sometimes you read a script and you just, "Oh, let's get through this so I can see." It's a bit of a burden. This was great reading material. I couldn't wait to read the next one, you know? That's all I need. And then of course working with Cristin — and that outweighed the negative of working with Billy — kidding. Of course, I'm kidding. [laughs]

MAGNUSSEN: I did a project with Patrick Somerville, Maniac, and then he called me up and said, "Hey, there's an opportunity with this one script. I would love you to read it." And then I found out Cristin and Ray were a part of it. I was like already two bonus green lights for me, because again, I adore Cristin Milioti and Ray's okay.

Billy, you're actually the connection between a lot of different elements of this show — because you worked with Ray on Get Shorty and you also worked with Cristin on Black Mirror...

MILIOTI: Billy and I have known each other for 10 years. We first played husband and wife in this independent film that we were both pretty much almost entirely cut out of. And that we were constantly asked to tone it down and move back, deeper into the shot for like two weeks. It was one of the most fun experiences, but yeah, they did not like what we did.

Excellent. So, I mentioned Black Mirror because I think if you were trying to describe Made for Love quickly to someone, you might bring up Black Mirror. But it does feel very different — how does it differ for you?

MAGNUSSEN: I think it's the tone, personally. What Charlie Brooker's done with Black Mirror I think is fantastic, personally. And I loved working on the episode again with Cristin. But I would say the tone is different. Black Mirror is dark. There is no hope at the end of it.

ROMANO: It's a bit terrifying, Black Mirror.

MAGNUSSEN: Terrifying. I think [Made for Love] plays with the balance of being terrifying and scared, especially for Cristin's character, the horrible place she's in. And then at the same time, there's weird hope in this show.

ROMANO: There's a light touch too. There's comedy. Yeah.

MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, I think having Cristin and Ray, they do bring such a bright, bright light to every piece of work they do. So yeah, I would say it's the tone. There's fear, but you see a light at the end of the tunnel with this one, I feel. There's hope because it is about love. There's hope for finding love and connection.

ROMANO: The good thing about the tone is it's, I'm saying this as a good thing is, it's hard to actually pinpoint the tone of it, you know? You could say dark absurd comedy, but I play all my scenes like it's a drama.

MILIOTI: Same.

ROMANO: And there are poignant, moving scenes in there.

Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen in HBO Max Made For Love
Image via HBO Max

Yeah. I feel like it's such a hard question to answer because when something has such a specific tone like this does, how do you capture that? Do you just trust in the script and trust in your own performance?

MAGNUSSEN: I think there was a lot of trusting the production team, to tell you the truth. They crushed it with casting. They kept pushing us further and further. And the story and the project itself, further and further. They were like, "We've got to get what we want, down... This isn't it yet. We've got to keep going."

MILIOTI: I do remember in the early days of shooting, even within myself, it's such a specific tone. It's almost like post tone. That's also what I love about it, is that it's sort of unbridled. There were times where I was like, "Am I in the right energy here?" But there were also a lot of conversations about that. And it was a very collaborative set obviously as actors, but also with Christina and Alissa and Stephanie and Alethea. And I think that's also one of my favorite things about it.

MAGNUSSEN: Whenever I watch something [with my brothers] I'm like, "Okay guys, you got to sit down, give me the honest truth, tell me what's going on." They would laugh and they would say, "It's so funny." And then at the end of Episode 4, I remember my brother being like, "Dude, this is scary."

ROMANO: And as they go along, I'll bet in future episodes, they'll go, "This is moving."

One of the questions that I found myself genuinely wondering, the more I watched, was "Do we want to root for Hazel and Byron?"

MILIOTI: One of my favorite parts of Episode 4 is when you get to see their first date. You understand that what she was offered and where she came from and that we all buy into this fantasy of a quick fix, right? Like if someone came to you right now and was like, here are your wildest dreams — for her it's "you never have to worry about money, you can have access to everything, you'll live in this big, fancy house. I'm going to shine this light on you and make you feel special in a world that you're suffering in." You say yes and then you get there and it's a living hell.

I mentioned this in another interview, but I thought about it when I watched the Meghan and Harry interview, of the idea that you're asked to be a princess and you think it's one thing and you get there and it's like, hell on earth. But who doesn't think they can handle that? Who isn't, in some way, sort of like, "Yeah, I can do that. Right?" And then, yeah, I don't know. I love that scene.

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Image via HBO Max

It's a good segue to something else, which is that the structure of the show is going a lot of different places, timeline-wise. For you as actors, what does it mean to have that much backstory packed into every episode? And what do you put into tracking where you are in any specific scene, in that timeline?

ROMANO: It's good to have backstory. It's always a good thing. If it's not in the story, then you just make it up yourself. And this is a little of both, you know? They gave my character a backstory, at least with you and my wife passing away and that was fun. It was fun to go back and do that because it informs who you are, you know? But you guys had to deal with that a lot more than I did.

MAGNUSSEN: That doesn't bother me for some reason. I love it because again, it's not my responsibility where they put it in the story, but I think playing all these elements of this character and these scenes at different timelines, as an actor, that's the fun stuff.

MAGNUSSEN: What was your quote by Lionel Richie?

ROMANO: "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

MAGNUSSEN: So there's this part of like, it is uncomfortable. It's a little scary.

ROMANO: It's funny. Not to name drop, but on The Irishman we had to do that. I was 40 years old, then I was 60 years old and then I was 80 years old and I had no clue. Sometimes it would be a mush of what's coming up. I knew that if I was wearing the fat suit, I went, "Okay. I was 80 years old, you know?" And there was one scene we were doing and again, I'm name-dropping. But before we started rolling, Al Pacino looked at me and he didn't know what time zone we were in. And he goes, "I didn't know you were wearing the fat suit in this scene." And I said, "I'm not, Al." I had just had lunch and I was bloated and he thought I was wearing the fat suit.

MAGNUSSEN: Oh gosh.

MILIOTI: Oh God.

MAGNUSSEN: Made you rethink your whole character.

ROMANO: It was fun though.

RELATED: 'Made for Love' Trailer: Come for Cristin Milioti, Stay for Ray Romano Performing a Beyonce Cover

To wrap up — this is a wild project, so looking forward, do you feel like it inspires you to want to take on wilder stuff? You kind of talked about that, in terms of reaching the end of your comfort zone.

MILIOTI: I am lucky enough to be able to be somewhat intentional with things that I sign on to. And I think that I do look a lot for things that scare me, that I haven't been asked to do them before that I might like completely, for lack of a better term, fall on my face and eat shit. I don't know. I find those to be the biggest learning experiences — and we never have any control over how any of this stuff comes out. You just don't. I do, definitely, believe in that Lionel Richie quote and I feel like it is really good to do that stuff.

ROMANO: Yeah. I wish I could practice it. I wish I could practice what I preach.

MILIOTI: Me too, I wish I practiced it more.

ROMANO: I do a little of both. Look, I came up doing stand-up comedy and you're doing that every night. Every night you're standing up there and you have no idea. But if I'm being honest, once you get good at it, you kind of do have an idea of how it's going to go. I do want to take chances acting-wise but you maybe look forward to possibly falling on your face? I get a little scared of that.

MILIOTI: Yeah, I get so scared of it, but yes.

ROMANO: So there is a middle ground. Like directing, I'm trying to direct now and it's scaring the crap out of me, you know?

MAGNUSSEN: You got this.

MILIOTI: I can't wait.

ROMANO: But yeah, it's true. You don't want to regret that you didn't take chances because, why not? And like you [Cristin], I'm kind of lucky enough to be able to pick and choose a little bit which way I go now. So we'll see.

MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, I think I want to play with reality and go into weird stuff. I love it. Give me the fantasy world any time because no matter what, it's all based in reality. And it's just the given circumstances are heightened and out there.

ROMANO: You like to take chances. You definitely like to take chances in your choices. I know that.

MAGNUSSEN: Yeah. Like why not get a little weird with it all? That's the fun part of it for me. I do think it's taking chances with things that you believe in. You're like, "Oh, I see this. I get it."

ROMANO: Right, right, right.

MAGNUSSEN: Let's get weird with it.

Made for Love Episodes 1-6 are streaming now. The final two episodes will premiere Thursday, April 15 on HBO Max.

KEEP READING: How 'Made for Love' Aims to Make You Rethink Love, Technology, and Sex Dolls