Why Hazel From Made For Love Looks So Familiar
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HBO Max's latest sci-fi series, Made for Love, takes the genre in a unique and startling direction.
For a decade, Hazel has been married to iconoclast tech entrepreneur Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), with who she lives in a futuristic compound in the desert. When their relationship falls apart and she's forced to flee, Hazel realizes that Byron has used her as a guinea pig for one of his latest inventions. Made for Love is a microchip that, once implanted, gives each member of a couple intimate access to the other's thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately for Hazel, it also acts as a high-tech tracking device that allows Byron to keep tabs on her every move and every mood.
Hazel is played by American actor Cristin Milioti and Made for Love is far from her first foray into off-beat sci-fi movies and TV shows. If you recognize her but can't quite figure out from where, don't worry, we've got you covered.
Here are some of Milioti's most memorable roles.
Milioti had a very important role to play on How I Met Your Mother
Milioti's early career was marked by guest-starring appearances on several popular TV shows. She had roles on series like The Sopranos, 30 Rock, Nurse Jackie, and The Mindy Project. However, arguably her most famous multi-episode TV stint thus far was as the titular role on the mega-hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
The series is technically one large flashback as main character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) tells his children the very long and detailed story of how he met their mother. As Ted is a fan of giving ample context to his tale, it isn't until the end of season 8 that viewers actually meet the Mother, whose real name we learn is Tracy. Milioti was made a series regular for the show's ninth and final season, which takes place over the course of a single weekend and ends with Tracy and Ted meeting for the first time, thus completing Ted's story.
How I Met Your Mother isn't a sci-fi series, but its unique framing device both sets it apart from other sitcoms and pairs nicely with the more genre-oriented projects that Milioti would go on to star in afterward.
Milioti co-starred in a popular episode of Black Mirror
How I Met Your Mother isn't the only time Milioti joined the cast of an immensely popular series. In the season 4 premiere episode of Black Mirror, titled "USS Callister," Milioti co-starred as Nanette Cole, a new employee at a popular video game studio working under the company's nebbish and unpopular Chief Technology Officer Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons).
When he's not at the office, Robert is working on his own personal project. It's a video game made to resemble a Star Trek like TV series where the crew of the ship is composed of the coworkers who don't pay him respect in his real life. Unlike the real world, on the USS Callister, Robert gets to be the charismatic and domineering captain. On the surface, this might seem like a weird, but harmless, way to blow off steam. However, Robert's game has a disturbing component to it. To create the life-like renderings of his co-workers, he's been stealing their DNA and making digital clones. Soon, Nanette finds herself copied into the game and at the mercy of Robert's designs.
The episode garnered praise from critics, with several noting it as one of the best installments in Black Mirror's history. Several reviewers singled out Milioti's performance, including Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly. In an article titled "Early Emmy Plea: Black Mirror's Cristin Milioti reinvented sci-fi heroism in 'U.S.S. Callister,'" they called her portrayal of Nanette a "multi-dimensional delight, exultant with possibility even when her character is most freakily entrapped" and said that her work was "as funny as it is fist-pumpingly triumphant."
Palm Springs gave Milioti a character to sink her teeth into
On the surface, sci-fi rom-com hybrid Palm Springs might seem like lighter-fare than Made for Love or Black Mirror. But what it lacks in insidious microchips and stolen DNA, it makes up for with its extreme pathos. The Hulu original film is about two wedding guests, Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Milioti), who find themselves stuck in a Groundhog's Day style time loop while in the eponymous desert town.
The film was a massive hit when it debuted. Not only did it impress critics, but it also became the most-viewed movie premiere by hours of any film on Hulu (via IndieWire). During an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Milioti revealed why she counts herself among the movie's many fans.
Speaking of her character, Milioti explained, "She's a complete spectrum of a human being. You see the good and the bad and the ugly. And she is allowed to be flawed and she is allowed to be as funny and as irreverent as Nyles..." She went on to commend the film for not turning Sarah into "the strong woman trope or the manic pixie trope. She's just a human."
Whether she's fleeing the world's worst tech-bro or stuck reliving the same wedding indefinitely, Cristin Milioti has certainly made her mark on the world of contemporary sci-fi. Make sure to check her out on Made for Love on HBO Max.