'Blade Runner 2049' star and Daryl Hannah doppelgänger Mackenzie Davis used to cosplay as Pris

The internet responded appropriately last summer when Mackenzie Davis was cast in Blade Runner 2049, pointing out the actress’s stunning physical resemblance to original Blade Runner star Daryl Hannah and speculating that her character could mean Hannah’s fearsome blonde replicant Pris was being resurrected.

Davis does not play Pris, or anyone related to her, that much we can say without spoilers. But her likeliness to the Splash star certainly helped her case in landing her part as Mariette (whom we’ll say nothing more about). “As soon as I signed on for this movie I said, ‘Let’s get Mackenzie Davis on the phone. She looks like Daryl Hannah’s little sister,” director Denis Villeneuve told Yahoo Entertainment‘s Marcus Errico recently.

At the film’s Los Angeles press day, we asked Davis (The Martian, That Awkward Moment) if she was aware that it helped her land the role. “It couldn’t have hurt,” she admitted (watch above).

“It was by design,” Villeneuve confirmed, adding that the actress also fit the specific look that he believes a futuristic sci-fi film like Blade Runner requires. “It’s like a period movie. Some faces were welcome, and others don’t fit… She was one of the very first actors I approached.”

Davis has never met Hannah, but she told us that — very fittingly — she used to dress up as her doppelgänger to attend Blade Runner screenings. “I was cosplaying as Pris for a little while,” she revealed. “I’m sure there was some energy in the universe, me being like, ‘I’m around.'”

Blade Runner 2049 is now in theaters.

Watch Harrison Ford talk about ‘accidentally’ hitting Ryan Gosling in the face:

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