The director tells PEOPLE that the actress brought a “very fresh” energy to ‘The Dog Stars’ as Cima, a survivor who shakes up Jacob Elordi’s isolated world

NEED TO KNOW

• Ridley Scott praises Margaret Qualley’s humor and openness while working on the post-apocalyptic drama The Dog Stars
• The film explores survival and emotional complexities in isolated communities after a devastating pandemic
• Scott says Qualley’s directness helped create a strong working relationship and added depth to her character

Ridley Scott has spent decades working with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but Margaret Qualley made a particularly memorable impression on the legendary director.

“She is hilarious,” Scott, 88, tells PEOPLE of working with Qualley, 31, on The Dog Stars. “She is, above all things, a character. She is a character.”

In the post-apocalyptic thriller, based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, Qualley plays Cima, a doctor and survivor living with her father, Pops (Guy Pearce), in an isolated mountain community after a pandemic has devastated the world. When Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot living in the Colorado wilderness with his dog, picks up a mysterious radio transmission, he sets out to find its source and eventually crosses paths with Cima and Pops, bringing him into their secluded world and setting the stage for an unexpected connection.

For Scott, The Substance star’s personality was part of what made her such a natural fit for the role.

“In a way, it’s very fresh,” he says. “She’s very open and will say what she thinks, which is also fresh. A lot of people don’t say what they think.”

Scott says he appreciates that kind of directness from the people he works with, particularly because it helps create an easy relationship on set.

“I say what I think,” he says. “And as soon as somebody says that to me, I’m immediately relaxed, so therefore you can have a good working relationship.”

That openness was especially useful in The Dog Stars, where Scott wanted the various groups of survivors to feel distinct from one another. In addition to Cima and her father, the film centers on Hig and Bangley (Josh Brolin), two very different men whose uneasy partnership is shaped by the harsh realities of their new world.

Scott was drawn to the idea of these small communities becoming “little isolated groups of people” — people who have survived, but are also trying to figure out what survival means for the future.

“In a funny kind of way, when you get these little isolated groups of people, like the Mennonites, Pops and Cima, and the two guys together in the middle of nowhere, all these are the people who are sort of survivors and those who probably are trying to settle for, ‘This is it. This is the way it’s gonna be,’ ” he explains.

For Cima, however, accepting that this is all there is comes with its own complications. Scott points to her relationship with Pops and the reality that, eventually, she could be left on her own.

“The future for her with a man who is a father is inevitably one day he will pass,” Scott says. “She will be on her own. Now, that will be on his mind, and it’ll be on her mind too.”

According to Scott, that uncertainty gives Cima’s story a deeper emotional layer as she considers what comes next in a world where even leaving your own community can be dangerous.

“There’s the reality check of where you are, where you’re going, and what is just over that hill,” Scott says.

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For Qualley, that meant stepping into a story where the danger is always present, even when it isn’t necessarily visible. Cima lives in one of those fragile pockets of safety, and her interactions with Hig introduce the possibility of something beyond simply surviving from one day to the next.

Scott says those contrasting pockets of humanity were part of what attracted him to the story in the first place, as he knew early on that he was “in good hands” with the material.

That confidence extended to the cast — and, in Qualley’s case, Scott says her willingness to speak her mind made the experience all the more enjoyable.

“Margaret’s a hoot,” he says. “She is hilarious.”

The Dog Stars is in theaters Friday, Aug. 28.

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