Interview with Gemma Chan ahead of Humans Series 2

14 October 2016

 

First thing's first: should we be referring to Mia or Anita?

She's Mia, but there are definitely elements of Anita that you still get to see in series two. It's about Mia trying to find out who she is or who she might be. For the first time in her life, she has the opportunity to discover more about herself. She still uses the guise of Anita to interact with people.

If you're trying to find yourself, why would you do it by working in a seaside café like Mia?

She and Max [Ivanno Jeremiah] and Leo [Colin Morgan] are trying to make a new start, hiding out in a slightly rundown coastal town. They need money for supplies and food for Leo, so she gets sent out to work. Ed [Sam Palladio], the owner of the café, can’t afford to employ humans or his own synth, so Leo poses as Mia’s owner and Ed rents her on a daily basis. It’s just her and him running a business that’s not doing particularly well.

What is her relationship with Ed like?

They have an interesting relationship – they’ve formed a bond, of sorts. At the outset, he doesn’t know who she really is, so to him she’s just another synth. Ed has a lot on his shoulders – his mother’s unwell and his father’s died, so he’s trying to hold himself together. She sees a side of him that others don’t – he’s always looking out for other people. He’s not threatened by her, and they enjoy each other’s company. There’s definitely chemistry between them, but it doesn’t all go smoothly.

How was working with Sam?

I really missed Tom and Katherine and the family. It was a different experience this year, because for most of the early episodes it was just me and Sam in Margate. He’s brilliant, but it felt like we were at the end of the world, in this café on the edge of a cliff.

Did you stay in Margate during filming?

Yes, I love it down there. I didn’t have much time off, but there’s a real beauty to the place, a faded glory. There’s been a lot of regeneration, with the new Turner Gallery opening and groups of artists moving there – it’s the new Brighton, apparently. It’s quite an exciting time, although we were lucky to be there in the summer, having ice cream on the sea front during lunch breaks.

Do you think Mia misses her old life with the Hawkins family?

I think she does. She cares about them a lot, but she knew she couldn’t stay there. Later on in the series, there’s a reunion of sorts, but right now she’s having to try and build her own life.

How would you describe Mia's personality now?

She is still an innocent in some ways. Her contact with humans has been limited to her experiences with the Hawkins family, who she cared about deeply and who cared about her, even though things happened with Joe [Tom Goodman-Hill] that weren’t great. She’s naïve, but determined to try and live her own experience. She ends up in a place where that combination of factors proves a bit dangerous.

What are her views on synths becoming conscious?

She has mixed feelings about it. She understands that the more conscious synths there are, the more likely they are to be perceived as a threat. A lot of what she fought for was to be reunited with her family and restored to her true self, so she wants to focus on that. She cares about other synths, but she hasn’t taken it upon herself in the same way Leo has: she feels they shouldn’t be putting themselves in the amount of danger he wants to put them in, in order to save conscious synths. It becomes a real point of difference between them.

How have you had to alter your performance this year?

It has been slightly different. Playing Mia using the guise of Anita, it’s not the same Anita as before. It’s not a perfect imitation, and there are points where Mia’s mask slips in front of Ed and she can’t disguise her true nature, whereas she was full-blown Anita in series one. Mia’s trying to do her best version of it.

Do people come up to you in the street and ask you to 'do' Anita?

I've recorded a few voicemail messages as Anita and a couple of people have tried to turn me off under the chin. But mostly, people seem genuinely excited about the themes and where the characters are going.

Presumably you were star pupil at Synth School this year.

Definitely not! I thought it would come back much quicker than it did. I was really rusty when we started. We practised synth running on the first day and I immediately pulled muscles in both legs because I thought I could just go straight into a synth sprint and didn’t warm up properly. I was in agony – and I had to do a lot of running in this series.

Are you off to New York Comic Con?

Yes, I’m really excited, I’ve never done an American Comic Con before. It’s me, Tom, Colin, Sam [Vincent], Jon [Brackley] and hopefully some of the American cast. I’ll be happy if I see one person dressed as Mia, wandering around. People have said it can be quite overwhelming, but I can’t wait.

The fanbase is really passionate, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a lovely thing because there are no guarantees when you’re filming something. You cross your fingers and hope people respond to it.

What should we be most excited about this series?

The show goes into quite dark territory, which I love. There are some great new characters, and the way in which the writers have explored morality and how we learn right from wrong is really exciting. In series one, the viewers might have come to sympathise with the synth characters, but this year there are some more ambiguous synths.