Interview with Tom Goodman-Hill who plays Joe Hawkins in Humans

18 October 2016

Where do we find Joe and Laura in series two?

They’re still trying to fix their marriage. They’ve decided on a complete change of scene and moved house as a way of leaving behind memories of Joe’s indiscretion. It also feels like a good idea for security, after the police and Leo [Colin Morgan] and the gang descended on the old place. It’s an attempt to heal the wounds.

 

And they go to marriage counselling with an interesting marriage counsellor?!

Yes, Josie Lawrence plays our marriage counsellor, a synth called Barbara. They find it considerably more enlightening than sessions with a human being, because Joe doesn’t want to feel judged. That allows Joe and Laura [Katherine Parkinson] to connect with each other rather than a third human being. They rather unexpectedly enjoy the experience.

 

Are they happier now Mia’s gone?

Joe is, he’s determined to keep that dynamic going. He wants the family to do stuff for themselves and connect as human beings. That’s what he wants out of life now.

 

How else has Joe evolved?

He had his fingers burnt after being an early adopter – he got very excited about tech, then realised it’s not all it’s cracked up to be and it’s sent him the other way. His experience with Mia [Gemma Chan] was further evidence that the tech wasn’t what he expected. He wanted a glorified toaster but he got so much more and wasn’t prepared to handle it. Now he’s gone completely the other way. He’s concerned for the welfare of his family and marriage, keeping the house as free of synth technology as possible.

 

How are the Hawkins children?

Mattie [Lucy Carless] is now at university and independent now. That’s another catalyst for the house move – a smaller mortgage and further out, but where they could have a bedroom big enough for Mattie to stay at home. It’s a way of keeping her in the nest, but she’s her own boss and does her own thing, which Joe finds quite hard to handle. Toby [Theo Stevenson] is enjoying some major growing pains and taking his first steps in his own relationships, while Sophie [Pixie Davies] is finding Mia’s absence very hard to handle.

 

As a dad, do these changing parent-child relationships make sense to you?

Definitely. My two children are both at university, and it’s a very strange time when your own parental influence becomes less important than that of their peers and housemates and so on. The Hawkins’ have discovered the world is a little weirder and scarier than they thought, so they want to keep Mattie close for as long as possible.

 

Are the Hawkins family in touch with any of the synths from series one?

Well, one synth in particular comes back into their lives and becomes quite an awkward presence, shall we say. Joe doesn’t want any of them back, so he’s trying to keep the kids away while getting his own life back together.

 

The Hawkins family are reabsorbed into the wider story in a very logical way.

Yes, and Joe’s workplace becomes part of that as well. He goes back to work in the factory where synths do a lot of the jobs and he’s the only human left on the floor. Joe has retrenched and he’s trying to keep himself as domestic as possible, while Laura’s instinct is to throw herself out there and try and make sense of the world by engaging with it. That immediately pulls them further apart at the worst possible time.

 

Are you used to acting opposite synths now?

It’s become quite normal, which is a bit worrying. But now it’s completely normal to walk around with a phone permanently in hand, so it is quite easy to get accustomed to new tech. That’s particularly the case for the scenes in Joe’s factory: in series one, I was standing around in complete wonder at the supporting artists who’d done all this incredible work learning to be synths; this year, it didn’t even strike me as odd.

 

Do you see the role of the Hawkins family as grounding the drama?

Yeah. [Series creators] Jon Brackley and Sam Vincent would always say we can only talk about AI in the larger world if we root it in the domestic world – that’s the only way to get people to engage with the ideas. It’s not that the Hawkinses are the mundane part of the show, they’re the way into understanding the rest of it. Jon and Sam were keen to show the impact of that technology on everyday life. What Sophie goes through this year is very disturbing. Her identification with the synths affects her behaviour, psychology, her ability to identify with human beings. Joe tries to stem those worrying changes in her personality, and they’re compounded by Toby’s relationship with a girl at school who has a very similar problem, while Mattie is so engaged with it that it’s part of her make-up. You see this gradual development of the family and how it’s forced to adapt to this society. It’s important they do: progress is progress and you can’t undo it, they have to make their live work within this new society.

 

Did you get jealous of the others filming in Berlin for this series while you were stuck in suburbia?

I was unbelievably jealous. I’m locked in the house for the entire time while everyone else is jet-setting and running around science facilities. Some of them at least got to Margate but the furthest I got was St Albans.

 

At least you’re off to the New York Comic Con. Have you been before?

No, only the London one last year. It was extraordinary how excited people were even at that stage, when we were only a few episodes into the first series. New York Comic Con will be quite the experience, I think.

 

Comic Con is big on cosplay. Do you think anyone will turn up dressed as Joe Hawkins?

I would be very, very surprised if a single person went as Joe. I’ll be quite easy to spot, whereas it’ll be quite weird to see people wandering around with wigs and contact lenses, pretending to be synths.