STACK #132 Oct 2016

1

2

3 4

with GEMMA CHAN .

HUMANS Gemma Chan takes on the role of Anita in Humans - the futuristic tale of a humanity aided by synthetic companions. We caught up with the actress to chat about one of her most prominent embodiments to date.

So tell me a bit about Humans, where do we join the characters? GEMMA CHAN: Humans is set in a parallel present, in a very familiar world in London and you first meet the Hawkins family when they purchase a synth called Anita. Synths are a highly developed robotic servant which are very human in appearance; they are the latest aspirational product or gadget for a family to have. Parallel present? Is that one the viewers will recognize? Yes, the world of Humans, it could be today, it could be tomorrow. To the viewer it should be very recognizable. In that sense Humans isn’t traditional sci –fi, it is set in a very grounded universe. Who is Anita and what attracted you to her as a role? I was attracted to playing Anita because I like a challenge. She is a very complex multi layered character but also obviously, a character that isn’t human. I read the scripts and loved them. Reading the first three, I just wanted to read more. I hadn’t read anything like it and I’d never seen the subject of AI approached in this way before. So that for me was really refreshing and it raised a lot of questions and lots of interesting themes.

Anita is an enigma and a challenge: there are many layers to her which you get to see more of as the series goes on. The challenge was to be able to plot the arc she’s going to go on, revealing little by little about what she is and why. How do the family initially respond to the arrival of Anita? I would say that each member of the family starts off with a certain perception of Anita, which changes for each of them in a different way and for different reasons. Certain relationships develop in an unexpected way. When you first meet Anita you aren’t sure whether she is a threat to the family

or what her deal is and what’s going on. But things aren’t as they seem and they might not be what you first suspect either. Laura in particular feels initially quite threatened by her presence. She never wanted one of these things in her house and she’d always said that she wouldn’t have one and she comes back to find that her husband has made an impulse purchase and bought Anita and just brought it home without her permission. I think she does feel like her place is being usurped in the family with Anita being completely brilliant at every domestic task; cooking cleaning, looking after Sophie, so there’s a lot of mistrust and fear.

stack.net.au