STACK #132 Oct 2016

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with GEMMA CHAN .

You have quite a dramatic underwater sequence, what was that experience like for you? I had never had to do any underwater work like that before so it was a real challenge but really good fun as well. We shot it at Pinewood – they have such a great team there. I had a session the week before just to introduce me to the water and learn how to breathe off a regulator. They took me down to the bottom of the tank and took away my mask, took away the regulator and I had to swim around for a bit and then be able to take the regulator back and then put the mask back on and clear it and then work my way back up to the surface. But then you have to be able to do all of that and try and act on top of it. I really enjoyed it but there was half of me that was loving it and half of me that was on the verge of panic. The team are brilliant and you know

how we treat and relate to our technology now? Definitely, I think it reflects loads of things about our relationship with technology, both our dependence on it and our ambivalence towards it. I have a love / hate relationship with my phone. I’m completely dependent on it, but I also hate how dependent I am on it. In the world of Humans you get to see people’s fears and prejudices towards technology and the benefits and possibly the downsides of our lives being made easier in a way. But you know in gaining some things, you lose other things. In today’s age with the internet we seem to be so much more connected to the world and yet there’s a disconnect as well: we might talk to our family and friends less, we have less real

that you’re safe and that if you look like you’re getting into any trouble they would be right in there and, you know, your diver would be looking after you. How close are we to the world we see in Humans? It’s just a step away from what we have now. I mean the technology we have already with iPhones and Siri; we call up a call centre, or ask our phone a question; you don’t necessarily have to speak to a person, you speak to a machine. This is just a step on from that in imagining a world where we do have humanoid servants or robots that do all the jobs that we can’t be bothered to do anymore. I think in parts of the world that’s already the case, where a lot of the work force has been replaced by machines, so we’re not far off really.

interaction and I think the show explores all of those themes.

Do you think it tells us anything about

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