Please note: There are major spoilers for both “Silo” and the “Dune” series in this interview.
The Playlist: Congratulations on all the great projects released over the past year. After working on “Mission: Impossible” movies and “Dune” movies, is it hard to show up and have a production set actually impress you?
Rebecca Ferguson: [Laughs.] Yeah.
Yes, but there are two different things. There’s a scale of a set. When you’re, for example, with “Mission,” there’s nothing impressive over the sets because the sets are nature. So, it’s more the fact that you get to act in the environment and Tom’s doing a helicopter stunt. Like, the action is impressive. It’s not the sets and it’s not the environment in that sense because it’s natural, right? It’s beautiful. With “Silo,” the scope and scale of the sets, they’re so huge. And the fact that we actually have the staircase, then you can run maybe two, or three floors. And the visual effects guys, Paul Bongiovanni and Daniel Rauchwerger, and the team, knowing what they create, the collaboration with the set design and the visual effects is phenomenal. It’s absolutely phenomenal. I might have stolen a couple of props from the set, but I also steal by saying, “By the way, I’ve put a couple of props in my bag. You have one minute to take them back.” And if not, they are mine. Because they’re so beautiful. I have so many pictures of things on set. I just walk around.
I love how you give them one minute because that’s not enough time to really think about it.
One minute, that’s all they get.
When the project came to you, had you heard about the book? What was your reaction to it?
Nope. So when “Silo” came, I was given the first six episodes, and I read them, and I really liked it, but there was a little thing I [needed] changed. I got stuck in something. So I was like, “No, this is not the project for me.” So, I’m only telling this story [because] I’ve heard Graham Yost tell it. I would never have told a story that I’ve turned something down that I’m doing. But there was something that I didn’t really grasp in one of the episodes, and it was too big. It was a bit of an issue. And then they came back, and they were like, “Well, what is this issue?”And I was like, “Well, this is the issue.”And they were like, “O.K.” And then they came back, and they had addressed the issue, and I was like, “Oh, huh, interesting.” And then, when they did that, I thought, “Oh, I’m more interested in this.” And then I started the books, and then I was like, “Oh, I’m actually really into this world, but what else?” And then Graham was like, “What if you can become an [Executive Producer] and learn the process of making it and actually have insight into making a TV show?” And I was like, “Next to you, the best producer showrunner, “I mean, and that’s kind of how it came to life. And then I read all of the books and I was deep in it.
But when they sent you the first six episodes, had they told you what the ending of the first season was? I mean, because it’s seemingly very faithful to the book.
No, I think, and I might be lying, but I’m going to go with it. I read the first six episodes and I was caught on the journey up until the moment when I was like, “This isn’t great. This isn’t very good.” And then kind the other episode had to kind of correct itself and it was just a bit of distraction. So. I wasn’t that intrigued when that happened. But then, the second time, it really opened up my interest, and that’s why I was like, “What happens?” I mean, when you start going, “What happens after six? Do you have seven? Do you have eight? What’s going on here?” That’s a good sign.
I have a lot of questions about Juliette, especially the final episode. There’s a great scene where she is shown the video before George’s death. And he sort of sends her a message by looking at the video camera. He knows where the video camera is, and Juliette has a very emotional moment in that scene. Did you get to see the actual footage of him for that, or were you just looking at a green screen and imagining?
I asked for that to play, so I wanted to act against Ferdinand Kingsley‘s scene. So no, no, that was me in the room, and on all of these displays, they put it up. So, I actually saw what I would’ve been looking at.
For many people in Juliette’s situation, that moment might have crushed them, made them not want to keep fighting, and made them want to maybe just sort of accept their fate. But when she gets sentenced to go clean, she seems so confident. She seems so reassured. Which by the way, even if the world out there was all green, it’s still hard, who knows how you’re going to survive? Why do you think she still has that confidence?
I don’t. That is not how I saw it. For me, there’s a moment I think, in people’s lives where enough is enough and there’s a moment where there’s a form of surrender. And when she says, “I’m not afraid,” I think she has never been more afraid. I think that’s how I felt it. I felt “I am afraid. I’m so terrified. But it’s a broken system that I can’t solve here, and this is the next step for me. I agree this is what’s going to happen. I can’t fight this.” So, it’s like nearly a person who’s going to have given up, but you never give up. There’s a little tiny bit of hope, there might be a possibility of surviving. There’s so much in it. It’s not just, “I’m ready, bring it.” She’s petrified.
Do you also feel she’s petrified when she sees what the world actually looks like?
I think at that moment, it’s what everyone feels their own intuitive emotion towards it. But I think for me, in life, we’re telling a story. So we want to tell the grandiosity of what she sees and the impact. Well, when walking over taking those extra steps. But to be honest, I think for her, the fact that she’s taking one step after the other is an achievement and a realization, and it’s a gradual incline of safety. And then boom, there’s new information. That’s the whole journey with Juliette. It’s like a problem-solving, problem-solving, problem. That’s the entire world of “Silo” and the change of character throughout. She starts off as quite selfish. She wants to solve some issues around her own feelings, but that opens up a bigger can of worms. “Oh, there are bigger lies. There are bigger things. Wait, what is the truth? Oh, this is not just about me. I want to give up.” Walker says, “It’s not just about giving up.”
“Oh s**t, yeah, this is bigger. Maybe I need to care. Maybe it’s not just about fixing machinery because machinery needs to work, but it needs to actually give life to people. Oh, there’s a symbiosis going on here.” All of this is a gradual incline for Juliette’s character to where we end and where we get to in season two.
