Season five of Black Mirror is imminent – and, without a doubt, the next three episodes of the dystopian series are the starriest yet. For season five, Fleabag’s The Hot Priest (aka Andrew Scott), Endgame’s Antony Mackie and real life popstar Miley Cyrus have been recruited by co-creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones to get us questioning our relationships with technology - and the devastating implications that can have.
It turns out Brooker and Jones didn’t think Miley Cyrus would read the script in the first place. Speaking to Grazia, the co-creators revealed that neither Miley or Andrew needed much persuasion to take part in the anthology series - especially Miley, who they say jumped at the chance to take the lead role in Rachel, Jack And Ashley Too, as it tackled so many issues she related to in the music industry.
‘What was immediately quite fun was that we sent the script off thinking this is like sending a bottle in to the sea with a message in it,’ Charlie tells us. ‘But we did hear back and then quite quickly it was suggested [that we had] a Skype call with Miley. And very, very quickly it was very, very apparent that she's someone who is – for having gone through the life that she’s had – is amazingly sane, and has a sense of the absurdity of the industry she’s in.’
‘I think the biggest concern casting wise in that film was [thinking] who can you cast who is going to immediately evoke credibility of an international popstar,’ Annabel explained. ‘We’re not a long running series where you can sort of gradually establish that credibility so you need to hit the ground running.’
It was in 2012 - a year after Disney series Hannah Montana had finished - when Miley drastically started to pivot her image away from innocent child star, notably chopping off her hair and dying it peroxide blonde. (It wasn’t long before she was writhing naked on a wrecking ball and twerking on Robin Thicke at the VMAs.) But Annabel says it was because Miley had to find her ‘own identity’ – following years of being an ‘anodyne Disney popstar’ - that she was so keen to film the episode. The writers also said that she engaged with the script so much that they went back to rewrite parts of it, after getting her feedback on what rang true in the industry.
‘It turned out that she had heard of the show and not only that, but she was a fan and the script really spoke to her,’ Annabel said. ‘And being in that industry, she had a lot of thoughts on it that we sort of reversed into the script [so that it felt] all the more credible.
‘In real life Miley is quite anarchic, she wants to control her rights and her image and her work, so she had been through a similar exercise where she has had to break through from an anodyne Disney popstar image projected upon her and find her own identity. And that is quite a scary thing for someone to do, to step out of the persona that everyone wants you to remain in for the rest of your life. She’s had a similar trajectory and she [has been] exposed to the certain issues of what it’s like to be a creator when the entertainment industry is being infiltrated by AI and computers.’ (Charlie then shouts loudly, interrupting Annabel before too many spoilers are given away.)
For the cynics, Annabel also adds that Miley wasn't in Black Mirror for the cash, ‘Miley would never do anything for money. She does not need to do anything for money. She’s her own person.’
The pair were also (obviously) delighted to get Andrew Scott on board for Smithereens, a dark tale which sees the actor playing the equivalent of an Uber driver, who kidnaps someone working for a social media giant. (And yes, they did cast him way before he stole everybody’s heart as The Hot Priest.) ‘Smithereens - starring the wonderful Hot Priest,’ Annabel exclaims. ‘Oh my God, what a role. What a performance. Fucking heartbreaking!’
‘We wanted to do something that was both claustrophobic, set in the present day, which had no sci-fi element and was both claustrophobic, and also quite large in scale,’ Charlie adds. ‘And hopefully it’s sort of all of those things at once and it stars Andrew Scott - who Annabel has apparently noticed - and Damson Idris. I mean he [Andrew] has to act like fuck in there.’
‘[We cast him] pre-Fleabag,’ Annabel says, adding that she had ‘no idea’ how his profile was going to skyrocket. ‘We all knew he was a great actor, but you know, he just is so skilled. He can go from being that “Is that guy a menace? Is that guy a threat? Should we be worried about Damson in the back of the car?” to then taking you with him on that journey where he just reveals layer by layer weaknesses and vulnerability.’ (Charlie – the self-proclaimed spoiler police – interrupts again before too much is given away.) ‘It just really chimed with Andrew,’ Annabel adds. ‘I think he is – like a lot of people – questioning his use of technology.’
Each of the three episodes explore topics which feel scarily pertinent in 2019, but it's perhaps Striking Vipers - which stars Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as ‘former college friends’ who 'reunite in later life, triggering a series of events that could alter their lives forever’ - that really magnifies the detrimental impact tech can have on relationships. And talking about the inspiration behind the plot, Annabel says the episode tackles some of the issues surrounding pornography. ‘It’s a porn analogy. An exploration of when porn is a healthy distraction, and when it becomes something a little bit more damaging to your relationships.
‘And that’s not too much of a spoiler.’
Black Mirror is available to stream on Netflix from June 5.