The first episode pulled in a record breaking six million viewers, making Humans Channel 4’s biggest drama in 20 years. And on Sunday the eight-part series (which is rumoured to have a second instalment in the pipeline) will conclude with a dramatic finale. In this week’s issue of Grazia, we speak to Emily Berrington, who plays synth Niska who works in a brothel.
Emily, tells us that she feels she was born to play her role. ‘When I got the part, a few of my friends said, “Oh my god, you are perfect for this”. I was like, “Is that a compliment?”. I once said the same to Gemma Chan, who plays Anita. We’ve both accepted we’ve got something about us that is slightly robotic!” Before Emily, who has also appeared in The Inbetweeners 2 and 24: Live Another Day, started filming Humans (based on Swedish show Real Humans) she and her castmates had to attend ‘synth school’ so they moved like actual robots.
‘Our movement director ran workshops and improvisation classes where we had to do things like walk up and down the room as ourselves to see how we could change it. I have a bouncy, boppy walk, it turns out, and it had to be more robotic. We also had to consider that, as they run on battery power, they would be very efficient in their movements so there was no wasted energy. There can be no gestures like tucking your hair behind your ears. It’s all very economic and smooth – not what I’m like in real life.’
So what can we expect from the final episode? ‘The end definitely asks as many questions as it answers. We are all keeping our fingers crossed for series two.’ Us too!
Read the rest of our interview with Emily in the new issue of Grazia, on sale 28 July.