How Annie Murphy thought ‘Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful’ ending could ‘drive yourself insane’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

SPOILER ALERT: This article and video contain spoilers about this show.

“You’re like, ‘oh s*** this could actually happen,’” admits Annie Murphy about “Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful.” In our recent webchat she adds, “And not just someday, maybe in our lifetime. Technology is moving so fast.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Black Mirror” is the anthology series created by Charlie Brooker in which each episode takes on new characters and stories to tell a dystopian tale using sci-fi technology.

“Joan is Awful” is a featured installment from the sixth season of the Emmy-winning Netflix show. Murphy plays Joan, who discovers that a streaming service has made a drama based on her life starring Salma Hayek. With all her flaws dramatized publicly for television, Joan’s personal life is upended. The episode uses satire to highlight concerns around privacy and AI replacing actors. Murphy explains “It came out then the strike happened. Such a dominant issue with the strike was AI. Of all the ‘Black Mirror’ episodes, this is the one Charlie had his finger most on the button with.”

The final twist in the film is that Murphy is playing an AI depiction of Annie Murphy playing the real Joan. The actor exclaims when she first read the script, “I saw my own friggin’ name looking back at me. I was bowled over by that. It was a first time for me.” She also says, “It was so cool and a real challenge finding out the twist that I was me. Trying to bring in elements of Annie Murphy to how I played Joan. But like with every ‘Black Mirror’ episode, I learned, you can’t overthink it too much. Because then you would just drive yourself insane.”

The wildest scene is the episode is when Joan defecates in a church wearing a cheerleader outfit to force an AI version of Hayek to do the same. Murphy thought the scene “was exactly in my wheelhouse. Someone did say, ‘you realize your wheelhouse was taking a s*** in a church?’ I thought it was so ridiculous and over the top. When have you seen that before?“

Murphy won an Emmy for playing Alexis Rose on the final season of “Schitt’s Creek.” Murphy reflects, “I’ve taken a smidge of Alexis’ confidence. It was my first significant role. Going in and being schooled by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara every day was such an insane education. I walked away from ‘Schitt’s’ with more tools and a little more confidence.”

The star compares her “Black Mirror” character to her life as an actor, saying, “Joan had a lot of optimism. It’s the thing that’s both good and bad about this job. The phone doesn’t ring for such a long time. You have to keep your motivation up. But then you get a call one day. And it’s Charlie Brooker asking you to spend seven weeks in London if you’re lucky. And I was so lucky.”

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