Justin Cook spoke to Liam Cunningham at New York Comic Con about his role in the upcoming episode of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, “Human Is”…
After working for 25 years in the film/TV industry, Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham has gained enough experience and perspective to realize that all he can really hope for as an actor is “the company that [he] keeps” – and as it turns out, he got to keep the company of some hugely talented performers while working on Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.
Cunningham had nothing but praise for his Electric Dreams co-stars when Flickering Myth asked him about working on “Human Is” with Bryan Cranston, multiple Emmy winner and star of Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad, and Essie Davis, a Game of Thrones alum and star of The Babadook.
While Ser Davos on Game of Thrones may be one of the few honorable men left in Westeros, in Electric Dreams, Cunningham’s character certainly seems to lean a bit more towards the malicious side of things, as the actors says he creates “a little bit of trouble” for Cranston and Davis’ husband-wife duo.
On working with the two, Cunningham said, “It was absolutely extraordinary. As an actor, you can sit there all you like and go ‘I wanna do big movies’ and all that bulls**t, but all you can hope for is the company that you keep. You’d like to see yourself in the company of people that you respect. And Mr. Cranston has brought me and my family years and years and years… from when my kids were small with Malcolm in the Middle to Breaking Bad to whatever, my kids have grown up with Mr. Cranston. On set he’s everything you’d wish for. He’s completely professional, completely passionate, his attention to detail… he has a childlike passion for what he’s doing and he’s been in the game a long time. And you just kind of go, well, there’s hope for me if this guy hasn’t been spoiled by success, hasn’t sat on his laurels and loves telling the stories. As he said, the most important thing is the characterization, the character that you’re watching. If the characters are good the story will follow because you’ll have an empathy for them.”
He continued, “And Essie is just luminous, she’s fantastic in the show. I play the boss, but very much the emotional journey of the whole thing is [Cranston and Davis’] marriage… I put them in harm’s way, I put them in a little bit of trouble when he gets back. [The character’s] not a bad guy, but I’m a general and I want things done properly. Bryan’s characterizations are absolutely fantastic, he’s got a real shift of character in it. And Essie’s just… it’s Shakespearean what she’s doing especially towards the end of it, it’s really really beautiful. She’s got some gorgeous words to say. You just feel really nice. And it’s science fiction. And it’s Philip K. Dick. I hopped out of bed in the morning. There was no difficulty tearing myself off my pillow when I was working on this. It was really lovely.”
“Human Is” takes place in the year 2520 on Terra, Earth’s new identity. In the episode, Cranston plays Silias, a colonel in the Intergalactic Intelligence Agency and cruel and abusive man who is changed for the better upon his return from a military operation; Davis plays Vera a major official in the Intergalactic Intelligence Agency who longs for human connection; Cunningham plays General Olin, a military commander whose concern for the protection of Terra drives him to make some callous decisions.
The episode airs tomorrow, October 29th, on Channel 4 in the UK and will be released to American audiences on Amazon Prime Video sometime next year, along with the rest of Electric Dreams season 1. The episode also stars Ruth Bradley (Humans) and Ronan Vibert (Dracula Untold), is penned by Jessica Mecklenburg (Stranger Things) and directed by Francesca Gregorini (The Truth About Emanuel).
Electric Dreams is an anthology series that adapts 10 of Dick’s short stories for the small screen and is a “tribute album” of sorts to the late great author. Check out the atmospheric and meditative New York Comic Con trailer for the show here, as well as our interview with the executive producers of the show here.
Justin Cook
Originally published October 29, 2017. Updated April 18, 2018.
