“What seduced me in Silo, it’s the environment in which the characters are prisoners and each stage of the adventure in which they find themselves,” says Rebecca Ferguson straight away in an interview. The Swedish actress, a great regular at box office success (the franchise Impossible mission, The Girl on the Train) and science fiction movies (Dunes, Life. Unknown origin) does not sulk his pleasure to play in the most recent series of Apple TV+, created and written by Graham Yost (Clans) and directed by Morten Tyldum (The imitation game).
Adaptation of the novel of the same name by Hugh Howey, we follow a civilization of a post-apocalyptic future which has no other choice, to survive the toxicity of the outside air, than to retreat into a gigantic underground silo. ultra secure. The only image of this forbidden and dangerous outside comes from a surveillance camera which broadcasts live the “executions” of those sentenced to death for violation of the established order…
The deaths of Allison (Rashida Jones) and her husband, Sheriff Holston (David Oyelowo), who collapse after only a few steps in the open air, two years apart, however, will alert mechanic Juliette Nichols , played by Rebecca Ferguson. “My character embarks body and soul on an emotional journey. This introvert, a little cold, but above all brilliant and independent, must step out of her comfort zone to question what she believes to be a lie and find the true reality”, she indicates.
The suspicious deaths of Allison and Holston, initially qualified as suicides, thus force the protagonist to assert herself within the microsociety of the silo. “Juliette is convinced that there are certainly other reasons which could explain these disappearances and that another truth must emerge”, adds the actress. During the first two episodes, the spectators indeed learn that if the deceased couple did not succeed in conceiving a child, it is very likely that there is a secret organ for supervising and “sorting” pregnancies.
“We quickly see that births are manipulated thanks to a very special contraceptive pill”, notes in this regard the interpreter of Juliette Nichols. If the society given to see in the fiction does not seem very egalitarian, Rebecca Ferguson points out that it is however a little more so than our contemporary world. “There are a lot of powerful women on the show. When it comes to the possession of power, however, we quickly realize that it is the men who have control of the prohibitions”, raises the one whose female character at the bottom of the scale is at the origin of the impetus for change. “It’s well done of Hugh Howey to have written such a character bad-asswhich I was able to recreate on screen as I heard it with the confidence of Graham Yost, a brilliant man”, she rejoices.
And to continue: “It is interesting that the series takes place in an environment from which one cannot escape. Without falling into the spiral of political debate, it is all the more curious to observe Silo on a global scale, when we know that there is currently a massive return of restrictions on the rights of women.”
A double hat
In addition to playing feminist Juliette Nichols, Rebecca Ferguson serves as executive producer of Silo. A first for her. “That role came later in the series process. I took learning this new function very seriously and I was lucky to be surrounded by a phenomenal team of producers,” she underlines.
Participating in the serial adaptation of the novel on both sides of the camera even allowed the actress to gain stamina. “Sometimes it happens that in life, although we are in the right place, where we need to be, we also want to go further, to surpass ourselves. She also confides that she loved being a full member of “the creativity room” in order to establish the main lines of Silo.
When finally asked why she seems to favor the genre of science fiction in her career choices, Rebecca Ferguson spontaneously replies that these are roles that come naturally to her. “If we break everything down and look under the microscope at science fiction universes, we see that their authors are like a maestro conducting his orchestra. It is very impressive. I love when such opportunities come to me. »
She is enthusiastic about the unique way of telling stories in the worlds of science fiction. “Science fiction writers and screenwriters are brilliant because they are able to invent new spaces that integrate issues with which we can all identify”, she concludes about the Silo by Hugh Howey and Graham Yost.