Alexander Skarsgård is a cyborg grappling with emotions it doesn’t understand in sci-fi comedy Murderbot
When a security cyborg manages to override its settings, finally freeing itself from servitude, it decides to name itself Murderbot. The moniker is catchy, hinting at a dark agenda, but rather than go on a killing spree, this robot, free from all constraints, just wants to watch 7,500 hours of soap operas and chill.
It was the absurdist nature of Martha Wells’ source material (her Murderbot Diaries novels), combined with the sensibility of American Pie creators Chris and Paul Weitz, that drew Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood, Succession) to Murderbot as its lead actor and executive producer. “I had done The Northman and Infinity Pool, two incredible projects to be part of, but quite draining emotionally, so I was excited about doing a character that was a bit more comedic,” he says. “It was a world that I was intrigued by. It was funny, irreverent and really intelligent. I had the fortune of coming onboard quite early, so we had over a year to shape the character and the story, and it was a real treat to be able to do that with Chris and Paul.”
Although peppered with humour, the world in which Murderbot is set is far from chill. “It’s dark and quite dystopian,” says Skarsgård. “They’re out mining on different planets for resources and it’s all run by a big corporation.” In the middle of a society motivated by greed is a small and unusual group of people that Murderbot is assigned to protect. “Murderbot is normally assigned to people who treat him like a piece of inventory, as opposed to these people, who are basically space hippies,” says Skarsgård. “They embrace Murderbot, literally and metaphorically, and that is something completely new and very unsettling to it.”
As those with knowledge of the book series know, most of Murderbot’s thoughts are expressed as biting inner monologue. What on the page feels seamless was, in real life, something of a production challenge. “It was a little scary because it’s hard to trust when you do nothing, that it is going to be enough for the audience,” says Skarsgård. “But it was about trusting that it would work. Sometimes I would just read the voiceover in my head and then react to it. Sometimes we would have someone behind camera read my voiceover because there were moments where it would be helpful for the other actors to hear it. We just had to commit to it, like, ‘It’s fine. Don’t do anything. Just stand there and try to avoid eye contact.’”
The cast was impressed with the Swedish actor’s commitment to the challenge. “It’s masterful what he’s doing,” says Tamara Podemski, who plays geochemist Dr. Bharadwaj. “A voiceover is a really powerful device, but it is hard to do because you’re face acting — and [in this case] not really because it’s not a human face acting. We were watching it happen, and it was so impressive. I have deep respect for what he maintained through 10 episodes.” For Akshay Khanna, who plays wormhole travel expert Ratthi, there was no one more perfect for the role than his costar. “Alex, he’s so weird, man,” says Khanna. “He’s six-foot-five and deeply funny, but in a really dry way. You see him in the [robot] suit and you just believe that he is this cyborg.”
The sarcasm of the series mostly comes from Murderbot’s disdain for human beings. “It’s a very laconic character in the beginning,” says Skarsgård. “It’s incredibly uncomfortable around humans and it desperately wants to get away from them.” The broadness of the humour, on the other hand, is supplied by the humans, who find themselves in all kinds of trouble on their expedition. “It’s interesting because I don’t know what to compare it to,” Skarsgård says of the unusual mix of tones. “It’s not a flat out 30-minute sitcom or a sci-fi action drama. I found in the screenplays a lot of beautiful relationships and a real character journey for Murderbot, but with these comedic elements that come out of the awkward moments.”
As technology plays an increasingly larger part in our lives, what the cast feel Murderbot reflects, when it comes to present time, is our need for human connection. “I consume a lot of sci-fi novels, and you quickly realize that it’s all quite bleak, a lot of it’s basically quite threatening,” says Khanna. “But these are still good people within this strange and occasionally horrible universe, and the tone doesn’t focus on the horrifying elements. It instead focuses on the love between these people.” But if they’ve taken away anything about the evolution of tech, it is to embrace artificial intelligence as best they can. “A friend of mine, the other day, said they were asking ChatGPT questions like, ‘My husband came home like this, what should I do?’ And it wasn’t bad. They said it gave pretty sound advice,” says Canadian actor Tattiawna Jones, who plays scientist Arada, and feels the Murderbot brand may have franchising potential. “People are really responding to AI therapy. I think Murderbot therapy is in the cards.”
Murderbot, streaming Friday, May 30 on Apple TV+