Posted in: BBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: The Capture

The Capture: Grainger on Carey's Evolution, Technology, AI & More

The Capture star Holliday Grainger (Mickey 17) spoke with us about the third season of the high-tech espionage thriller, Carey, AI, and more.

It's been quite the journey for Holliday Grainger's Rachel Carey on the high-tech espionage thriller The Capture. Going from a detective with the Metropolitan Police and working her way up to the government and now, Acting Commander of SO15, trying to integrate new surveillance technology with Operation Veritas, Carey's finding herself in familiar, but dangerous territory as the lone eyewitness to a murder in a world where deepfakes and digital manipulation are the norm, thanks to the normalization of artificial intelligence (AI). The Mickey 17 star spoke to Bleeding Cool about how connected she is to the greater world, working with creator/showrunner Ben Chanan, how Carey's evolved into the third season, new faces and returning favorites, and her thoughts on the entertainment industry's long-term plans for integrating AI.

The Capture Star Holliday Grainger on Navigating Rachel Carey's Journey Through 3 Seasons

BC: Three seasons in for 'The Capture,' how does the show affect your personal feelings on technology?

Grainger: I was shocked, actually, in the first season, how much CCTV there was. It's the sort of technology in season one that felt quite far ahead of its time (in 2019), and already, the world has caught up and more. You can do in your front room what was taking the professionals to do in season one. I think I'm quite analog when it comes to technology anyway. I'm not on social media, and I don't use AI. I'm already someone who's become quite a Luddite [laughs]. I think that's not throughfare. I think it's just through like really bad technology [laughs].

What do you enjoy working with Ben as a creative and showrunner, and having Rachel Carey evolve in the show?

I love Ben's scripts and the world that he creates. Across the three seasons, his world has expanded, and the stakes get higher each season. We started off focused on the Met, and then it broadens out to government. Now, we're talking about the entire world and the military, and each time the seasons become more relevant, and the stakes get higher for Rachel. What I enjoyed most about filming season three was that, unlike the first two seasons, where I'd had all six episodes before we started filming, I didn't know what was going to happen in the plot. I knew the over-arc of Carey's character where she'd end up, but I didn't know the plot, so I was getting grip fed that as we went and found myself being…I felt like an investigator trying to figure out the plot as I went, as Carey is to figure out what happens. I really enjoyed that.

Have things changed your mindset since Rachel's in a much higher position than she was before, in previous seasons? Or did it feel the same?

No, she certainly is in a higher position, and I think with that power. With great power comes great responsibility, and I think it really shows how often, with power and responsibility, your morals can shift. That's quite true to life, and yeah, so that was a great journey to go on through season three.

Were there any of the new additions in Season 3 that you're particularly looking forward to working with?

Killian Scott, who plays (Commander) Noah Pearson, is brilliant, and it's such a great character for him, bringing so many layers to it. I really enjoyed working with him on this. There's also a lot of the returning characters, Ron Perlman (Frank Napier) and Lia Williams (DSU Gemma Garland). It was really exciting to have scenes with them again.

I know it's been a trending topic in the entertainment industry, but just wondering: if a project leans on AI in any form, is there a line at which you would be involved, depending on how it's used, or is it something you wouldn't even bother dealing with?

I think AI is something that we can't shy away from, but I think at the moment, there are definitely boundaries that we can all personally put in place because now is the time that we're all rewriting contracts in terms of, like, where we stand on and so I think it is an important time to hold your ground.

Season three of The Capture, which also stars Pappa Essiedu, Ben Miles, Ginny Holder, Nigel Lindsay, Tessa Wong, Indira Varma, Linus Roache, and Andy Nyman, is available on Peacock.

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