‘Black Mirror’s Awkwafina Talks “Hotel Reverie” and Sparring With ‘Succession’s Harriet Walter
Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Black Mirror Season 7.
While many longtime viewers might describe Charlie Brooker‘s Netflix sci-fi anthology Black Mirror as a more pessimistic series, the writer and creator has also penned many more optimistic stories over the years since the show first premiered. For every episode like “The National Anthem” and “Shut Up and Dance,” there are also installments in the vein of “San Junipero” and “Hang the DJ.” Season 7 boasts some typical Black Mirror bleakness, but also delivers an episode like “Hotel Reverie,” starring Emma Corrin and Issa Rae as a pair of actors who fall for each other in one of the most unlikely places: an AI reimagining of a classic Hollywood movie.
Ahead of the premiere of Black Mirror Season 7, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast and creatives about the sci-fi anthology’s return, including Awkwafina, who joins Corrin and Rae as part of the cast of “Hotel Reverie.” Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Awkwafina discusses why she was honored to even be considered for an episode of Black Mirror, what she enjoyed about working with her biggest scene partner Harriet Walter, whether Black Mirror tech-speak or MCU character backstory is harder to memorize, and more.
COLLIDER: When you hear the words Black Mirror and know you’ll get to be involved in an episode somehow, do you even need to know what it’s about first?
AWKWAFINA: [Laughs] No, but also yeah. There’s always a curiosity. When I got the call that I was being considered to be in an episode, that was really the coolest. Then reading the concept, too. Your manager is always giving you this logline pitch, and it was hilarious to hear them describe it because I was like, “You’re telling it so wrong, but this is a cool episode. Yes. Yes all around.”
Awkwafina Loved Working With the UK Cast of ‘Black Mirror’s “Hotel Reverie”
“Hotel Reverie” is such an ensemble piece, but I feel like your biggest scene partner is Harriet Walter. The two of you have some really great moments together, so what did you enjoy about getting to spar with her?
AWKWAFINA: Harriet is, first of all, such a powerhouse. I learned a lot from the way that she just kind of exists, the way that she approaches acting. We’d have a lot of conversations about process, things that we’re doing. I got really close with her. I think that she is very funny.
Actually, the whole UK cast, everyone in the control room, I think all of them were from the UK, and there were a lot of lines in it, so I remember this one day, it was a lot of back and forth, and it’s hard to read it with a friend because there’s so many different characters, and we just, in a circle, in our actor tent, rehearsed for like an hour. We kept running it over and over again, and it really felt like we were actors. You know what I mean? It was really cool to have that camaraderie with them.
Is it easier to memorize the Black Mirror tech-ese, or big MCU character backstory?
AWKWAFINA: You actually nailed it. Those are pretty hard ones to memorize. Both of those equally. In Black Mirror, it’s cool because if you’re a fan of the show, you kind of understand how they speak about technology, so I felt like that was something that was fun to do. But yeah, those are both very difficult to memorize.
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They also discuss why the “USS Callister” sequel is even longer than the first, bringing back Will Poulter’s Colin Ritman, and more.
Given the premise of the episode, with someone going into this AI-created version of a movie, if you could choose any movie to do what Brandy does and be part of it — it doesn’t matter how old — is which one would you pick, and why?
AWKWAFINA: Howard the Duck would be great. I think True Lies would be pretty cool.
Who would you play in the Awkwafina remake of True Lies?
AWKWAFINA: I don’t know if I’d do the Jamie Lee Curtis role any justice, but maybe the Arnold [Schwarzenegger] role.
On the set of the control room, was there anything that you wished you could have taken home with you in terms of a prop?
AWKWAFINA: The bed that Issa [Rae] lies on is pretty cool. I think that could be a cool idea. Kind of hard to steal, obviously. The set was so cool. It’s so involved. It’s so detailed and specific. Everything has a purpose, even if it’s not even being used.
Black Mirror Season 7 is available to stream on Netflix.
- Release Date
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December 4, 2011
- Network
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Channel 4, Netflix
- Directors
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Owen Harris, Toby Haynes, James Hawes, David Slade, Carl Tibbetts, Ally Pankiw, Bryn Higgins, Dan Trachtenberg, Euros Lyn, Jodie Foster, Joe Wright, John Hillcoat, Sam Miller, Tim Van Patten, Uta Briesewitz, Colm McCarthy, Jakob Verbruggen, James Watkins, John Crowley, Otto Bathurst, Anne Sewitsky, Brian Welsh
- Writers
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Jesse Armstrong
