Actor Emily Hampshire dropped a bombshell last week when she revealed that she had no idea what the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) was when she signed on for VisionQuest , the upcoming Marvel show. Ahead of the show’s release, Emily talks to Hindustan Times about playing the AI program E.D.I.T.H and how working on the show changed her idea of what superhero shows and movies are.
“Now that I know everything about the MCU, I very much regret ever admitting that. I have definitely homeschooled myself from beginning to end.
Emily says that she now regrets admitting that she was unaware of what the MCU was when she came on board. Now, I am probably one of the most annoying people to watch a new Marvel movie with,” she says.
In a way, I was lucky to join this massive, usually daunting universe through him. So, it kind of felt like going home in a way. VisionQuest brings back Paul Bettany as Vision, the synthetic android seen in the MCU before. This time, grappling with an identity crisis, Vision creates human avatars of other Tony Stark-created AIs in his operating system. Emily plays E.D.I.T.H, one of these AIs. If I’m playing a serial killer, somebody you think has no humanity, my job is to find it. So, it’s the same with an AI. I started in the same place I always do, which is: what is it like being an AI? VisionQuest is the concluding instalment of Marvel’s trilogy connecting Wanda and Vision’s fate after Avengers: Endgame. The series follows WandaVision and Agatha All Along, both of which were praised for their depiction of complex emotional themes like grief, letting go, ambition, and redemption. VisionQuest follows suit by talking about finding one’s place in the world. I thought they were frivolous. What I didn’t realise is that it’s using science fiction as this entry point into these human stories. The MCU is known for its secrecy to the point that actors are trained before press junkets on how to handle ‘tricky’ questions that could lead to them revealing spoilers. Emily admits she underwent ‘Disney training’ for the show, where she learnt that ‘I can’t say anything’. The actor explains, “I keep thinking every question might be a trap into making me tell a secret of the universe that I didn’t know was a secret. So, assume everything is a secret. That’s basically the biggest thing I learnt. VisionQuest, created by Terry Matalas, stars Paul Bettany, James Spader, Ruaridh Mollica, Todd Stashwick, Lauren Morais, along with James D’Arcy, Emily, Orla Brady, Henry Lewis, and Jonathan Sayer. It will stream on JioHotstar in India.
She explains, “I had done 12 Monkeys with Terry Matalas, the showrunner here. The show begins streaming on Disney+ on October 14.
The Schitt’s Creek actor says her decision to do VisionQuest had less to do with its place in the Marvel universe and more to do with its showrunner, Terry Matalas. He told me that when he was writing Edith, he kept hearing my voice in her. Talking about the challenge of playing a ‘program’, she says, “My job as an actor is always to find humanity in a character. Emily says, “I had the wrong idea of what a superhero movie was. This series is a story about identity and yet told through this lens of science fiction.
