WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Foundation Season 1, Episode 8, "The Missing Piece,” streaming now on Apple TV+.
Foundation is a show with a genuinely galactic scope, with characters carrying out plans across the galaxy. But while power-players like the Cleon dynasty do their best to control the galaxy, the robotic Demerzel is forced to be an observer of an ever-changing universe. The long-serving assistant and guide to the Cleons, Demerzel has lived a remarkably long life in this universe. The robot is evolving in surprising ways, giving her performer Laura Birn plenty of exciting elements to play with throughout Season 1 of Apple TV+'s Foundation.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Laura Birn delved into her favorite parts of portraying the layered and complicated Demerzel. She also shared the joys of working with Lee Pace and reflected on one of her favorite scenes in Foundation's debut season.
CBR: There's lots of sci-fi out there. There are lots of characters getting to play robots dealing with morality, but it's not often that you get to see spirituality and faith really addressed head-on like in Foundation's Demerzel. What is that like to balance as a performer?
Laura Birn: Well, I love Demerzel.
She's programmed to do certain things. So she doesn't always have a choice. But at the same time, she's been alive for a long, long time, so she's developed her own sentience. I love balancing with that how much she holds back when she has to do things that she would not want to do. I believe that she does have a soul. Deep down, she's become very human in that sense.
She has her own world. She has her own dreams, and things that she feels are right. But then she has her programming, and she would never betray her programming. So it was really fascinating to balance that and search for that. I love my scenes with Lee. What do you as a robot do when you really have opinions of your own, or feelings about this, or do you have a spiritual rising? It was very fascinating.
CBR: Speaking of Lee Pace, you got so much time to work directly with him. What is that like, in a massive show like Foundation, to have someone that you can really pull and take from like Lee who's such a big part of Demerzel's development?
Oh my God. It was just the most amazing experience to work with someone like Lee. I have the biggest admiration for him. He's so invested. I loved that the first time I met him, we went for a little walk just to say hi, and we ended up going through the whole universe. He was talking about the way he sees the characters. I was already blown away. The way he thinks about, not only his character but the whole world, the whole universe, our relationship... It's like she's [Brother Dawn, Brother Day, and Brother Dusk's] mother, and their nurse, and their teacher, their advisor, caretaker. It's like, she's taught them everything they know. But then again, they don't know everything she knows. They don't know everything about her.
I couldn't wish for a better co-actor than Lee. He's smart. He's funny. He's intelligent. He's so committed and he invests so much in his work. I truly love working with him. I could go on, and on, and on about him. I think we got super lucky [with the whole cast]. I did not know anyone before I signed on to the show. So of course I knew who Lee is, I knew of Jared Harris, but I'd never talked to anyone. So anything could have waited for me. And then I met this bunch of the most lovely, caring, generous people that I've ever met. So yeah, we're lucky. I'm super lucky.
CBR: At its very core, this series is about legacy and the impact that we have in the world, on our children, on our children's children. Amongst all this, Demerzel has a really unique perspective in that she's old. She's older than any other character in the show. But she also, as you say, has this matronly element to her.
She has her share of secrets. I won't reveal all of her secrets: I'm not allowed to. I will carry her secrets for a little while too.
But yeah, it's crazy. She's seen everything... Look, she's not the star of the family. Her boys are, they get to be emotional and steal the show. But [Demerzel] is the one that goes and cleans up after the guys. She's the one who has actually a lot of power because she's the one who teaches them the way they should think about things. Then they go on their roads, and every day get powerful in their own way. But she has a lot of power. Every time she holds a newborn in her arms, she knows that she's going to take them to their grave. So it's like, she has been through a lot. I love that she doesn't spill her things around or share her opinions. She holds the knowledge inside her. She doesn't need to make a number out of herself. She knows what she's doing.
CBR: Someone Demerzel gets some surprisingly terrific screentime with is Zephyr Halima, played by T'Nia Miller. Their sequence might be a genuine highlight for the season for me.
I think that is one of my favorite scenes of season one as well. The scene with T'Nia when I have to do what I'm programmed to do, but kind of my faith, my inner me, my belief says that this is wrong. But I do not have a choice, and the way she looks at me and goes, "I forgive you, you are forgiven." [Halima] sees that human inside me, even though she knows what I am. That little moment of mercy, the little moment of forgiveness. I find it so beautiful. I think it's something that will stay with her for the seasons to come as well. That somebody truly saw her, for who she is. Sometimes in the palace, they take her for granted. She's always been there. She always will be there. It's not like the men are interested in what's going on inside her. [Halima] sees her. I find it beautiful.
I found it really interesting, because when my six-year-old son found out that I'm going to play Demerzel, and I told him a little bit about the show, he asked me, "So do you play a good guy, or a bad guy?" I was like, "Well, I think deep down, she's a good person." And then my son asked me, "Okay. But does she do some bad things?" And then I was like, "Hmm. Well, yes she does." And then he asked me, "Well, how can she be good if she does bad things?"
I think it's a good question. How do we define what's good? What's bad? Does it make her a bad person that she does those things that she's forced to do? Or can she get away with it, saying, "I'm a good person because I have to do bad things?" I find her very interesting and complex. That's why it's a role that I really, really enjoy playing. You can always open another door, and ask another question.
What do you think is it about sci-fi that allows series like Foundation to tackle heavy topics in such a digestible way for audiences?
The kind of the themes in the questions in the show about power, legacy, if we learn anything from history... Can we still save our planet, or are we just inevitably drifting towards a huge disaster? Those are questions that are super topical, supercurrent. They're questions about the human race. How do individuals react to these kinds of questions? Does it matter how a single person reacts to it? Or is there any significance in what one person does?
For me, that's why it's so relevant and topical. These questions have been always there. We haven't always had women, especially women of color, on-screen asking these questions. But in real life, women have been asking those questions for themselves. Or being worried about where are we going as a planet. I think it's super interesting that we have women on screen also asking those questions. It's not about being a man or a woman. it's about being a human being. I find it super important that [Foundation Executive Producer David S. Goyer] has brought the women characters. I know in the books, we don't have so many women. I think the big questions, and the people who are presented in the show who are asking those questions, make it very relevant.
Foundation is currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes are released every Friday.