The British political thriller series The Capture returns for its second season on Peacock, with detective inspector Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) embroiled in a new conspiracy. Idealistic young politician Isaac Turner (Paapa Essiedu) falls prey to a public deep-fake, prompting Rachel to come to his aid and discover who is responsible. However, under constant surveillance from her own agency and manipulated by the government, Rachel is especially paranoid after witnessing firsthand what the insidious misuse of this technology can do as The Capture Season 2 raises the stakes.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, The Capture star Holliday Grainger described upping the ante and taking Rachel Carey into darker areas in Season 2. She teased what fans can expect and praised the cast and crew, including series creator Ben Chanan, for crafting such a heightened thriller perfect for the Information Age.

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The Capture Rachel Carey

CBR: The Capture Season 2 really starts with Rachel Carey in the lion's den, now under surveillance and with no one to lean on. How was it starting off the season with this status quo in mind?

Holliday Grainger: It's great! In a way, in Season 1, she's quietly confident, and then she kind of builds balls. [laughs] In Season 2, she's kind of broken a bit at the beginning; broken but steely. As it goes on, the stakes and fear get higher, but her resolve is always steadfast.

It could've been easy for Rachel to surrender in the face of constant scrutiny, but she doesn't. She's taking self-defense classes and finding new ways to empower and defend herself. How is it exploring this determined physical side of the performance?

I love the self-defense stunt stuff because I think acting is quite cathartic. It's a release. [laughs] To get to do acting where you beat someone up, it's like leaving work for a zen weekend or whatever. [laughs] I love the physical side of the job!

Did any of that physicality inform your body language or the way Rachel carries herself this season?

There is a fear that she has for her life and knowing she has this confidence in her abilities that therefore makes sense of her ballsiness. [laughs] I remember one of Ben [Chanan]'s stage directions at the beginning of this season when he was describing Carey's paranoia and anxiety in being watched all the time. He just described her walking into work with the power walk gone. That made a lot of sense physically for [the] character because, for as much as she's building, she's also kind of diminished at the beginning and has to build herself back. By the end [of the season], I think the power walk is definitely there again. [laughs]

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The capture s2 Rachel

Two seasons in, how has it been working with Ben Chanan and getting used to his scripts and the way he works on set?

It's amazing! I think Ben is just brilliant because he directed the entirety of Season 1, and I don't know how he had time to sleep. He didn't direct this [season]; he wrote and was the showrunner, but he was definitely very involved. I think he's described The Capture as being his baby, and he's created this world so meticulously; he's so well-researched. I think, having worked with him for two seasons, there's a level you get to where there's a level of shorthand in understanding. It gets much easier to understand Carey -- the style, her thought process, and what's going on. You can follow the plot easier because you know Ben's inner thought process better, I think. [laughs]

The Capture scripts strike me as quite dense with their legal, thriller, and technical jargon. Was it easier getting all that down to prepare and film this season?

Yeah, definitely! I found the prep for Season 1 quite hard because it was the most prep I had done for anything. I shadowed the police for quite a while to make sense of the police in that world and did a lot of work on the script. I'm not usually someone who writes notes on the script, but my scripts for Season 1 had notes and post-its all over them because we shot all six episodes at once. We were just holding the plot in our heads because, with Carey's role, Ben's given me the role of storytelling and holding the plot.

In Season 1, he didn't necessarily put a lot in the stage direction, so I had to follow when she was learning something and when she knew things. It felt high pressure to tell the story right in terms of the memory of where everyone was, especially shooting six episodes out of sequence. Getting to know his writing and rhythm, that job became much easier in Season 2. It didn't feel as epic to prep. [laughs]

In filming out-of-sequence, how do you chart where your character is mentally in a given scene as she either descends or rises psychologically?

It's just memory. [laughs] That's when directors and continuity people really come in handy. At the beginning of shooting, I feel like you're confident and on top of it, and by the time you get to the end, you're so tired. You're like, "Does she know that then or not?" [laughs]

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The Capture Rachel Isaac

Rachel finds a kindred spirit in Isaac Turner as he finds himself targeted in the public eye. How was it exploring that dimension to your character and striking up that rapport with Paapa Essiedu?

One of the things that I find interesting about Season 2 is there isn't a massive amount of screen time between Carey and Isaac. I think the very first time she meets him in the safe house, she watches him go through a sort of sped-up version of what she went through in Season 1. There's a lot about them that is similar. He has the same... I wouldn't call it naïveté or innocence, but there's a purity to Isaac in the way that there's a purity to Carey, which is an integrity.

The idea that he's involved in the world of politics and government in earnest and wanting to do right, she wanted to do the same in the police force. To be un-blindfolded, have the rug pulled out from under you, and [face] the corruption in the institution that you really put your heart into, I think there's a brokenness that happens. I think she saw that happen with Isaac, and he recognizes her recognizing that in him. Immediately, there's this sense of, "I know you. We're the same," and I think that informs them being a team.

How was it working with Paapa to figure that dynamic out?

He's so brilliant and perfect for Isaac. It was kind of easy. [laughs] Not easy, but when you work with someone who knows what they're doing, it makes your job feel a lot easier. What's also brilliant is that I watched the series, and I enjoyed it because there's so much of the story that I wasn't there to witness, so you can really enjoy watching him as an actor and storyteller.

After filming Season 1 in a relative vacuum, how was it seeing the audience's response, and did that inform how you approached Season 2?

It was exciting! What was great about Season 1 is that it really felt like it was slow-burning. Six months after it had aired, people were still coming up to me, going, "Oh my god, I was watching the series last night! What happens?!" People were so genuinely excited about the plot, so if people recognized me, they'd come up to ask me about what would happen. [laughs] I think the plot is so complex and fast in Season 2 that you're really aware of not wanting anything to slide and do the best you can with the storytelling. I'm saying "storytelling" so often, but people really resonated with that character! [laughs]

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The Capture Holliday Grainger

The Capture isn't the first thriller you've done. What is it about the genre that you find personally interesting as an actor as opposed to, say, your historical dramas and epics?

I think a lot of it is that it's almost like comedy, in a way, that you have to work with the director in making sure the timing's right. It's the same with thrillers because you have to be on the same team of building that suspense and the journey. It's not just [an] emotional journey but one where the suspense and fear within Carey become more important because you kind of have to lead and build the arc. It's not just about character -- it's about plot as well and where you're taking the audience with the suspense.

Two seasons in, what has surprised you the most about Rachel Carey's journey?

Honestly, she always surprises me because she's so smart. She's always two steps ahead -- though she's always two steps ahead of me as an actor as well. [laughs] Reading the scripts, as much as you know she's always got integrity, you're always questioning if she's still going to stick to her guns and succeed. It makes it all the more gratifying when she does!

What else can you tease about The Capture and the wide, wide adventures of Rachel Carey as we go into Season 2?

If you loved the first season, you'll love this season even more because the stakes are higher, the drama is higher, [and] the world is wider. It's everything you loved about the first season but even more heightened -- the stakes are higher!

Created by Ben Chanan, The Capture Season 2 premiered Nov. 3 on Peacock.