Poor Amber Rose Revah has a bit of a raspy voice. She’s not ill or anything, it’s just that her hometown of Cardiff has gone through a bit of a cold snap recently and riding her motorbike in the chilly air has caused her throat to become a little irritated. The actor splits her time between London, England, and the Welsh capital where the “air is better”.
It’s an idyllic contrast to the much bleaker U.K. depicted in The Peripheral. starring Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, Prime Video‘s latest sci-fi epic is from the creators of Westworld, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who serve as executive producers. It’s a loyal adaptation of William Gibson’s 2014 dystopian novel
of the same name. The story goes like this: Flynn, her ex-marine brother Burton (played by Jack Reynor) and their dying mother live in a small town in Georgia in the year 2032. Sharing an avatar, the siblings pay for their mom’s mounting medical bills by playing virtual reality (VR) simulations, referred to simply as “sims”, to level-up characters of wealthy customers. When Burton is sent some beta VR technology by a mysterious patron, Flynne plays in his place. But this sim is unlike anything she’s played before; it’s more real than ever and her consciousness has somehow been transported to London in the year 2099. Flynne’s mission is to break into a corporation known as the Research Institute to steal a valuable secret. When things go awry, the all-powerful head of the Research Institute, Cherise (T’Nia Miller), will stop at nothing to reclaim what was stolen from her.
Though we’re not allowed to spoil too much about Revah’s character, Grace, we can say that she’s a chief scientist at the Research Institute with good intentions behind ethically questionable technology. “I think playing quite capable intelligent women is really important to me,” says Revah, whose previous work includes NBC/Peacock’s Last Light and The Punisher. “They’re really interesting shows that endeavor to find something new. That makes you think something differently or question things, which I love. I love sci-fi because of that.”
Indeed, the biggest question that The Peripheral poses is where do we as a society draw a line with how far technology can take us? As a fan of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Revah finds herself questioning human existence all the time. “We are part of society now where we’re seeing how influential and how dangerous some aspects of technology are. I think we’re actually at that teetering point of going, ‘Well, how do we deal with this?’ So much of The Peripheral deals with those questions in a kind of parallel manner. Particularly when it comes to video games.”
Image: Courtesy of Cara Heath.
Do you play video games at all?
I don’t. I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to technology. I have a two-year-old daughter and she doesn’t have iPads or anything like that. I haven’t owned a TV for the past two and a half years.
What did you do during the pandemic then?
Well, I gave birth to my daughter. I moved as well. I’m a very practical person, I’ve never been someone that can sit still for a long period of time. I was still out and about all the time, doing practical things. There are some great TV shows, The Peripheral being one of them. And I love movies. But I prefer to have the show or movie as the event. I can’t just have a screen on in the background, I find that quite draining.
Image: Courtesy of Cara Heath.
I know we can’t reveal too much, but what can you tell me about the scene you shot with T’Nia Miller?
We were filming in Kew Gardens [a botanic garden in southwest London], in the main conservatory, The Palm House. With the Westworld team, they just had access to a lot of locations so where we shot was incredible. But that day was sweltering hot, one of the hottest days of the year. I think my costume was wool; it was a wool polo neck all the way up. But when I’m filming, you just get so absorbed in the character and story one’s telling that you’re not really thinking about the heat until you get out and suddenly you keel over. But T’Nia is a wonderful actress, so generous. And to be directed by Vincenzo Natali, wow.
The show deals with time travel, too. If you could go forward or back in time, where would you go and what would you do?
My mother died two years ago. My mom would always say to me, “Don’t be sad.” And I work every day to not be sad and to think of how grateful I am for every moment that I had with my mom. If I could jump back in time, I’d spend time with my mom.
That’s such a lovely answer. One final question because I don’t want to strain your voice much more. Much like Westworld, I find there are scenes you watch that you kind of brush off without realizing how significant they are later on. What should audiences watching The Peripheral pay attention to?
The main thing, I would say, is to take note of every character, because you never know who might be coming back because of the way time and reality are distorted. Those are the things that you may not think are significant, but they turn out to be very significant.
The Peripheral is available to stream on Prime Video, with new episodes released Fridays. Here’s how to watch it for free.
Image: Courtesy of Penguin Publishing Group.
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