AMC's 'Humans' tackles tricky artificial intelligence
Source: Jay Bobbin
William Hurt isn't done tackling the subject of artificial intelligence.
The Oscar-winning star of such screen classics as "The Big Chill," "Broadcast News," "Body Heat" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" worked with director Steven Spielberg on the 2001 movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." He returns to that title theme by playing an owner of a youthful-looking "robotic domestic helper" in "Humans," a British sci-fi series that AMC gives its American premiere on Sunday, June 28 (two weeks after its debut in England).
"I was riveted by the topic when I was a kid, by (writer Isaac) Asimov when I was in my early teens," Hurt says as "Humans" tracks four related, concurrent stories in a "parallel" present-day London. "What I'm heartened about personally is the fact that I'm being allowed to participate in the discussion. It's one of my No. 1 topics; it always has been.
"Also," Hurt adds of another "Humans" appeal, "I was working in the U.K. One of the reasons we're hiring so many British actors in the United States nowadays is because they have skills which are theater-based, and that's where I come from. When I can bring skills to a set that people understand implicitly, that helps me a lot."
Hurt played the creator of a humanoid in "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," and his "Humans" character George Millican also is a scientist who has left similar work behind. The widower has kept his "Synth" (or synthetic companion) Odi (played by Will Tudor), and both show signs of age, with Odi's indicated in the premiere by a meltdown in a supermarket. However, George resists trading him in for an allegedly better version, the much more domineering Vera (Rebecca Front).
Gemma Chan ("The Game") appears as another "Synth" whose behavior raises cause for concern.
"The great thing about 'Humans' is that the situations in which big questions are asked are so average," Hurt reflects. "It's where the battlefield really is, in the greatest issues of time and sociology ... not at the top of the tallest buildings in New York, but in the household. What happens in the supermarket is the absolute issue for George, since his entire existence could be impacted by the severing of a very slender thread, which is Odi's functions and -- most of all -- his memories of George's wife. That's George's thread to his humanity."
Previously a television presence in "Damages" and the HBO drama "Too Big to Fail," Hurt also continues his feature-film work, reprising his "The Incredible Hulk" role as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross in the next "Captain America" movie ("Civil War") as one of his current projects. He continually advocates for having sufficient rehearsal for any project.
"You need that time," he stresses. "You need to create a common imaginary reality, then the characters emanate from that, and that's what brings them into confirmation of each other in the world of the film or the play. You create it with your peers."
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