Annie Murphy: Based on her past adventures, which are so expansive and colourful, she could literally be anywhere.
MC: If there were an opportunity for you to play Alexis again, would you?
AM: Of course I would! It was the most special time in my life. I had so much fun playing that character. The cast are all such dear friends. It would be a dream. But Alexis isn’t getting any younger. No-one wants to see a woman in her late sixties teetering around in high heels. I mean, of course there are women in their late sixties who can rock stilettos, but I won’t be one of them. So we need to get on with it if there’s going to be a reboot.
MC: When fans meet you in the street what’s the most common thing they say to you?
AM: Post-pandemic so many people, myself included, had a really rough time with their happiness and their mental health. I think the thing I hear most commonly, which is the most special, is that the show helped them get through some tough times and I know how important those shows can be. For me, that show is The Office. When I’m feeling low I put it on and feel comforted and like I’m watching my friends and everything’s going to be OK or a little bit better. To find out that Schitt’s Creek has become one of those shows for people means a lot.
AM: I spent a lot of my childhood willing myself to be a mermaid and unfortunately it didn’t take. So this was the second-best thing. It was surprisingly juicy and fulfilling playing an evil character.
AM: When I read the script, my jaw kept dropping and dropping and dropping. Then I got to the end of the episode, and immediately turned back to page one so I could start wrapping my brain around what was happening because it’s a real mindf**k of an episode.
MC: The episode comments on AI and the use of deepfake technology. How familiar were you with deepfakes?
AM: Charlie [Brooker, the series creator] usually has his finger on the pulse but when the episode dropped it couldn’t have been more timely, with AI snowballing at this terrifying rate and the writers’ strike going on in the US. Writers are currently asking that their jobs not be replaced by computers, and that the computers not be trained using their work. It’s like it is a crazy thing to say out loud. I just read an article that said that 80 per cent of old jobs are easily replaceable by AI. I hope that the Black Mirror episode can spark some conversation about the potential deeply negative repercussions of what happens if we don’t check ourselves quickly.
MC: Are there any Easter eggs in the episode that were missed?
AM: I’m wearing a Boney M. T-shirt. [They] appear later in the season. What’s a role you’d like to play next? I’d love to do a beautiful period piece, where I’m walking along the sea in a black dress mourning the loss of my last partner.
‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ is in cinemas September 14.
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