Straight face: Gemma Chan reads to Pixie Davies in sci-fi drama Humans
She plays a sinister android in Channel 4’s chilling hit drama Humans. But Gemma Chan has revealed how she struggled to keep a straight face during filming and that the robot characters would often fall over — leaving the show’s producers with a hilarious blooper reel.
The 32-year-old actress, who plays a “synth” called Anita in the £12 million sci-fi series, said: “The synths run on battery power and their every move had to be specific and graceful. We also had to look straight ahead all the time, which meant lots of falling over, especially when we were walking up or down stairs.”
Maintaining the right expression was also problematic when she was acting alongside Katherine Parkinson, who is best known for the comedy The IT Crowd.
Chan, who was speaking at the Evian Live Young suite at Wimbledon, said: “Katherine is hilarious and it was so hard to keep a straight face during my scenes with her — there was plenty of corpsing during filming. It was a total contrast to the theme of the show.
“The producers actually compiled all the funniest out-takes and made a blooper reel that they showed at the wrap party. I really hope it makes it onto the box set — it shows a totally different side of the series.”
Humans attracted 6.1 million viewers for its first episode — the best figure for Channel 4 since 1992 when an episode of The Camomile Lawn drew 7.2 million viewers.
