Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Murderbot finale. Over the course of Apple TV+’s Murderbot, its titular character (endearingly played by Alexander Skarsgård) has fought against its two biggest desires — what it was programmed to do and what it really wants to be doing with its spare time. Despite hacking the governor module that forces it to obey any command its human clients may issue, this Security Unit, or “SecUnit,” initially finds a way to balance both the responsibility of protecting a small group of humans from Preservation Alliance while binge-watching episodes of its favorite “quality, premium entertainment,” The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Yet the PresAux mission becomes embroiled in a bigger conspiracy the likes of which even Murderbot couldn’t have anticipated, forcing it to open up to humans along the way, whether it wants to or not. The season’s penultimate episode sees the SecUnit putting itself on the line in order to save its clients, but by the finale, everyone’s positions are reversed, with the PresAux team going to great lengths to not only recover their friend but also restore its original memories after the SecUnit is unceremoniously wiped and reset. Ahead of the premiere of “The Perimeter” (but before the announcement that the show had been renewed for Season 2), Collider had the opportunity to speak with the cast and creatives behind Murderbot, including Noma Dumezweni. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the actress behind Mensah reveals why she wanted to read Martha Wells’ original series to understand the adaptation process, why the hopper scene is a turning point for Mensah and Murderbot, and why Mensah pulls the “Madam President” card in that meeting with the Company. She also shares her thoughts on the finale’s most emotional moments, what Mensah is thinking in that final reaction shot, whether Mensah even realizes she’s Murderbot’s “favorite human,” and more. COLLIDER: Did you read All Systems Red after you were cast? Did you read further than that? NOMA DUMEZWENI: I didn’t even know it was a book series from Martha Wells. I was like, “Oh, I got it! Oh my goodness. What do you mean they’re based on books?” Because I loved the script that arrived from Paul and Chris Weitz. There’s this weird kind of dark humor underneath that I can’t quite figure out, and that to me is like, “How is that going to translate? What’s the tone? What’s the playing going to be about?” The series, these first 10 episodes, are just this one book, and knowing that is like, “Okay, let me just concentrate on this entry point. And please, God, Carly, if we get other seasons, then you go, “I’ve got them all here. I’ve got the book.” Also, I know they’re good because Artificial Condition just gives me joy. So, going into that one, I haven’t finished it yet. I’m like, “No, no, no, let me just wait,” because I’m enjoying All Systems Red. For me, it is important when you realize there is source material to get the source material. Because what I actually realized that I love, and I witnessed it on The Undoing for what David E. Kelley did to that source material — the art of adaptation from TV, from any kind of adaptation. How do you make that fuller? In All Systems Red, you’re so aware that it’s SecUnit’s perspective of everything. So then you read through the script. I think it was Episode 4 when I found it, and I was like, “Oh, great!” The making of the Sec-Units is what Paul and Chris had done, which, of course, you don’t read in the books. But that sense of the world is now fuller. It’s not just a perspective, but there is a world within. Yes, of course, the imagination does that, but what they did in the script, I was like, “I want to see how this works. I want to see the indentured people. I want to see all these other worlds.” The Corporation Rim, as we have ideas of it, and it’s so close to where we are at the moment. That’s what’s quite terrifying, that Martha wrote. Her sentience, in that sense, is quite brilliant. I think if you’re a human being who just wants to enjoy other human beings, you kind of go, “What the fuck are we doing right now?” That sense of the corporation and the company and capitalism… I always like to see how they merge and how they diverge, if that makes sense.
Noma Dumezweni Was Surprised by the Final Version of Mensah’s Panic Attack Scene in ‘Murderbot’

“It was interesting watching the shots that they chose for the episode…”

Image via Apple TV+

I have to bring up what is probably one of my favorite scenes this season, which is Murderbot putting on that episode of Sanctuary Moon for Mensah while she’s having a panic attack. From your perspective of playing through this relationship and seeing how it evolves, how it deepens, how they have come to have a better understanding of each other, does that feel like the moment where she really begins to understand this SecUnit, or do other instances lead up to that? DUMEZWENI: I feel there’s a lead-up, but that’s the moment you go, “Oh, it’s just the two of us.” That’s when you get to know each other. That’s when people get to know each other, creatures get to know each other. Your cat, your dog. “Oh, we have space and time together.” That’s how you do that. That’s how you do that. [Laughs] I say “cat” and “dog,” I should add my child as well. You get to know, “Oh, that’s how you’re growing. That’s how you’re going to be in the world.” Mensah, right from the books, she is community, community, community. I’ve said this before: that is a very deep part of me that loves to make sure that everyone’s alright in the room. I understand if someone’s not quite right. I’m doing a play at the moment, so that’s been a really interesting thing. “Are we good? Are we good? Are we good? Okay, let’s go play.” That felt like a lovely alignment with that. I always notice my empathy. You just kind of read people, and then I’m always curious about people. I think it was from that first episode, when it was like, “Do you want to come and join us in the crew room?” Terror. Horror. “Okay. You’re not comfortable. You’re not comfortable.” And because we don’t enslave, we don’t have people working for us, we don’t have creatures working for us, we don’t have sentient constructs on Preservation Alliance, you figure out what this energy of this individual is. It was interesting watching the shots that they chose for the episode because I remember feeling very, very… It was very intense. I’m sitting there by SecUnit — is it going to come awake? Is it going to live? What’s interesting to me is, watching editing, how you can feel as an actor. “Well, I did that,” and “I did that.” But actually, what they’re having to do is pace the thing. And I remember, “Actually, yeah, it would have been too much if they’d chosen the shot that I felt was lovely as the actor, but ‘I’m giving it all!’” It’s a long way of saying, yes, that is the moment. In that moment, it’s just the two of you. “Who are you? Oh, you are helping me calm down my shit.” Because I did watch it recently, and I was like, “Oh, I’m glad they cut that where it’s just a look, going, ‘Oh, wow. Who are you? Who are you?’”

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Skarsgård also discusses Murderbot’s biggest relationships, why he likes the finale’s open ending, and more.

In the finale, when they’re trying to get SecUnit back, Mensah does pull the Madame President card. We haven’t really seen her exercise her authority in that way, but she’s also doing it on behalf of fighting for this construct that she has come to regard as a friend. DUMEZWENI: It’s the Corporation Rim. In the Corporation Rim, we are what we are. I’m first and first among equals, and as I say to Gurathin, “If anything happens to me, make Pin-Lee the first among equals.” Everyone in Preservation Alliance has to do some kind of community work and help with all their skills, and that’s what we’re doing in this moment. Then you realize, “She’s actually the leader of this place.” I love that. It has to be the Corporation Rim. It has to be in that moment, because we need to fight for our friend. I love that you’ve seen them all, because I think the last three episodes are beautiful. When I watched that, I said to Chris and Paul, “Applause.” I loved the sense of journey for SecUnit, for Murderbot. The free will is truly now here.
Noma Dumezweni Gives Her Thoughts on the ‘Murderbot’ Finale and SecUnit’s Big Choice

“That’s what I found beautiful in that moment.”

Image via Apple TV+

To talk about the finale in particular, we know Murderbot makes the choice to leave the group and strike out on its own, but there are two sequences that really hit home for me, one of which is Gurathin and Murderbot’s final conversation. DUMEZWENI: For me, watching that, I was like, “Great, it’s the perimeter check.” It was peaceful, and that’s when I went [Clutches chest] because also, David [Dastmalchian]’s work through those last two or three episodes is just stunning. The journey of Gurathin to the alliance of Gurathin and Murderbot is just absolutely peaceful. There’s also the last shot of you in this season, looking out at the transport, having the realization that Murderbot is gone. Fans of the books know that this is not the last time that Murderbot and Mensah are going to interact, but what did you want to come through from her in that specific moment? DUMEZWENI: It’s painful. It’s sad. Your baby’s flying the coop. I’ve got an 18-year-old who has just graduated high school and started university, and it’s an interesting space to be in because she’s at home at the moment, but I’m seeing her, like, “I’m going to go meet someone. I’m gonna go do this.” This shit’s real. You need that, and you want that because then you remember yourself leaving, you remember your journey to be in the world. And I love that moment of realization. Because we know there’s no place that they’re going to come back, in this moment, we don’t know what Murderbot’s journey is going to be. It’s that sense of, “We’ve done good, but we have to let go. We’ve done everything we could for it, and this is the choice.” For me, that’s what I found beautiful in that moment. I do remember watching that shot, and I was like, “I’m happy they chose that,” because it was full of feeling, and that feeling was true. Do you think Mensah knows that she’s Murderbot’s favorite human? DUMEZWENI: No! And it’s wonderful. And she shouldn’t. It’s always the observations. Even Murderbot saying that to the world. It’s heart. I want to say it’s an energetic heart, and it’s a peaceful consciousness of going, “Wow, okay. She served.” I love that. She doesn’t know that. But she knows that we, the PresAux team, have affected it. We know that there’s plenty more story to come, and I’m assuming, provided we hear good news about a renewal, that you’ll be back in some capacity. Purely on a selfish level, I would always love to see more of Mensah because I think your performance in this is so fabulous, as well as the Mensah and Murderbot relationship. DUMEZWENI: You see it. It is that thing of worlds colliding, individuals meeting from totally different perspectives. That’s why I get romantic about it in the world, because it’s such a shitshow right now, and because it’s so divisive. It’s “them, them,” “us, us,” and you go, “We are all human beings, for fuck’s sake. There is a divine purpose in all this.” I do believe that. I’m not religious at all, but I really believe that you know when you walk into a room, why you resonate with that person or that person. There’s a story in your energetic life, how you’ve been grown to meet certain individuals and certain groups, but the moment you have a conversation, one-on-one, everything changes. I always say, however opposite someone may be, there will be something in their story that you will go, “What the fuck?” And they will go to you, “What the fuck?” But you go, “It’s just my life. It’s just my life.” Because that’s what human beings are.