SCI-FI JUST GOT SEXY
Gabriel Byrne and Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones on the sizzling second series of alien invasion classic War Of The Worlds...
WFICTION ALLOWS US TO RESOLVE OUR FEARS AND DESIRES ABOUT EXISTENCE’
hen he first decided to take on the role of neuroscientist Bill Ward in sci-fi drama War Of The Worlds, which is returning for a second series this week, Gabriel Byrne faced something of a dilemma. ‘Playing a scientist is not the same as playing a gangster or a villain, because it’s pretty hard to make a scientist exciting,’ he laughs. ‘Maybe Frankenstein did, where we actually see a monster come out of it… but being an investigative scientist presents challenges as an actor.’
In fact, it turns out that neuroscientists can be quite exciting when they’re dealing with the prospect of an alien invasion, as Bill Ward did in the first series of the drama, an Anglo-French re-imagining of the famed HG Wells novel which explores the fallout of the attack on survivors in London, Paris and the French Alps. Throw in the fact that a real-life global pandemic has shifted the focus on to our scientists in a way that could barely have been imagined when the show was being filmed, and playing a boffin takes on a more seductive slant.
With series one ending on a cliffhanger – no spoilers here for those who haven’t seen it but it’s safe to say mankind’s survival is hanging in the balance – it makes a fascinating backdrop for the second series, with its dystopian city landscapes and focus on humanity’s battle for survival against a terrifying threat. Then again, as Gabriel says, the themes of what he calls
Wells’s ‘provocative’ novel – written more than 120 years ago and said to be the first story to detail a human conflict with an extra-terrestrial race – are timeless.
In the book, an unnamed narrator in Surrey recounts an invasion of Earth by an army of Martians with military technology far in advance of human science. It’s been adapted for the screen many times since – indeed there was a BBC1 version starring Eleanor Tomlinson and Rafe Spall that aired in 2019, just a few months before the first series of this production, proving its enduring appeal.
‘The genius of the novel is that there will always be threats to our survival,’ says Gabriel, 71. ‘Fiction allows us to resolve our fears and our desires about existence. What HG Wells did brilliantly was concentrate that fear in a story and allow us to imagine something beyond the reality we inhabit day-to-day.’
He says the new series promises to reveal more nuanced layers to his character, who spent much of the first eight episodes trying to fathom the nature of the enemy, along with his ex-wife Helen (Elizabeth McGovern). ‘All the characters deepen emotionally because the crisis spreads; more people are affected. That’s what makes viewers identify with something. If you can identify emotionally with it you can put yourself in their position.’
Gabriel’s sentiments are echoed by his co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones. Fresh from her breakthrough role as Marianne in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel Normal People, the 23-year-old actress plays Emily, a survivor of the alien invasion alongside her mother Sarah (Natasha Little) and brother Tom (Ty Tennant). ‘The story’s relevant now because it’s about human beings coming together to fight something, which is something we’re all experiencing at the minute,’ she says. ‘It’s also inherently about human connection, about love and friendship and about how important that is, which I think is a special thing to celebrate.’
Daisy’s character went on an intriguing journey in the first series. When the Martians all but wiped out mankind with a magnetic signal, only isolated pockets of survivors remained. Emily, who was blind, developed a strange kind of affinity with the invaders as the series progressed, while the signal seemed to be responsible for her sight returning. And Daisy says there’s much more drama to come.
‘Viewers have a lot to look forward to in series two,’ she says. ‘There are a lot more fight scenes, a lot more alien and human action and a lot more development of characters.
In series one they’re at their most terrified. Now some time has passed and there’s more fight in them.’
The first series proved a hit with viewers, but Gabriel insists he’s too long in the tooth to let himself be affected. ‘When you embark on any project you have no idea whether it’s going to be good, bad or indifferent. You have to just do the work and let go of the result. I’ve worked on films where people have said, “Ooh, this is going to be amazing,” and it turned out not to be. And then I remember other things where I thought, “This is c**p, it’s never going to work,” and it’s turned out to be good. You can never predict it.’
He cites his 1995 noir thriller The Usual Suspects as proof, describing filming it as a ‘joyful experience’ but one that none of its stars envisaged would lead to the cult status it went on to enjoy. ‘We laughed for 28 days and blew up a boat on the last day, then we went off and celebrated,’ he laughs. ‘Nobody thought it would become what it did. But it hasn’t dated, kids in college dorms still watch that film and say, “Oh my God, that was a good movie.”’
And it looks like he’s backed another winner here.
War Of The Worlds, from Friday, Disney+