“I just wanted to be part of the manifesto against fascism,” said Naveen Andrews, who plays the key character of Jonas. Andrews, whose claim to fame on American TV prior to Sense8 was another cult favorite series, Lost, spoke to LGBTQ Nation on the red carpet during a live stream on Facebook that is now edited together as a YouTube video.
Although President Donald Trump was not once mentioned by name, several stars acknowledged their collected work comes at a critical time for not only America but the world, when our very right to exist is threatened. So it is with the actors who come from many other scifi series from Lost to Stargate Universe to Doctor Who.
“The timing of this season is particularly poignant,” said Tina Desai, who plays Kala. Her character is a brilliant pharmacist in an arranged, loveless marriage in Mumbai. She echoed the comment by her costars that down deep, despite our differences, “we’re all the same.”
The series is the brainchild of the Wachowski sisters, Lana and Lilly, perhaps most famous as the makers of The Matrix films, and co-created by J. Michael Straczynski, who dreamed-up Babylon 5. Filmed for months at a time in locales around the world, the show explores the lives of eight ordinary people from the far corners of the earth who discover they not only share a birthday but a telepathic hyperkinetic bond that allows them to interact in the physical world simply by using their minds.
Jamie Clayton, Daryl Hannah and Freeman Agyeman of Doctor Who fame are also in the cast. “I think what this [show] sends to the world community,” said Hannah, “is a message of inclusiveness, a message of compassion, a message of interconnectivity, and interdependence. And it’s also fun.”
Season 2 drops on Netflix May 5, and fans have been eagerly anticipating the return of the series since the Christmas special late last year.
Agyeman’s and Clayton’s characters started season one as lesbians in a committed relationship, but the British actress revealed to LGBTQ Nation that she’s talked with writer and director Lana Wachowski about their potential evolution as potentially pansexual, given the variety of sexuality these characters exhibit.
Clayton, who is transgender, plays a trans woman whose mother refuses to accept her authentic gender identity and attempts to have her lobotomized.
Throughout season one, the “sensates” learned about this mysterious new power and how they could help each other, especially to confront the dangers posed by one of their own, a man known only as “Whispers” (Terrence Mann). We won’t give you any spoilers but having seen it, it’s safe to say season two’s central storyline is how these very different individuals work together to defend themselves against Whispers and figure out how to fight him.
Mann said after working so closely with Lana Wachowski on this series, the experience and struggle of being transgender is particularly motivating to him, personally.
“Standing next to you, standing next to Lana, standing next to anybody who’s done that, gives me, I’m so proud to be in the presence of your courage. You know, for standing up for what you want to be.”
Miguel Angel Silvestre of Spain, who plays Lito, is straight, as is the actor who plays his lover, Alfonso Herrera. But in season two, his decision to risk his career so as not to lose the relationship he’s kept a secret from the world has consequences beyond anything he could have imagined.
And in a one on one phone interview, Silvestre told LGBTQ Nation it is through playing a closeted actor that he developed “an incredible admiration for anybody who is honest with who they are, even though the system doesn’t make it easy for them.”
Lana wrote such a beautiful line that Jamie [Clayton], “Nomi,” the transgender character, says to Lito: “the damage you do to yourself is the one that hurts the most, that is going to hurt you the most.” I love that sentence, and I think, whether you’re LGBT or not, you can put it in your life. Your brain, your actions, are in concert with what you desire and feel, that’s when you find the best of you.
Absent from the red carpet on Wednesday night were Brian J. Smith, Tuppence Middleton, Bae Doona and the Wachowskis. And given the departure of Aml Ameen just as filming of season 2 had begun, newcomer Toby Onwumere was besieged with questions centered around his debut in the role Ameen originated, the Kenyan bus driver Capheus, aka “Van Damn.”
But from all appearances, Onwumere is now a full-fledged member of the Sense8 family, and echoed the cast’s groupthink about labels and limitations. “Our lives are more complex than ‘you are this thing, we put you in this box.’ We’re more complex than that.”
If you’re new to Sense8, Vogue has an easy to follow introduction to the series, and fans with too much to remember can find a recap of season one in The New York Times.
Plus, for those who just cannot wait until May 5, BuzzFeed has your season two spoilers.
“There’s more sex, more violence, more of everything! We’re pushing the boundaries,” said Max Riemelt, who plays Wolfgang.
He’s not wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8vd0AjdNbQ