We're now well into the run of Foundation season 3 and one of the biggest draws has been the changing characters and relationships at the center of the Galactic Empire. And none are more dramatic than that between Demerzel (Laura Birn) and Brother Day (Lee Pace).
She's an ancient robot, a veteran of old wars who's programmed to aid Empire through successive lines of clones. He's the middle child of the three clones ruling at any one time, an all-powerful dictator who's slowly watching his genes drift further and further away from the initial model, and whose season 3 iteration wants nothing to do with rule at all.
Over the seasons we've seen Demerzel and Brother Day (or Cleon, as sometimes referred to, after the original human the clones stem from) change in their relationship, with different clones interacting with the robot in different ways. And Foundation season 3 changes it up again.
Prior to the release of the new season, What to Watch spoke to the two actors during a roundtable to discuss their experiences filming the season.
Stealing the tools (and the scene)
When asked about their favorite scene in the new season, Pace answered straight away: "the very first scene we shot was the scene when I come into your room and I take the tool," to which Laura countered "I hated doing that scene!" (the tone of this statement, and the rest of the interview, was jovial, before you assume that the actors were at each others' throats!).
This scene in question takes place in Foundation season 3's fourth episode, 'The Stress of Her Regard' at roughly the 30-minute mark, when Day comes to steal one of Demerzel's robot tools but finds himself confronting her about her decision to send away his partner Song.
"It was the first time we were really playing with the dynamic that the characters have this season where Cleon absolutely hates the robot, doesn't consider her a sentient thing, considers her no better than a microwave." Pace explained, "And at one point I walk out the room and I mock her. And I looked over at Laura and — the betrayal on her face! Because for two season Cleon has been in awe of Demerzel. They might have had disagreements but she was everything to him: soulmate, mother..."
Birn continued: "she would always know how to spin, to keep him under control, whatever she needed or thought was best for him or for her, she would guide him very gently. But this season no: out of control. And I did not enjoy that. So many ways he was able to humiliate my character and mock me, it really went under my skin!".
Changing faces
There have been a lot of cast changes between seasons in Foundation's run, and those who do remain often see themselves in very different circumstances, so it's relatively rare that Lee Pace and Laura Birn have been sharing scenes ever since the first episode.
This is, of course, because Birn has been playing an immortal robot while Pace is embodying different versions of a cloned emperor, but the duo were asked about these changes. Birn answered:
"One of the greatest joys of Foundation for me has been working with Lee, exploring their relationship which is one of the most complex in the show. It has gone through many variants. This season their relationship is very hard. He surprised me many times by being so mean!".
To which Pace countered: "the first season it was like there was a mother-son relationship. And then in the next season there was a lover relationship. And in season 3 he hates her. Hates 'it'!"
Foundation season 3 continues with weekly episodes, and here's how to watch it.
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