In this week’s episode of Murderbot, “Complementary Species,” the team is still reeling from Leebeebee (Anna Konkle)’s death at the hands of SecUnit (Alexander Skarsgård) and struggling with trust issues. Some members remain wary of SecUnit, despite its repeated efforts to protect them, while others, like Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), recognize their survival depends on its abilities.  Arada (Tattiawna Jones), ever practical and empathetic, tries to keep the group together. Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), on the other hand, remains deeply skeptical of SecUnit, aligning with Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) in advocating for caution and even suggesting they leave it behind. As the group debates their next move, the team’s escape is complicated by both the appearance of gigantic, alien creatures as well as the arrival of another hacked security unit.

Recently, SciFi Vision spoke with stars Jones and Wu about working on the series, meeting with Martha Well, who wrote the novellas the series is based on, and more.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   To start out, what attracted both of you and made you want to do it? We'll just go Tattiawna and then Sabrina.
 
TATTIAWNA JONES:   Sure. I got the sides first. I was preparing for the audition, so there was a whole audition process that I went through. And even just reading the sides, I was like, “Hold on a second, is this sci-fi?” Like, wait, it's got like all of these other things that I love. It's funny; it's dramatic. The characters are very deep and thought out and well-crafted and all of these things. I thought, “Yeah, this is sci-fi. Okay, great.”
 
So, going through the audition process, and then I went, “Oh, there are a series of books. Okay, well, let me take a look at the book,” and then I lost it. I mean, Martha Wells is such an amazing writer, such an amazing creative person, an amazing human. She came to visit us on set. So, it was lovely to have her be a part of our world and have the person who created it. I was like - is it weird if I say it was like meeting God? In that moment, [laughs] it was kind of like, “Oh, you created our world. Now we get to meet you.”
 
SABRINA WU:   We got to make that a teacher, met God, and she's Martha Wells.
 
TATTIAWNA JONES:   Yeah, exactly. [laughs] I'm into that. But yeah, so I read all seven books, and I was just like, I cannot wait. If I have a shot at being a part of this in any way, shape or form, I should be so lucky. And then they go, “Okay, great. Sure. You have a shot. And oh, by the way, you're going to be doing most of your scenes with somebody named Sabrina Wu. I don't know if you know who that is.”
 
I was like, “Oh, you mean the person that I've been watching all the YouTube videos and like following and liking for being such a big fan of this whole time?” So, yeah, that was icing on the cake that I got to be a part of this in this fashion, a project of this level with the creative team behind it, with the level of writing. Then, it was like, “Oh, and you'll be working with a person that you have been fanning behind the scenes all this whole time.”
 
 And it was just a joy. Yeah, it was. I will stop talking now, but I could go on.
 
SABRINA WU:   Yeah, I know. That's so sweet. But, you know, I hate it.
 
TATTIAWNA JONES:   I know. [laughs] I don't care.

SABRINA WU:   And it was so great to work with Tatiana for real.
 
No, literally. [Like] That's my wife. And I definitely was really just drawn to like - I really like the book series, and I feel very personally connected to Murderbot. I just feel like, I mean, people love to tell me like, “Oh, you're so awkward, or you're so weird.” And people do say that to me. Actually, on TikTok, I am constantly being - those reels that you watch of me, Gen Z will not stop diagnosing me with a lot of different things.
 
TATTIAWNA JONES:   They're also twelve.
 
SABRINA WU:   Of course. But I just like, I get it. Like, I just sometimes…do feel fish out of water that like I, you know, but I also love the sweetness of the show. I also love sci-fi. But when I hear sci-fi comedy, I'm like, “Oh, God, is it like kind of Marvel? Like, is it going to feel familiar?”
 
And I was like, no, there's a lot of sarcasm. It’s a lot of like, awkward cringe humor. I was like, this is really, really different, specific, and very funny. So, that was like a huge draw for me.
 
 SCIFI VISION:   Was there anything you did have like difficulty connecting with for Sabrina?
 
 SABRINA WU:   The hardest [part], the challenge for me was just like the dramatic elements that also involved, like where the dramatic elements meet the sci-fi, where it was just like a man is holding a tennis ball, and I'm supposed to believe that that is a giant worm that's about to kill me and understand how I can be like - how would I act if that was happening to me? You know, I have no idea; like the act of imagination [we had] to use to ground the show was really an exciting, cool acting challenge.
 
 SCIFI VISION:   Really quickly, we're almost out of time, but did you find that part difficult as well?
 
 TATTIAWNA JONES:   I like the tennis ball and pretending. I do like I do like pretending that I'm being eaten by whatever is on the other end of the tennis ball. I would say the challenging parts for me, [were] we did a lot of exterior shooting. So, we were on location a lot, and when you're shooting on location, you're battling things that you cannot control, like weather and sun and flies and bears and any other random things that are populating the space that you are a guest in, in that moment in time. So, again, great acting challenge, because sometimes you have to hurry it up because of light, or you have to hurry it up because of bears. Then we did. I mean, we we were all kept very safe, and we had a good time doing it, but yeah, that was a that was a fun challenge.