Season two of Hijack follows corporate negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) as he travels to Berlin, where he becomes involved in a hijacking on the city’s U-Bahn train after being forced into the situation by criminals threatening his ex-wife, Marsha Smith-Nelson (Christine Adams). German police attempt negotiations while monitoring the moving train, but much of the investigation progress comes from the analytical work of Olivia Thatcher (Clare-Hope Ashitey), who, with the help of British intelligence officer Peter Faber (Toby Jones), examines the evidence and identifies connections to the earlier airline hijacking, piecing together clues to help show that Sam is being coerced, as the authorities try to uncover the larger plan behind the operation.

Recently, Ashitey spoke with SciFi Vision about working on season two, how her character's idealism changed her, working with Elba and Jones, and more.

Read the full transcript below and check out all of season two, now available on Apple TV.

SCIFI VISION:   First, for people obviously who haven't seen the finale, kind of tease your part in it specifically and what we can look forward to.

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Yeah, okay. So, I play a junior diplomat, junior British diplomat called Olivia Thatcher, who works at the British Embassy in Berlin. And, you know, much like a lot of stories where there's some crisis, it's just kind of ordinary people kind of having an ordinary day and as it unfolds being drawn into an extraordinary situation.

So, she goes in and thinks she's going to have a fairly standard, probably quite boring day in a job that she's not really sure about and ends up being drawn into this intensely tense thriller and doing her best to steer what she feels is like the moral and right thing to do and have a positive effect on this situation.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I was going to say, I think her talking to Faber really ends up helping him a lot. Talk about working with both Idris and Toby Jones, because a lot of your scenes are with Toby too.

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Yes, a lot of my scenes, most of my scenes are with Toby, who is so much fun. I hadn't worked with him before. I'd seen a lot of his stuff.

I think he's a wonderful actor. But to be on set with him, I mean, A, it's always nice to be with someone who's a good actor, because when you work with someone who's great, you raise your game, you learn things. That's always wonderful.

But we also spend a lot of time in very small rooms and, you know, in the same room together, and that can be trying, if you have people who are trying, but he's fun, and he's funny. And, you know, he's incredibly professional and wants to do the work, but also likes to have a laugh and likes to chat.

It turns out that my next-door neighbor is one of his best friends. So, that was a fun little reveal at some point. He was really, really, really fun to work with.

And Idris, as you will see as the season unfolds, we are in two very separate places. So, I did not spend nearly as much time with him as I did with Toby. But he's a really, I mean, I think people expect there to be some, like, I don't know, edge or pompousness to big celebrities, but he doesn't have any of that, and I think that's a testament to what a fun and relaxed person he is.

SCIFI VISION:   Talk a little bit about what drives Olivia, because like I said, obviously, she's kind of in a way pivotal for getting some of the information to them of what's going on. And she keeps going, even though she's been pushed away a few times.

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Yeah, right. I think there's a naivety and an idealism to her, which you often have, I think, when you're young and new to a job. And, you know, when you see her in the first few episodes and she's interacting with people from the embassy, you can see a kind of weariness and a skepticism to them that she doesn't have yet. And even though, you know, her job is maybe not going the way, or her career is maybe not going the way that she would have intended, she's bringing a quite young idealism to tasks that she has to do that other people would fob off. And I think that really drives her through it. She still has the energy, and I think, you know, the hope of youth, as it were, to think I can make a difference here, or I have an instinct; I'm going to follow it. I'm not jaded by having dealt with 100 cases that have turned out [in such] a way, and therefore, I'm going to judge this based on those. She has a feeling about Sam, and she has a feeling about what's happening here, and she's driven by that.

SCIFI VISION:   What did you find difficult, if anything, with this?

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    That's a good question. That's a good question. I think finding that spark, I guess, of, like youth. I'm a bit older than Olivia Thatcher, but finding that, I guess, maybe remembering when everything feels possible, and when everything is before you when you're really young and at the beginning of a career. And, you know, not just remembering that in a in an intellectual way, but remembering that as a feeling, as forget all of the things that you've like been through that make you think, “Oh, it's not worth it,” or “I won't bother,” or “There's no point in this” and really remember what it feels like to think, kind of “I can do anything, and I can make a difference here.”

And I think we often lose that as we get older, just because that's the way that life pans out. But there is the moment I think for most of us when all of the road is in front of you, and you think, “I can I can build this road,” and I think she has that.

So, I think casting my mind back some decades to when I was about that age was a big challenge.

SCIFI VISION:   So, saying all that, though, do you think that she's helped you in that way? I mean, has she changed you in that way that maybe you are thinking a little more like that yourself now?

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Yeah, that's a good point. And yes, I do think that that did help. You know, I don't think that any of us can fail to have been affected by any of the politics, wherever you are over the last 10 years. And I know the history of humanity, the history of awful things happening, and we haven't escaped that in our lifetime, but it does get easier as you get older to step away from it and just feel defeated by it. But, you know, remembering that energy of thinking I as one person can make a difference in the situation by individual choices that I make. I think that can get lost when you feel underneath events, and it was nice to feel that again. And I think I have taken that a bit back into my life.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, that's good. It's good. Good.

If you learned that from her, if nothing else. Do you have anything else coming up besides this that you want to promote really quick?

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Well, I spent most of last year having a baby…But yeah, so I sort of, actually, just after finishing filming Hijack, sort of stepped out of the world of work to sort of start a new adventure and challenge. And he's getting to the age now where I feel okay to go back to work. But yeah, most of the last year and a bit has been spent being on that journey.

SCIFI VISION:   Right, fair enough. What's something you would like to get to do?

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    You know, I think it's always nice to start with reading a script that makes you feel excited, and that could be in like any genre. I don't know that I have any genre that I feel like I'm really attracted to; I've done a kind of a little bit of everything. But it's nice to have the magic of getting an email, opening a script, reading it, not even realizing that you've, you know, zipped all the way through to the end, and then thinking, “That's amazing.” Like a magical script is a sort of the Holy Grail, I think, for every actor.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I was going to say, I think when I first watched this, I think it was in like two days. I mean, I'm bad at binging to begin with, but I know when I watched it, whatever it was, like a month ago, or whatever, I watched it and got all the way through it really quickly. It's a good show.

CLARE-HOPE ASHITEY:    Yeah, it's an intense one.