Grace Gummer says that prior to being cast in USA Network’s critically acclaimed Mr. Robot she was a big fan of the series and is now proud to be a part of the award-winning drama. Gummer and her Mr. Robot co-stars Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday, and Carly Chaikin participated in the 2016 San Diego Comic Con where the show proved to be a huge draw for those fortunate enough to have a ticket to the sold-out convention. Along with taking part in a Q&A with fans, the Mr. Robot cast also sat down for roundtable interviews, with Gummer acknowledging that it’s a rare thing as an actor to be able to join the cast of a series she knows and loves.
Mr. Robot is currently airing its second season on Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/PT.
Grace Gummer Interview:
Is your mom a fan of the show?
Grace Gummer: “Yeah, my parents both have watched the show and are super excited about. You know, all my friends and my family are super supportive of me and what I do. I think that this show more than any other show is important to watch. I think it’s a rarity on TV right now. I think it speaks to a pervasive modern mode of the distress in society that we kind of need.”
The morning ritual that’s shown in the series – how long does it take to film and how specific is the staging of it?
Grace Gummer: “That didn’t take so long because I do my morning ritual… Like, I just did what I do and also what Dom would do. Dom wears a lot more makeup than me, so it definitely was a longer process.”
I hope your real bathroom is much nicer.
Grace Gummer: “Yeah, it is. [Laughing] But, it’s sort of weird to do your makeup into a camera and have the camera be the mirror. You can’t really see yourself so you’re just pretending that you see yourself.”
Can you talk about the training your character, Dominique, had for her job? What’s her background?
Grace Gummer: “I think all FBI Cyber Crime Agents are very tech savvy and must know their computer very well. I don’t.”
Was that tough for to play?
Grace Gummer: “No, I didn’t have to do a lot of that for the part. What I did do was I spent some time with some female agents who work in the Cyber Crime Division at a downtown field office in New York, and they were really helpful for me to hang out with and to just see they’re normal people. They’re normal woman who have lives and families, and they go out at night and some of them carry their gun in their purse and some of them don’t. I did some gun training, which was weird. But yeah, it’s been really fun.”
At what point might Dom encounter Elliot?
Grace Gummer: “I think our storylines – all of us have our own storylines and some of them intersect and some of them don’t. What’s cool about my character is that mine doesn’t revolve around any other character or around any other man, which is true of all the other women in the show which is what I love. My character and my storyline is completely independent of everyone else’s which is cool.”
Were you given the whole arc of the season before you started?
Grace Gummer: “We were given all 10 scripts before we started.”
Could you have done it otherwise if you were piecing it together week-by-week?
Grace Gummer: “You know, that’s a good question. I sort of don’t know of any other way of doing it with this show. I was actually really happy to be informed about everything that came before. We shot it like a movie. Usually when I work on a movie I don’t like to know what’s going to happen later in case that will inform my performance, but with this the material is so heavy you need that information to know what you’re doing.”
How has it been having writer/series creator Sam Esmail there also directing each episode, given the specificity of the dialogue?
Grace Gummer: “I can’t imagine doing every episode week to week with someone different there every episode. I think that because of the way we were shooting and because of the amount of words and material and just emotional storylines, I think that he was like our bible. He knew everything and whenever we were lost or couldn’t remember what happened next or what we had already shot, he knew everything right away. Sam lives and breathes this show. He cares so much and that feeling, that care is pervasive throughout the entire set. It really drives everyone to do their best work and to really care about the show which I think is what you see.”
Watch the full Grace Gummer interview:
(Interview by Fred Topel. Article by Rebecca Murray.)
