The Apple TV+ series Silo is dripping with intrigue. Based on the series of novels by Hugh Howey (Wool, Sand), the series follows Juliette, played by Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep, Dune), an engineer who lives in an underground shelter that protects the last 10,000 people from the dangerous world outside. After the murder of a loved one, Juliette uncovers a mystery that goes deep into the fabric of the world she knows. Rebecca Furgeson sat down with Deadline to discuss the show.
One of the elements Ferguson discussed was the world on the outside. “If you’ve read the books by Hugh Howey, who is a very intelligent human being, it’s not just one answer,” she said. “It’s a grander picture that gradually unravels. So yeah, of course, I knew about it. I did all the research I could and read all the books. What I found interesting was how I loved the world in the silo. I love the world of not knowing and then gradually opening up the possibility of getting out. What does that do to our psyche? Not over why we’re locked in, but more about what’s out there.”
Ferguson has also discussed how Graham Yost, the showrunner of Silo, took on the gargantuan task of adapting the source material. “I’m in awe,” she said. “It is very tricky. I was a part of the process with the script. Graham has shared this story. It wasn’t anything I wanted to go out with, but it kind of falls into the category of your question. I didn’t love the first draft of one of the episodes when they offered the role to me. So I turned it down. We had an ongoing conversation about it. And I said, ‘no, thank you. I’m gonna move on, but these are my notes.’ And then I went, but I kept on coming back to the story. I kept on asking my agents, ‘have they cast it? Who have they offered it to? And, I dunno, I was so drawn to it. Then they came back and they had done a change. They had adapted all of my thoughts. And I realized how good they were at understanding narrative from my perspective as a female actress, as the lead of the show and what I was after. But also the drama, the tension, the things that it lacked from a visual point of view that I had felt in the book. I did nothing other than basically complain [she laughs] and said,’ I’m not feeling it.’ They went back to the drawing board and presented something else. I saw within one change how quickly they could adapt something into a visual spectacle. That is so difficult when you read a book because you think, how do we process this? How do we get all of this in? Do we make this guy a woman? How do we make it equal? And I got all the answers from just asking and hearing and seeing the changes they could do, just like that. Graham is phenomenal, along with the people he works with.”
The rest of the interview can be read here. Silo has been picked up for a second season, and the first season can be streamed on Apple TV+.