KILLING MACHINE

Murderbot's Alexander Skarsgard talks to ELLA WALKER about playing a reluctant robot who just wants to binge watch his favourite soap not go on epic adventures

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THE title ‘Murderbot’ brings to mind a crazed, violent, non-sentient cyborg intent on wiping out humanity, but the Murderbot coming to AppleTV+ is more a procrastinator than a homicidal droid.

The comedy sci-fi 10-parter, created by Academy Award nominees Chris and Paul Weitz (About a Boy, Mozart in the Jungle), stars Emmy Award-winner Alexander Skarsgard - who stole the show in the final series of Succession, and also appeared in Big Little Lies - as the titular Murderbot, a character created by Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries.

“I fell in love with Murderbot because it felt like such a unique character,” says Swedish actor Alexander, 48, who took 20 minutes to get in and out of the robot suit each time.

“It was rare. I hadn't come across - especially not in a sci-fi adventure world - a character that was so idiosyncratic and weird.”

The show revolves around a Security Unit, or SecUnit, cyborg that calls itself Murderbot. Designed by the ‘Corporation’ to obey humans, it’s hacked its own systems and now has free will, a fact it must conceal while completing treacherous missions and protecting a team of scientists, led by Dr Mensah, played by South African-born British actress Noma Dumezweni, 55 (Presumed Innocent) and scientist Gurathin, played by American actor David Dastmalchian, 49 (Dune, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer).

Really, though, it just wants to watch endless episodes of its favourite soap, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

“There's not a lot of forward momentum and I thought that was really fun.

“Murderbot is reluctantly, very reluctantly, pulled into this adventure. There’s a quality of procrastination that I thought was funny,” says Alexander, who’s also an executive producer on the show.