An Interview with Harriet Walter from ‘Silo’

Harriet Walter is a silver and small screen legend, that has appeared in a bevy of roles across multiple popular franchises. Such as Sense and Sensibility, Killing Eve, Doctor Who and the Star Wars Universe. Currently, she stars as Martha in the new Apple TV+ series, Silo, and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with Harriet to discuss her new character and the show.

​John Betancourt: What attracted you to this project?

Harriet Walter: It was a combination of the character that was nothing like anything I'd ever played before. And the… the sort of… the amount that you could discuss through this story that would… that was kind of like, reminiscent of our lives now, but an extreme version? And what do we have in common with them? What we don't? I mean, it sets up a lot of questions, a lot of interesting questions. And it wasn't a police procedural, and it wasn't about a serial murderer. So, you know, all of that is sort of in its favor.

John Betancourt: Refreshing. There we go.

Harriet Walter: (Laughs) Refreshing!

John Betancourt: Now, what attracted you to Martha, as an actor.

Harriet Walter: I think the fact that I've… I had played quite recently, some characters who were like, sort of quite brittle, and, you know, sort of damaged and sort of not terribly, you know, I played a lot of bad mums. It was time for me to play a sort of good mum. And in a way Walker is a good mum, she's not a perfect mum, but she's a better mum than some of the people I've played. And I wanted to reveal that there is a generosity of spirit in older people sometimes. That we’re not always the sort of main enemy, that we can be the enablers and the empathizers. And, you know, I was attracted to that having just come from playing slightly the opposite sort of person.

John Betancourt: Now as an actor, how did you get into the mindset of playing a person that is quite literally trapped in every way imaginable?

Harriet Walter: It's extraordinary, I don't really know a straight answer to that. Except that that's what actors do. (Laughs) You know, we, you know, we have that kind of imagination that can link our own life history somewhere, or our own memories somewhere, to something that's unimaginable, and hasn't happened to us. And so you will probably sort of think of that time you got stuck in the bathroom, (Laughs) you know, and you couldn't reach anybody and, you know, whatever, it can be something very banal that you, or some, you know, I was talking earlier to somebody about how it was rather like, to me it was like being on the Eurostar, which is the train that links the UK to the mainland Europe. And, you know, the notion that above you, and this train, is just this tunnel, and above the tunnel, there is, you know, tons and tons and tons and mega tons of sea. And if you think about that, you can get very panicky in that train. But if you don't think about it, and you just get out your newspaper and carry on reading until you reach France, then it's fine. And I think in this story, we're all carrying on reading until we reach France. But in you know, sometimes you get this chink of ‘Oh, God, my God, this, the whole English channel is above my head, and what if there's a crack in the concrete!’, and you know.

John Betancourt: Now this is a story where everyone seems to be searching for something. What would you say Martha is searching for?

Harriet Walter: I think my character is searching for peace of mind. I think, you know, nothing… it's not going to happen very easily. I think she's just you know; she's lost a lot of… she's lost love. She's lost connections. She feels she's messed up. You know, she's not taken the opportunity she could have taken, she's playing everything out through Juliette, really. She's sort of saying, “You go for it, girl. You do the stuff I didn't do. I didn't have the guts, or I didn't have the smartness.” And so, what she wants is… she wants some kind of equilibrium because she's always in some kind of seesaw. But I think what you know, maybe she wants to break through her own terror, and I think that's how she'll get peace of mind by sort of saying, “Hey, I did it” And she breaks out of that room. And, and I think a lot happens. But coincidentally, that's when, you know, everything that she loves, is lost. So, it's, it's quite a difficult character to feel happy. But there you are. It's nice when I go home at night, and I realize I do live in the open air.

John Betancourt: Spend a little extra time on the balcony, that makes sense.
Harriet Walter: (Laughs) Yeah.

John Betancourt: Now there is definitely some deep messaging present in this story, what’s the big message that you hope the audience takes away from this show?

Harriet Walter: Well, that everybody has a reason for saying what they say. And you've got to not just listen to the words they say, but think what, what's in it for them? And why are they saying it? And the parallel with that is, you know, if you, if you hear about something on Fox News, you've got to know what their agenda is. And if you hear about something on MSNBC, you’ve got to know what their agenda is, so that you can steer your course, by being as equipped as possible with what you think you believe and know. Do you know what I mean? Keeping your eyes and ears open, not getting fixed in your, your sort of echo chamber, try to listen to other points of view, but always remember, you know, who's getting what out of it? You know, why would they want to tell me the world was destroyed? You know, why would they want me to be down here? You know, who is it that's making the rules? I don't know, I think we should all have a bit more healthy skepticism. But now I say that, but actually, there are other areas where I think we're losing trust, we're losing… well…. we're right not to believe people, you know, a lot of people have betrayed our trust. And so, we're right not to have faith in people but at the same time the world doesn't function if you don't have some kind of trust and faith you know. So maybe just go away and think and talk to one another and yeah, that's a good thing to do.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

---