Pepter Lunkuse plays exographer Anna, at the heart of Nicholas Briggs’ new Big Finish Original, The Human Frontier. She chatted with Paul Simpson about the challenges that both she and her character face in the new drama…

NB There are spoilers ahead for The Human Frontier

What got you into acting in the first place?

It’s a little bit of a complicated answer for me because I wanted to go into directing first. When I was a kid I did the school shows and stuff like that but I was very interested in film direction – Ang Lee is one of my favourite film directors and I remember watching Brokeback Mountain and just being like, wow. The cinematography’s amazing; just being able to create that world was so epic for me.

I did a lot of extra-curricular activities in film then when I got to college I rather arrogantly thought, “Well, I’m going to take drama but only because I have to know what an actor goes through and how to direct an actor.”

I did four A Levels – politics, film studies, drama and English Lit – and my first three classes of the day I was the only person who was at all talkative, putting my hand up and really engaging. My last class of the day was drama, and I got into the class and everybody was exactly like me. They were all screaming, they were all like, “I was the only one talking in my class too” and I just remember being sat there thinking, Wow, I’ve found my home. Hasn’t stopped since then really.

I had no idea how to even get into it but I went to a really good school up in Wigan. The drama department was great because we had a theatre and we did loads of shows and they also encouraged us in our second year to apply to drama schools. One of the drama schools came up and auditioned us, and that got me onto the track of then looking into others and find out where I wanted to be really.

What attracts you to a project? Is it the character or the medium you’re doing it in? You’ve done television, you’ve done audio, you’ve done theatre and quite a bit of Shakespeare…

Well, I mean money honestly has to be a priority.

Of course.

But that’s, not obviously the first thing. What I like to think is: is there something I can learn from the project in terms of the character and how it’s written, or the people? Is it a new experience?

Is it money and will I enjoy it? I need to answer two of those things to say yes to a project.

What attracts me? I think probably more character than it is anything else really. I’m a sucker for a really good character. If I read something and I’m blown away by it then I try my best to get it.

That segues neatly into talking about The Human Frontier. You’d done a bit with Big Finish with Scott Handcock on the Doctor Who audios Warzone and Conversion. Had you done anything else for them before The Human Frontier?

No, I hadn’t. I really enjoyed the Warzone and Conversion Doctor Who episodes and then the following year they asked me to come back again, this time for four episodes in a leading part. I was like, “OK, if you’re sure.”

Did you say yes before you’d read the scripts?

I think I skimmed the first episode. I was like, “Oh yeah, she’s alright but she’s not going to be in all the four episodes” and said yes – and then maybe a week before [recording]. I was going through it and I was highlighting everything going, “Oh my goodness this is a lot of work.” But yes, Anna’s a great character.

What did you think of her when you read the part?

When I first encountered her, it really pulled at my heartstrings: the fact that she was just a young girl in love, then to have that on the backdrop of being in space, for years on end, and then having to lose your lover as well. What attracted me was the fact that she had such a human, a very [contemporary] emotional state that I could tap into, I guess. That’s how I get into quite a lot of my characters, the emotional state.

I was like, “OK, she’s just in love and then all these other things happen and then she has to understand a new world that she has never seen before.”

To me part of it is that she needs to grow up. She’s with Daisy, being all lovey dovey, bounding around on the planet together and then the creatures attack – and her first instinct isn’t to do what her commander is telling her. How did you regard the way that she reacts in that?

I think she’s still quite young and quite selfish even though she doesn’t realise it is quite a selfish desire to go onto a planet and just kill everything and take what you want. I felt she was being selfish in her choice to save Daisy’s life, to not listen to what Daisy’s saying, to disregard the creatures on the planet. It’s really a selfish thing to want to do but understandably so because I think one’s survival is the most important thing really.

And it’s also not just her survival at stake though; it’s the fact that she’s willing to kill for Daisy despite Daisy basically being willing to sacrifice herself.

Yes, she’s a child because she’s not listening in any sort of way. Up until the later episodes when she’s on Triton, I don’t think she really understands. Even at the end of the first episode where she’s with Daisy: she’s trying to explain to her, “I thought you were a good commander” and all of these wonderful things, she’s giving Daisy compliments and giving her her reasons. But she’s still not listening and I don’t think even at that point that she thinks that she’s wrong at all in any way. I think she would do it again in a moment.

It’s the old saying about there’s no point in saying sorry unless you actually don’t intend to do it again.

Yes and also there’s also that thing of it’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission. But I feel like in that moment she’s still quite young, quite selfish, quite human and is untouched by the world that is beyond her scope.

What do you think makes her grow up? Is it being caught in the middle on Triton?

At the end of that first episode when Daisy rejects her, I think that makes her grow up a little, even though she doesn’t understand when someone that you love like that suddenly goes, “No, I stand for this, and if you don’t stand for the same thing then we can’t be friends.” Then she loses Daisy – despite all her efforts to save this woman that she loved, she’s lost her anyway, or she thinks she’s lost her, and then she gets caught in the middle.

It’s a series of things that happen and when she’s on Triton and sees the tragedy that has happened there, she’s able to understand a little where Daisy was coming from, which I think connects all the elements for her.

Humanity on Triton has gone down the route that Daisy’s trying to steer Anna away from.

Is science fiction like this something you enjoy outside of work?

Science fiction? Absolutely love it (laughs). I am a massive Doctor Who fan. It’s definitely something that I like to watch and just get really absorbed in. Superhero movies I absolutely love. Anything that’s too scary, I can’t really do but that’s my own personal taste; I can’t really do any kind of horror. But things that make you think, that’s otherworldly – I’m a big fan of witchcraft as well – anything that puts our current world on a different stage and you have to use your imagination a little bit, to see it in a different way. I think that’s quite exciting for radio, for audio or TV. I’d love to see sci-fi in theatre but…

It tends not to play well, to general audiences. I think people still ghettoize it to a certain extent.

What do you think of the relationship between Anna and Nilly, the AI? In your own mind, did you think of Nilly as a separate person?

I tried my hardest. It was quite helpful because you have your headphones on, to imagine her being in my head and being more a part of me, than beside me. There’s a certain relationship and a shorthand that they have, and have to have, especially in various emergencies like where the Tritonites are catching on with what’s happening.

That connection and relationship has to be authentic and the headphones were really helpful because I really did feel like she was in my head, part of me, like a fifth limb.

If there’s a second season of The Human Frontier, where would you like to see Anna go? What do you think could happen to her?

I don’t know because at the end of the series Nilly has played her cards and it’ll be interesting to see what happens after that. And with Dendrick as well…

Out of interest, where do you think Dendrick is? Is he on the Frontier or is he somewhere back on Earth that Nilly’s talking to?

It’s interesting that you say he might be on the ship because he could have easily snuck onto the ship – true.

They rely on Nilly for all their information don’t they? They only know what’s happening and what’s going on around the Frontier because Nilly tells them.

Yes. You’re making very great points here. In my head, I feel like he could be on a different planet somewhere. He’s had these plans and I can’t imagine that he would have sacrificed himself when Earth was destroyed. I feel like he would have gotten out of there quite sharpish.

What was the biggest challenge for you?

I’m still quite new to, or at least I feel quite new to, audio dramas and there’s two things. There’s levels, which you don’t really need to worry about too much because they will adjust you or they’ll let you know, and then there’s not having to move around, not having to actually run on the spot. That was quite weird because you still want to try and create the same effect and feeling for yourself as an actor but it has to be quite restricted because you can’t keep jumping about everywhere.

You haven’t got that physicality, you’ve got to express it in some different way. Once Covid’s out of the way, what are your plans? Have you got anything lined up?

I keep auditioning and things keep going to be starting but everything keeps being pushed back so I’ve no idea really. I’m just going to see. I’ve been doing some writing which is exciting and going to see where that and maybe go into some writing rooms and just check into that experience as well. But nobody knows.

 

The Human Frontier is available now from Big Finish

Thanks to Nick Briggs for his assistance in arranging this interview.

Read our review of The Human Frontier here.

And our interviews with Genevieve Gaunt (Daisy) here; and Lucy Briggs-Owen (Nilly) here.

For our interview with Nicholas Briggs click here and here.