Gugu Mbatha-Raw Has Overcome Her TV 'Commitment Phobia' With 'Surface'

PHOTGRAPHY David Reiss

STYLING Rachel Davis

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is known to be a chameleon of sorts onscreen. She’s played a pop star (in Beyond the Lights), a 1950s activist (in Motherless Brooklyn), and an 18th-century belle (in Belle, naturally) with ease; she’s also appeared in her fair share of space-age sci-fi projects, to boot. But no previous role has presented a creative blank slate quite like her Surface character, Sophie Ellis. After waking up from an accident with her memory wiped, the tech-savvy amnesiac remains as much of a mystery to the audience as she does to herself in the AppleTV+ series, on which Mbatha-Raw also serves as an executive producer. 

“For Season 1, it was a bit of an unusual preparation process because Sophie had no memories,” she tells L’OFFICIEL over Zoom from Jamaica, where she’s filming the miniseries Inheritance. “I couldn't really make a backstory the way I would to prepare for an ordinary role, because there really was no backstory until it was revealed on camera.” For its sophomore season, the psychological thriller has jumped from San Francisco to London, where Sophie—who’s on the run after faking her own death in last season’s finale—is investigating her mother’s death, in addition to her own ties to the “very English” Huntley family. This time around, things were less ambiguous for Mbatha-Raw. “I had all of the shared experience with the actors—particularly Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who plays my husband, James—to build on, as well as the time that we had already spent with these characters,” she says.

Off camera, Mbatha-Raw has also hit her stride. “As an executive producer on the show, it was interesting to go into this season knowing a bit more about that behind-the-scenes process, because I was really just learning about it all last time,” she says. “Coming into the second season, I already knew what to expect and felt more confident on that side of things.” One area where she took charge with ease? The new setting of the Hello Sunshine production. “Obviously, I could bring my Britishness to the table, when it came to cultural things and locations,” says Mbatha-Raw, who was appointed Member of the Order of British Empire (MBE) for her service to drama in 2017. “Working with an American showrunner [Veronica West] and predominantly American producers, it was nice to be able to bring my UK background into the show.” 

Ahead of Surface’s Season 2 finale on April 10, we asked Mbatha-Raw about everything from executive producing alongside her The Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon to her fashion evolution, both onscreen and off. Read on for our full interview.

L’OFFICIEL: Gugu, I remember interviewing you in 2018 and, at the time, you said you didn’t think you'd ever do a TV show where you had to commit to one role. And yet, here we are.

GUGU MBATHA-RAW: [laughs] You know what? This is the first time I've done something where I’m a lead returning character. So I do still believe that, in a way. But what’s been cool about Surface is that Sophie has this identity mystery going on, so you don't feel like it's one character. And for the second season we're in London, which feels so different to being in San Francisco or Vancouver [where most of Season 1 was filmed]. So it doesn't feel like you're just doing the same old, same old. It definitely feels like it's evolved, and I think maybe my commitment phobia over TV series in the past has been because I feel like, Oh, you're just stuck with this role, and it's not going anywhere. But actually, I've been proved wrong on this one. I feel like it really goes to different places. And I get to feel like the character and the world is getting bigger and more interesting. 

L’O: How do you get into the mindset of a character who doesn’t really even know who they are?

GMR: There were a few physical things that I never did until playing Sophie. I didn't run before, but that was something that she did to get in the zone, so now I run; there was a muscle memory there. I also went horseback riding, because I get to do a bit of that in the show. And I find that music helps get you in the zone for a scene—I actually put together an Apple Music playlist with the songs that I would listen to on set during filming. I do also have a scent for Sophie, which is a Chloé perfume. Fragrance is great for memories—a scent can put you in a certain frame of mind. When you're playing a character, a fragrance can bring you right into that person and take you away from yourself, which I find very handy.

L’O: At the start of Season 2, Sophie has chopped her hair into a blunt bob and toned down the glamor. How does her change in appearance reflect what she’s going through?

GMR: In season one, there were two dresses that really represented Sophie: We had this gorgeous floral Carolina Herrera dress that her husband chose for her to wear to his work event—it was corseted and feminine, with a full skirt and a classic ‘50s silhouette—and then there was the midnight blue silk dress that she wore when she stayed up all night and went on this hallucinogenic trip, and that became this dress of mystery in her wardrobe. She had two sides: quite feminine, or femme fatale. Now that she’s in London, her style had to evolve because she faked her own death, disappeared, and is on the run. She’s undercover and doesn't want to draw as much attention to herself. She’s on a mission.

L’O: She seems more practical, too. 

GMR: She’s much more practical—hence, the hair gets shorter. She doesn't have time to take care of this long, curly hair, and she wants to blend into a more urban, slightly grittier, fast-paced setting. So that was a choice to make her feel more efficient, and a little bit androgynous. I think the clothes reflect that, too. We still have a couple of glamorous moments with a sparkly dress or two as she's undercover in high society, like when she’s hiding in plain sight in a silver vintage Paco Rabanne dress in the first episode. Then, as she’s trying to blend into this aristocratic family, we see her in riding boots and country attire. By the end of the season, everything is so action-packed and fast—it's not about the clothes. She's got a classic black turtleneck, a camel coat. She's not going to be inhibited by a skirt or a frill. She's in action mode.

L’O: How do you unwind after a day of filming such intense scenes?

GM: It's funny, because in Season 1 we had this flotation tank scene and we were actually filming near a holistic float center in Vancouver. So on the weekends, I would go and take a float for an hour. I really recommend it—the whole sensory deprivation thing, but also just being weightless in Epsom salts. The magnesium really relaxes your muscles. If I can't get to a float center, then similar to Sophie, I like a bath. I also love yoga, the trampoline, and just moving my body. But I’ve never said no for a deep tissue massage, either. That's a great reset when you have a lot of emotional energy to get out.

L’O: Freida Pinto joined the show this season, and Sophie bonded quickly with her character, Grace, who’s marrying into the Huntley family. What was it like to work together? 

GM: It was wonderful. Freida is such a light, and I've been a fan of her work for a long time. We’re both playing outsiders in a very traditional family: Sophie is trying to infiltrate, sort of surreptitiously, and Freida's character is joining the family in the traditional way, through marriage. I think there’s an unspoken bond between these two brown women joining an aristocratic, very English family.

L’O: We talked about Sophie's style, but we need to talk about yours, too. What designers are you gravitating towards lately?

GMR: I'm fortunate to work with an incredible stylist, Leith Clark. She always brings me such joy and confidence, introducing me to designers that I may not have heard of and pushing me in directions that I might not be sure I could pull off. Lately, I have been really enjoying wearing Erdem. I really loved the Erdem x Barbour collaboration, which was a fun combination of a British designer and an amazing British brand. For press in the last few months, I’ve been wearing some Huishan Zhang and a little bit of Prada and Miu Miu.

L’O: You also had a pretty great Versace chainmail look.

GMR: That was such a standout moment, because I was on The Graham Norton Show with legend Pamela Anderson, [Adolescence creator and actor] Stephen Graham, and [Good Night, Oscar star] Sean Hayes. I've not really worn much Versace before, and Leith was like, “What about this?” I liked that it had a ‘90s slip dress, slinky feel—and it was very shimmery. So it certainly gave me the confidence to be out there on The Graham Norton Show. That was a very fun outfit to wear. 

L’O: You posted that look on your Instagram, and I remember you saying years back that you never wanted to join social media. What was the tipping point, and what’s your approach to it now?

GMR: My honest tipping point was that, when [the film] Irreplaceable You came out [in 2018], Netflix did a “Gugu Appreciation Day” on Instagram. I had the Black Mirror “San Junipero” episode and The Cloverfield Paradox on there already, and they did a whole takeover of just my projects on their social channels. I thought that was maybe a sign to join Instagram. I still use it quite sparingly, but I look at it like a scrapbook. I also realized that I could use my platform to shine a light on my work with refugees [as a Goodwill Ambassador for] UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. So I try to find a balance.

L’O: At this point in your career, are there ever any pinch-me moments?

GMR: Oh my God, all the time. I had a pinch-me moment a couple of days ago, here in Jamaica. I was taking a walk with my Inheritance co-star, Bel Powley, and we ran into a herd of goats on a mountain and then went swimming in a waterfall on our day off. To travel and explore other cultures for work is such a privilege. It definitely feels like a holistic package when you’re doing meaningful work somewhere, but can also thoroughly enjoy your downtime.

PHOTOGRAPHER: David Reiss

HAIR: James Catalano

MAKE-UP: Sara Hill