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The MCU returns to Disney+ with the long-awaited series, VisionQuest. The show follows Vision, rebooted and in hiding after the events of WandaVision. Desperate to find new meaning in life and what it means to be human, Vision (Paul Bettany) builds his home away from home in the Mindscape, a digital landscape inside his quantum processors.
Living there alongside Vision, now with digital avatars and personalities of their own, are familiar Stark AI, who all provide essential services for the Mindscape. J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy) looks after security and house maintenance. F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) handles socialisation and tactical operations. E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) manages fun and leisure, as well as weaponry.
Completing this family are D.U.M.-E (Henry Lewis) and U: (Jonathan Sayer), the handymen who perform daily maintenance, and the nefarious Ultron (James Spader), who lives incarcerated in the attic.
When a mysterious new adversary puts a hefty bounty on his capture, Vision and his virtual family must come out of hiding and confront this threat to avert dire consequences.
In anticipation of VisionQuest, Supanova sat down with Emily Hampshire to discuss her exciting MCU debut as E.D.I.T.H., a role previously voiced by Dawn Michelle King.
“Terry Matalas [VisionQuest’s showrunner] and I worked on a TV show a long time ago called 12 Monkeys,” says Hampshire. “He called me up and explained that he was writing this character called E.D.I.T.H. for this show, and that he kept hearing Jennifer Goines’ voice [the character she played on 12 Monkeys]. So, he thought Jennifer might be an E.D.I.T.H. Variant. He then explained to me what a Variant was,” she laughs. “This was a great entry into the MCU, via Terry. In a way, it felt like I was going home.”
What was previously just a voice is now an AI with her own identity and avatar. Hampshire explains this version of E.D.I.T.H., and her approach to embodying her.
“Well, I just went from Spider-Man: Far from Home, where she was born, essentially. Tony Stark bottled his essence into a pair of sunglasses and called her E.D.I.T.H., which stands for ‘Even Dead, I’m The Hero.’ She had access to all the weapons, and then he gave her to a teenager.
“I was like, ‘Who would this person or AI be if she got to break out of these sunglasses?’ To me, that is the E.D.I.T.H. you meet in VisionQuest. She’s just dying to have fun, yet her idea of fun is blowing things up!
“It’s really interesting because we are like this family of AIs who are trying to teach Vision, who is also an AI, how to be human. None of us knows what that’s like!
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. represents socialisation, and J.A.R.V.I.S. represents security, and those are important things. So, I think Edith really feels like she must prove that fun is important. It’s the first thing they take away in schools, like art and gym, so she desperately wants Vision’s approval. To demonstrate her value, she’s constantly trying to find her role in his life, which manifests itself.”
She emphasises, “I approach any character as an actress to find the humanity in the character, even if I was playing somebody bad. Would it be like if you were an AI? To me, you’re just taking orders and used as a tool. If you’re not perfect, people will get a different AI. You’re just so expendable and have no autonomy. To be given a body in the Mindspace would feel like being set free. Much of her desire is to be in on being alive.
“It was a character that felt the most human to me. Because when I play a regular human, I’m never thinking about being alive, because I am. So, with E.D.I.T.H., there was this great desire to experience everything. She has all the knowledge; all the ingredients to the greatest meal of all time, but she doesn’t get to taste it, so that’s what she wants.”
What would E.D.I.T.H. do if she existed in the real world? “She would make an entire house out of a bouncy castle and have a Jell-O pool. She would go from upstairs to downstairs via a slide, then there’d also be a water slide that goes through the dryer, so you’ll end up dry. It’d be like the greatest of all time! She would do everything, but like everything I wanna do,” she grins.
The first two episodes of VisionQuest are now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
