In this interview, Amy McPherson provides a glimpse into her acting journey, from childhood performances to joining the TV universe. She discusses the challenges of transitioning from a fantasy role in a Game of Thrones prequel to an alien character in Pandora and shares memorable moments on set. Amy also opens up about her Hollywood aspirations, dream collaborations, and her preference between television and cinema.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your journey into acting? What inspired you to pursue this career?
I’ve always wanted to do it. I think I was always performing as a kid. I was always the one with a karaoke machine, doing little routines for my parents. I fell in love with cinema. Going to the movies was so exciting, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do from the age of about four.
Oh, really?
Yeah, and I’ve never looked back. Most people decide they’re going to do a proper job, but I decided to keep going. I moved to London when I was 19, attended the Identity School of Acting for a year, got signed to their agency, and within six months, I was in the Game of Thrones world. It was a quick shock to the system and a kind of “Welcome to the Industry”.
That’s amazing! Did you do any plays while you were in school?
I tried to do school plays and musicals, but there wasn’t much in the Lake District. I did amateur dramatic things, like The Witches of Eastwick and Jesus Christ Superstar.
How did being part of the Game of Thrones universe impact your life?
Amazingly. Well, I was such a fan of the show beforehand. I always said I would love to do Cersei, in Game of Thrones. This would be my dream role. Besides, Lena Henley is incredible at playing Cersei. And then when I got the role, I couldn’t believe it. Also, being associated with such a big franchise opened doors for auditions with big directors and producers. It’s a recognized thing, and people assume you must be good if you were in Game of Thrones.
Do you think this impacted your role in Pandora?
I think so. Coming off Thrones was a challenge because of the vastly different characters. My Game of Thrones character wasn’t an alien, but my Pandora character was. I tried hard to make them as different as possible. This was kind of easy to do since you’re playing a human and then an alien, so that’s easy to do. I had so much more confidence, allowing me to take risks and make interesting artistic choices with the material.
I’m curious, how was your audition for GOT?
I had one audition, and it was crazy. I forgot all my lines. I was a mess. I was literally making up the script. I came out crying because I thought I was never going to act ever again. I remember calling my best friend and was like, “I’ve just messed up Game of Thrones, I forgot all my lines”. And in the end, they offered me the job.
Being on set and playing the daughter of such a big name like Naomi Watts, what did you learn from her?
I think her positivity and being really kind. No matter whether they were a runner, all the way up to the top, she was always the same with everybody, so that’s probably what I learned from her.
Now, can you share with us a bit about your character in Pandora?
So, Matta is an alien. She was a princess of Zatar, and, you know, it’s a different planet, which, as an actor, has its own challenges because we had a few rules to go off. A big rule for the Zatarians is that they don’t touch anybody, so for them, touch is a significant thing. It was really interesting as an actor to create a character like that because you’re thinking, “This character doesn’t have the same society that I know as a human. How does she interact? Culturally, what is acceptable and not acceptable for her?” When I was creating her, I decided to make her quite rigid and stiff, and I played her with a really heightened RP accent. Also, because she was involved in wars, I made her very black and white. Another thing is that she doesn’t know normal human social interactions. So, when I was on set and doing scenes, I was thinking: “She might never have seen a teacup before. She might not drink tea”. That was really interesting to play.
Given your experience in both fantasy and sci-fi genres, how do you approach crafting a character in these imaginative settings? And what challenges and joys does it bring to you?
I think it’s just so interesting because it’s putting me in a world that I just haven’t experienced before. My life’s pretty boring, and it’s so fun to be in different worlds. I’m like, oh, this is great and I can. You don’t know what’s gonna happen; everyday life is pretty mundane and pretty boring. But when you’re doing something like fantasy or sci-fi, there are loads of funky things involved, and you’re like, oh, this is fun and yeah, I really enjoy it. Challenges are always staying truthful not doing a pantomime performance and always trying to find the truth in the characters. I think that’s a challenge because I think it’s quite easy to go off a little bit too far. But you just gotta trust your director, and they will always bring you down.
What’s your favourite memory on the set so far?
I honestly think there are loads. I’ve had lots of funny things happen all the time. But I think my favourite memory is just being in the hair and makeup trailer with the rest of my cast. We were in hair and makeup for hours, and they all worked really hard, keeping everything positive and nice by playing games and sharing chocolates with us (and alcohol!).
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully in America. So, I see myself probably being in America, being in LA. For the last year or so, I’ve been there quite a lot. I went for the first time in October 2023, for a month. My agents are American, and my manager is American. So, I wanted to go over and meet Americans in real life and learn the accent better because we can only do so much through film and TV and accent coaches. I really wanted to see how Americans walked and talked and all of that stuff. And I wouldn’t mind living in the sun. It would be lovely.
Speaking about Hollywood, are there any directors, writers or actors you dream of collaborating with?
So many. Actors would be Toni Collette, Julia Garner and Sarah Snook from Succession. She’s fantastic. Also, Jodie Comer. She’s brilliant. She’s cracking. Directors, probably David Fincher. I think he’s incredible. He’s very, very good at creating thrillers and making dark, twisted and on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of movies. And then for writers, there are two that I’m manifesting working with: Jesse Armstrong who did Succession, he’s a writer and showrunner, and Mike White who did White Lotus.
Do you have a preference between working in television or cinema?
Oh, this is a really hard question because I love both. I think at the moment, I would say film, just because you can shoot them in such a short time – which means in the year you can work on three different characters, which is quite exciting for me at the moment, at the beginning of, well, at this stage of my career.
But TV is great because you’re doing a character for a long period of time, which is amazing in its own way. After all, you can get really in-depth into somebody and you can really create a character and know them inside out. But I think right now, I’d like to do a film, hopefully. But I mean, who knows?
How do you hope to be remembered in the industry?
Hopefully, as somebody who is very nice to work with and is positive. Hopefully, people remember me as a good actress. I hope I’m not remembered as a bad actress. Could you imagine? So hopefully, they’ll be like “She’s good and she’s very nice”.
By Even Grazielly Escocio