Rashida Jones was a fan of “Black Mirror” ever since the Netflix anthology series first premiered in the U.K. nearly 14 years ago. After discovering she had a mutual friend with creator Charlie Brooker, Jones cold-emailed him on a whim. “I absolutely muscled my way into Charlie Brooker’s life,” Jones said. “I think he was confused why he was engaging with me.” They met on Skype — “if that dates us,” she joked — bonding over their “similar sensibilities” and the two kept in touch. That connection led to Jones and “Parks and Recreation” co-creator Mike Schur writing Season 3’s opening episode, “Nosedive,” which commented on society’s obsession with social rankings.
Now, years later, Jones is a first-time acting Emmy nominee for her performance in “Common People,” the first episode of the show’s seventh season. She plays a terminally ill teacher, Amanda, who is offered a way to survive an inoperable brain tumor: A company called Rivermind Technologies can replace the tumor with synthetic tissue for free, as long as she pays a monthly subscription fee.
When Amanda and her husband, Mike (Chris O’Dowd), find that the “common” tier subscription limits her movements and causes her to drop advertisements into her conversations, the couple is sucked into a never-ending cycle of more expensive subscription tiers, including Rivermind Lux, which heightens sensations. “I’m grateful that the people at ‘Black Mirror’ felt I could meet that moment at this particular time in my life,” Jones said.
What does this Emmy nomination mean to you?
It’s big, it’s big. [Laughs] No, I’m kidding. It’s this weird thing, right? If you accept the accolades, you have to also have to accept the criticism, and unfortunately, I’m really good at the latter. But it feels like a nice convergence, a really nice moment in my life as somebody who’s been working for almost 30 years professionally.
You previously co-wrote a Season 3 episode of “Black Mirror.” Did your entry point into the “Black Mirror“ universe lead you to star in “Common People”?
I wonder. I don’t know if they’re connected. I think it’s because [Charlie and I] are friends and maybe I’m in [the team’s] consciousness. It felt like maybe the right time. Maybe they had seen enough to feel like I could get that part right for them.
In “Common People,” you’re playing one character, but there are many different shades of her that you’re being asked to portray. When you got the script, what were your thoughts?
I definitely wondered if I could do it. If I get this wrong, it could be very, very wrong. I wondered if I would be able to create enough different textures. I am still the same person, but how much of the same person am I? This was either going to be really bad or it’s going to work. There was no in between.
In order to keep everything straight, did you have a bible you were working with? Did you have a whiteboard?
Like the “A Beautiful Mind” window? [Laughs]
Yeah.
I read (the script) many, many, many times because I felt I had to have a fluency of the order of where she was. I broke it down by ads, like Rivermind Lux, and then by Amanda’s conscious trajectory. The last scene, it’s all of them. I’m doing an ad, I’m on Rivermind Lux and for a minute, I’m conscious. So I start off conscious, in pain and exhausted and then on Rivermind Lux, I make a decision about the end of my life. I’m not playing a death scene; I have agency through that serenity, and then I go into a commercial.
Which scene was the most challenging?
That final scene was challenging in general. To die is a hard thing to do. To decide to die is a hard thing to do. I thought about my own death a lot in that scene. I know that sounds heavy, but hopefully if I’m doing my job correctly, at least a percentage of the time [the scene] feels real to me. There’s something wonderful about the fact that she got to architect her own end. There was a lot she didn’t have control over and [her husband] gave her the gift to make that decision.
“Black Mirror“ is known for its social commentary and this episode speaks to the dangers of subscription models, whether it be healthcare or streaming services, for instance. Did you connect with what the episode was saying?
Totally. I’ve had loved ones who have gone through really bad health stuff and the shock of the bill, the inability to pay that bill and the lack of ethics around people’s health and the health-care system is an obvious part of this allegory. The way we create capitalism around everything in our country, including your health, your well-being, your death and your livelihood, it feels so American. Everything’s for profit. Money is truly an important prioritized factor culturally now. Everything has a price tag, everything has a premium level and everything has a lux level.
That becomes standard later on.
Yes. And to make a buck, you make a buck. There’s something extremely eerie and dark and unsustainable about that. I feel like that’s what this episode’s about, whether it’s in the health sector, the happiness sector, the retail sector or the political sector — all of it — it feels a bit up for grabs. Ownership is really about who can monetize the thing.
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.