Black Mirror: Nosedive - Who Played Truck Driver Susan?
"Black Mirror" has arguably become one of the more eerily prophetic science fiction offerings that ever aired. And if you've ever given a proper binge to the Netflix series' 27-episode catalog thus far, you've likely been blown away by how many familiar faces producers lined up to bring their chilling tales of technophobic terror to life — a list that includes Anthony Mackie, Sarah Snook, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, and Bryce Dallas Howard, among countless others.
As for Howard, the actor fronted the Season 3 episode titled "Nosedive," portraying Lacie Pound, a woman whose harrowing fall from social media grace changes her entire outlook on life. She's aided in that perspective change by one of the few people to show her no-strings-attached kindness, a straight-shooting truck driver named Susan who gives Lacie a ride after a rental car snafu leaves her wedding-bound on foot. Along the way, Susan waxes poetic on the insignificance of the social media hustle, and how her life has only gotten better since she left it behind.
It's a moving, and wonderfully insightful moment to be certain. It's made all the more powerful by the work of Cherry Jones, who portrayed the truck-driving Susan in the episode. Odds are many "Black Mirror" fans recognized Jones as she's become one of the more celebrated supporting players in Hollywood. In rising to that level, she's also appeared in some of the biggest film and television shows released in the past few decades.
Cherry Jones has become one of Hollywood's supporting player A-listers over the years
As it is, the name Cherry Jones is arguably not one not particularly well-known in the pop culture zeitgeist. The actor has, however, become a supporting player staple on screens big and small over the past several decades, earning one of her earliest big-screen credits in 1987 alongside Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett in Paul Schrader's hard-rocking music drama "Light of Day." That same year she shared the screen with Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, and Tommy Lee Jones in the underrated thriller "The Big Town."
Jones spent the better part of the next decade working on the fringes of Hollywood. But in 1998, she turned up for a prime gig in Robert Redford's lauded drama "The Horse Whisperer," and a year later earned a role in Tim Robbins' star-studded period piece "Cradle Will Rock." A standout turn in "Erin Brokovich" further raised Jones' profile, as did one in 2000's based-on-true-events blockbuster "The Perfect Storm." In 2004, Jones actually shared the screen with her future "Black Mirror" co-star Bryce Dallas Howard, playing one of the secretive elders in M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village."
The actor joined the cast of the hit drama "24" in 2009, going on to play U.S. President Allison Taylor in Seasons 7 and 8. And in the years since her "Black Mirror" gig, Jones has made equally notable appearances in "Boy Erased," "The Handmaid's Tale," and "Poker Face." But she's perhaps best known these days for her three-episode arc on "Succession," where she played the whip-smart, and perpetually wavering PGN big boss Nan Pierce.