Black Mirror Season 6: Who Plays Joan In Episode 1?
"Black Mirror" is back for another season, bringing with it several exciting guest stars.
The British sci-fi series has always had a knack for roping in a wide range of talent, giving rising stars like Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Whitaker opportunities to show off their skills. It was with Season 3, the first to debut on Netflix, that the series went global, tapping in actors and talent from across the pond. Now, with its sixth season, creator Charlie Brooker has nabbed his most inventive and diverse cast yet, showing off some of his biggest gets in Episode 1.
Season 6 kicks off with "Joan is Awful." The hour-long episode centers on a woman named Joan who discovers that her life is being dramatized through a streaming show. Titled "Joan is Awful," the series highlights Joan's days beat-for-beat. Having her dirty laundry aired in public leads to Joan's life collapsing through a series of events and missteps, which are later broadcast on the show. Fed up with her now public life, Joan decides to take matters into her own hands and go after the company behind the product: Streamberry.
Joan is played by Annie Murphy, who received international acclaim (and an Emmy award) for her stint as Alexis Rose in "Schitt's Creek." Murphy has since gone on to appear in "Russian Doll" and headline AMC's "Kevin Can F**k Himself." As expected, Murphy knocks it out of the park as Joan, but this is "Black Mirror," where there's more than meets the eye.
There's more than just one Joan
Contains spoilers for "Black Mirror" Season 6, Episode 1 — "Joan is Awful"
As it turns out, Annie Murphy isn't the only Joan in "Joan is Awful." The in-episode, fictionalized version of "Joan is Awful" features Salma Hayek as Joan. After finding out that she can't get Streamberry, the service behind the TV show, to cancel "Joan is Awful," Murphy's version of the character has no choice but to commit heinous actions to get Hayek's attention. Hayek and Murphy's Joan ultimately meet, concocting a plan to destroy Streamberry's Quamputer — a fictional piece of technology that is able to create content quickly using deep fake and CGI.
As Murphy's Joan and Hayek go to destroy the Quamputer, they learn that they're actually fictional interpretations of the "real" Joan. Turns out that the real Murphy and Hayek lent their likeness to Streamberry for "Joan is Awful." In Murphy's universe, Hayek is playing Joan, and in Hayek's universe, Cate Blanchett is playing Joan, and so on and so forth.
So... who plays the "real" Joan? Canadian actor Kayla Lorette. The episode ends with Lorette's Joan living her life, free from the Streamberry show. Though Lorette's take on Joan is brief, she adds a layer of complexity and empathy to a tragic and relatable character.