‘Humans’ Q&A: Colin Morgan On Leo – ‘Things Will Be Explained’

AMC’s new drama “Humans” has been following the stories of Londoners in the near-future, who rely on synthetic, human-like devices to help them in their daily lives.

As the first half of the freshman series has revealed though, not all synths are the same. There are the ones who serve as human helpers, and there are the rare, underground, sentient synths, who are either in hiding, on the run, reprogrammed, fighting back or captured. But is there yet another kind?

Last week, the mystery of what Colin Morgan’s character Leo is heated up when Leo went to visit George (William Hurt). Leo can bleed and he has wires in him, but last week on “Humans” there was a new reveal when he told George he’s the son of George’s old colleague, David Elster, and an email Hobb (the man chasing the sentient synths) received, confirmed it. George also said something important – “you’re dead” — to which Leo seemed to acknowledge before darting off.

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With so many questions about Leo, and clearly, more trouble on the way for his sentient family thanks to Niska’s violent incidents, Access Hollywood turned to Colin for more answers ahead of Sunday’s all-new episode on AMC.

AccessHollywood.com: When did you first find out that your character had wires on the inside? That was a big twist.
Colin Morgan: Yeah, a big twist. I knew from the beginning exactly what Leo’s backstory was, where he came from, why he is the way he is and why he’s on this specific mission that he’s on. I guess the thing as a viewer and as an audience member is that you don’t know what Leo’s been through and you’re not quite sure why he is perhaps so kind of aggressive and a little bit hard to relate to, but they’re all very valid reasons from his point of view. So yeah, from the outset, I was already intrigued by Leo as a character when I read him on the page. But the details, I really wanted to know, and Chris Fry, the producer, before I even accepted the role, mapped out what Leo had been through and why he was on his mission.

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Access: Do you think he would have been as interesting if he didn’t have wires on the inside? Before I knew he had wires, I was fascinated by your character.
Colin: A big part of why he is the way he is and his psychological makeup is because I guess he has an intense loneliness because he is quite literally the only thing like that in the world. So he is very isolated in that respect. Because of the way he is and because of those wires inside him, it’s more important and it’s vitally important for him to hold on to his synthetic family that he has, and because I think his hope of belonging and his chance of feeling a sense of belonging within the human world feels a bit impossible. And so I think his drive and his determination comes… as a direct result of the type of technology that’s inside him.

Access: Interesting. So the thing we found out in last week’s episode, if people were quick enough to read the email on screen or hit pause… is that your character has DNA. We knew he could bleed, but finding out he has DNA is interesting. … Is that something we’re going to be exploring a lot more as the show goes on?
Colin: Yeah, things will be explained in their entirety as to why Leo is the way he is. It’s for very, I guess deep and emotional and confusing reasons for him, but… scientifically exciting reasons for the world and yeah, you will absolutely get every possible answer regarding him and I think that will help explain a lot of things and give answers as to what you’ve seen so far, and… his interactions with people, I think, will make a lot more sense.

Access: How satisfying. You sometimes spend so long on a show and not get any answers. That’s really great to know.
Colin: That’s one of the frustrating things I found with shows is too many questions and not enough answers. And intrigue’s very important, but one thing I think’s very important about this show is that it presents a lot of questions, but it also gives you a lot of answers, and that’s certainly the case with Leo.

Access: So I’ve got to ask you about the code that William Hurt’s character, George, helped Leo figure out in the last episode. Then, Leo had the vision with the tree and life and he thinks all the synths need to be together to [run this program]. It felt that maybe that [scene] was hinting at a big moment that’s about to happen.
Colin: Yeah, you certainly get the impression that the technology that has been developed is possibly capable of more than it’s being used for. David Elster, who created the technology, as we found [out] as well in the last episode – Leo’s his son, so there’s a lot of questions and… there’s a lot of technology that we don’t know. And this code seems to present sort of the key to consciousness for the synthetics and whether that’s the synthetics globally, or what it does, I just think that we don’t know. And that’s a huge intrigue for Leo, is to discover what little Easter egg his dad has left within the technology because notoriously, people who design this type of thing, people who design video games, absolutely love to leave little secrets here and there for people to discover, and that’s the case here. And whether it’s for good or evil, or a bit of both, is the big question. So, it’s about trying to understand the implications of what that would be, whether the options to give synthetics the same quality of life as humans could be a good thing or bad thing.

Access: Niska is obviously a little out of control, in a very high profile way. How worried is Leo about that situation, because attention is not good at this point.
Colin: Yeah, it’s the worst possible scenario, really. Leo — as will be explained later — these synths are so special to him. They mean the most and the plan that he has for them in the future is not one that is of a public profile, really. And certainly, the wrong public profile… absolutely goes against everything his dreams are built on. And he has to establish his own version of what the synths need to be – his version of them — before integrating them into the world. The problem is, they’re all starting to be integrated into the world out of his control. They’re all finding out a little bit [of] what it’s like to be human. Leo says to Niska when she’s in the brothel, ‘Did you turn off your pain?’ and she’s like, ‘No. I turned it on because I wanted to be able to feel.’ And it’s terrifying to know that when they’re in the world they want to be part of it and they want to know what it’s like to feel things and to be human and like Niska, for example, she’s almost daring the world to treat her as a human. I mean, for her to have killed someone and to be prosecuted for it – if she was to be arrested, then she has to be human to be prosecuted for that. It’s like she’s going through these violent acts to dare humanity to recognize her as a human. And so it’s very distressing for Leo because they are no longer within his control and it’s kind of crumbling his dreams.

Access: The other thing we want to know about, of course, is the Anita/Leo backstory. It seems like there was a real romance there.
Colin: We do have a confrontation that will give answers eventually. Their relationship is probably not what you expect, I would say. I think it’s a good emotional sort of reveal as to what  the specifics [are] with Leo and Anita, or Mia, as he knows her. .. And so it’s tough for him because I think [the Hawkins family know her] as Anita, and he knows her as Mia, and he knows that she’s been tampered with and she’s this other thing. So it’s not only about getting her back physically. The next stage is to get her back mentally and technologically, which is another battle. So even getting her back physically is only really half the battle.

“Humans” continues Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.

— Jolie Lash