Summary
Suzie is an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan inSunny. Her life is turned upside down when, in the wake of losing her husband and child, her husband’s (Japanese actor Hideo Nijishima) company delivers a domestic robot to her. Confused by this development, as it doesn’t line up with what she knew about her husband’s work, Suzie begins to attempt to unravel the tangled web of secrets that force her to question everything she thought she knew and who can be trusted.
Sunnyplays with the fish out of water concept through both Suzie’s investigation into the larger mystery of which she is unaware and by exploring her place as an American living in Japan as well. The series leans into a darker comedy with an edge as the concepts of grief, trust, and technology are at the center of the story.Rashida Jones stars as Suzieand serves as an executive producer with Katie Robbins creating the series based on Colin O’Sullivan’sThe Dark Manual.
New Apple TV+ Show Will Finally Make Up For Rashida Jones' Limited Silo Screen Time
Rashida Jones' new leading role in an upcoming science fiction show on Apple TV+ will finally make up for her limited screen time in Silo season 1.
Screen Rantinterviewed creator Katie Robbins and executive producer Lucy Tcherniak aboutthe new Apple TV+ seriesSunny. Robbins and Tcherniak discuss the inspirations for the design of Sunny and how they worked with WETA to bring Sunny to life on set. Robbins also explained what drew her to the story in O’Sullivan’sThe Dark Manualwhile Tcherniak broke down why Jones was the perfect actress to play Suzie.
Rashida Jones “Was Such An Obvious Choice To Play Suzie”
Although the science fiction element ofSunnyis outside Robbins' usual comfort zone the core mystery and concept of a robot and human connecting in the wake of tragedy intrigued her. She shared how she changed aspects of the story, including Sunny being a female robot, in order to explore the concepts of loneliness and isolation, but also female friendships.
Katie Robbins: When Collin’s novel crossed my desk back in late 2018, early 2019, I can’t remember now, years [ago], it was an unusual novel for me to get sent because I’d never done anything that was kind of sci-fi adjacent. It just wasn’t like the genre that I expressed myself in. But there was, within it, the core of this story of Suzie Sakamoto, this ex-Pat living in Japan, who experiences the greatest tragedy you can imagine, the loss of her husband and son.
She is a character who responds to loss and darkness by creating an emotional armor. She keeps people at bay and keeps herself emotionally safe by using dark humor and by distancing people.That was something that I really relate to that I’ve done in dark times in my own life. So I was really interested in that.
But in the novel, she has this robot, Sunny, who’s a male robot and already living with her. And they’re adversaries. I was sort of interested in turning that on its head and saying, What happens if the robot comes to her kind of afresh and is a female robot? And then I started digging into this field of robotics called Human Robot Interaction or HRI, which is all about the ways in which robots can kind of be emotional security blankets for people.
When people are in kind of dark places and are not prone to opening up to other people because they don’t want to risk making themselves vulnerable, robots are a little safer because they’re not going to leave you. They’re not going to die. They’re not going to break up with you, they’re not going to hurt your feelings. So people can get back into the habit of connecting to the robot and then gradually, theoretically start to open back up to other people.
So I was really interested in using that as kind of the launching point for this story, but then expanding on this mystery thriller spine so that it would be a propulsive journey along the way and take us into these wild, unexpected places while still talking about these themes of isolation and loneliness and female friendship and AI that I was eager to talk about.
Lucy, I knew that Rashida is an incredible actor, but she has so much emotional depth in this series that she brings to Suzie, and it’s absolutely incredible. She does a tremendous job of balancing the comedy and tragedy, and you can see this rawness and vulnerability in Suzie. Can you talk about working with Rashida to bring Suzie to life and also working with her as a creative partner, as an executive producer?
Lucy Tcherniak: She was such an obvious choice to play Suzie because of everything you just said. She really has a deft ability of balancing the drama and the depth of emotion with the humor. That was something that was so crucial in the character and also just the whole tone of the show, and she’s at the helm of that on screen. I think from our first ever Zoom with her, it just felt like she really got the material.
She asked so many smart questions and seemed just a really great partner in collaborating with in bringing Suzie to life. We put her in a lot of really crazy situations, and she was very game. I kind of can’t imagine anyone else playing her now. Also I think we just sort of felt very much on the same page in terms of taste. Even just up until recently just talking about cuts of the trailer and things like that, we had the same feelings about how it should shape up. So that felt really good to just be on the same page.
Katie & Lucy Share Sunny Inspirations & Bringing The Robot To Life On Set
Robbins also shared why Hidetoshi Nishijima was the perfect choice to play Masa. Similar to Jones he immediately brought passion and energy that drew them in as creators. He was also able to infuse elements of himself into the character to more easily bring out Masa’s intelligence and charm.
Katie Robbins: We were on sort of a razor’s edge and pins and needles with the casting for a minute there. As soon as his name was mentioned as a possibility for Masa, we couldn’t imagine another Masa. We’d just seen him Drive My Car. He was extraordinary in that we had a Zoom with him.
He was so warm and charismatic and smart. You need somebody in this role who you can believe would be a roboticist who you could believe could come up with this really brilliant form of AI, but also who was cool. Hide holds both of those things. He’s super smart, he’s super cool, and he’s also incredibly warm. He lights up any room that he goes into. So it had to be him and thank heavens it worked out. We were all so lucky. He’s just been the most kindest collaborator, a joy.
Lucy Tcherniak: Such a joy to work with and I feel so honored that it’s the first Western, I mean, it’s an international show, I don’t know what to call it, but he’s never acted in English before. He did such an incredible job and worked so hard and was so detailed in his craft and just such a special actor.
Sunny was a real robot on set, but really brought to life by Joanna Sotomura. Joanna said this was an experience like none she’s ever had before. Can you talk about the process of bringing Sunny to life and also working with WETA workshop to create Sunny for the series?
Lucy Tcherniak: It was sort of months of development really in coming up with a design. We were trying to remember how many iterations-
Katie Robbins: Hundreds and hundreds of iterations.
Lucy Tcherniak: It was really quite a process, but now I can’t imagine Sunny looking any other way. She’s just right and I adore her. Loads of references thrown together from, there was sort of elements of her ears and the type of the shape of her head that were from 2001 Space Odyssey, robot references of course. But then we were also sort of bringing in, we sort of threw Japanese vases and things that.
Katie Robbins: And Kokeshi Dolls and all different kinds of… we wanted it to have an element of the kind of clean, beautiful lines of Japanese design, but also a Kawaii face that you could connect with. So we worked with a Japanese artist called Choko who helped create features that were very simple, but also could offer great expression, which was a challenge. But once we sort of hit on it, it was perfect. Sunny can express sadness and joy in the same moment in the way that the best actors can. So that that was able to be accomplished, was kind of extraordinary.
Lucy Tcherniak: And then of course, bringing her to life on set was Joanna, who was sort of wearing this headgear that would let her expressions and her voice be translated in real time onto Sunny’s face. No one had ever used this technology before, so it obviously was a bit of a learning curve and a lot of rehearsing. Joanna working then with someone else doing the arms and someone else driving her and the whole village of people bringing her to life as a team was really incredible. To watch them just really hone their craft, that this was a team of people that hadn’t worked together before and they really were kind of like one symbiotic sort of being by the end, it was incredible.
About Sunny
The life of an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As consolation, she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company.
Sunny
Cast
Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, grapples with the mysterious disappearance of her husband and son in a plane crash. Given a domestic robot named Sunny by her husband’s company, Suzie initially resents Sunny but soon they form a unique bond. Together, they uncover the dark truth behind her family’s disappearance, becoming entangled in a dangerous and hidden world.
