Silo cast felt 'responsibility' to do Rebecca Ferguson justice in season 2

Watch: The cast of Silo discusses the impact Rebecca Ferguson had on them in season 2

The cast of Silo season 2 felt a responsibility to their co-star Rebecca Ferguson to pick up the torch she left them following the shocking ending of season 1, which saw her character Juliette Nichols leave the silo and embark on a dangerous solo journey.

Speaking to Yahoo UK, Ferguson's co-stars remarked on how affected they were by her absence on set, and how they hoped to replicate her great leadership. In the Apple TV+ show's second season tensions begin to rise in the silo, with those living in its depths rising up against the tyranny of those in charge like the new mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) who is keen to keep them in the dark about what happened to Juliette.

It's up to Juliette's friends like Knox (Shane McRae), Shirley (Remmie Milner), and Walker (Harriet Walter) to take charge and lead the rebellion that Juliette began. For the cast on set it was a case of life imitating art, they reveal, with McRae sharing: "We did miss her a lot, I think. We felt a responsibility too to pick up the ball, I mean she is such an incredible leader. So not having her there, we really felt like we needed to just bring the heat.

"It was a great challenge, it's hard. It was hard to not have Rebecca around, but she was around anyway [as an executive producer]. We got to hang out."

Milner remarks that it was also "great" to feel Ferguson's absence in real life because it "completely fuels our storyline", and she adds: "So having that, knowing she's out there somewhere, somewhere just drives us even more."

Walter, who plays Juliette's mother figure Walker, also missed her on-screen partner: "I'd text her to say 'I miss you'. She'd occasionally visit us on set as the EP, she'd be around so you felt she wasn't far away, but we had a totally different trajectory and we were working in different areas and we were hearing about her exploits, and she was watching ours, so you felt somehow connected.

"I felt Walker does miss her, but I think Walker's character is that she doesn't dare hope, it takes a lot of courage to hope. She's been a coward about that, in life in general, so she doesn't dare hope that Juliette's still alive."

Solo, the man of mystery

When Ferguson's Juliette left the silo she embarked on her own journey to find out the truth about why the silo exists, and why they've been kept in the dark about what happened to Earth. Season one ends with her going over the hill, and the second season opens with her shortly after where she discovers another silo whose residents rebelled against their leaders and sought life aboveground.

They all died in the process, unfortunately, but Juliette soon discovers one person living in the silo behind a vault — Solo (Steve Zahn). He serves as the big mystery of the season, with Juliette trying to figure out if he is telling her the truth about why he is the only one left alive.

Ferguson and Zahn share scenes together almost exclusively in season 2, with the latter telling Yahoo UK how he and his co-star "hit it off immediately" when they began working together.

"We work very similarly, very serious when the cameras rolling and then when it stops we're just screwing around having fun, and that's how I like to work," Zahn says of Ferguson. "She is so much fun, she is so smart, over prepared, has an opinion and yet, at the same time, wears her emotion on her sleeve. What you see is what you get, and I really trust her.

That says a lot, and if you trust someone on set, especially if it's someone that you're primarily with the whole time, then the possibilities are endless, right? You can go anywhere, you can explore anything."

Zahn found Solo to be a fascinating character because he is "so extreme", in one moment he is shy and quiet and in the next he can explode with rage. It's a lot for Juliette to deal with on her own, especially while she's trying to find out what happened in his silo.

"How do you straddle the line?" Zahn reflects. "How far do you go? Is it the voice? I grew out my hair, I thought that was really interesting that he looked like this ferocious mountain man and yet he was timid and vulnerable, and kid-like."

For Silo creator Graham Yost, Solo is "the big thing" this season: "The mystery is what's going on with this Solo guy? Because some things he says does that just don't add up and Juliette picks up on it but she's got other things to do.

"Without teasing too much, there comes a point later in the season when solving that mystery becomes critically important for her and for Solo. What happens is something that is unexpected when you realise wait a second, Juliette could have done X, but instead she did Y and that just shows that this person is not interested in being a hero."

Rebellion in the silo

While Juliette deals with problems of her own, the residents of her original silo are also on the brink of collapse. Her walking out of the silo has stirred something in them, it's created a spark that could burn into a fiery rebellion against the powers that be.

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One of those powers is Common's Robert Sims, the head of security in Judicial who is propelled ever higher by Bernard in the wake of Juliette's exit from the silo.

"Robert Sims really cares about the silo, his family, and when you really want something and you believe that you are fit to serve a certain purpose and job and you keep getting pushed back it's tough," Common teases.

"I mean initially it was progress in his quest and then Bernard does resist him and puts him in places where he's not happy. It causes a lot of conflict within, especially when you are looking at things and you're feeling like things are going bad, we're not going in the right direction.

"It teaches you a lot about leadership in a certain way because sometimes leadership is also being able to humble yourself and know that you're not always right. But that's not where Sims is."

On the other side of that are characters like Knox and Shirley, who are determined to fight the battle that Juliette began. Of moving to the forefront of the story, Milner shares: "It's glorious, they are so driven and have a really clear mission and nothing will stop them. They have two completely different ways of going about it at the beginning, and then they have to get on board and work together."

What's it really like filming in the silo for days?

The dystopian thriller requires the cast to be indoors, in darkness or artificial light at all times, but while that might seem difficult in theory the cast admit it's quite fun in practice.

Robbins says its "the best" part of the job, adding: "I love it. There's no rain days, no late days because you're losing the light. It's a controlled environment, and so what happens is you wind up working the same amount of hours per day and you have – over the long term over five months – a crew that is taken care of, that has a real home life, that can go have dinner with their family or go out on a date.

"It creates a beautiful environment. It's hard to do five months of 14 hour days, that's inhumane and we don't do it. We we have like 10 hour days at the most. This has been probably one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had filming."

McRae feels similarly, adding: "It is fantastic, you get up at 5 and you go home at 7. You don't have to do the overnights."

It does have its downsides, though, as Milner points out: "I do remember one point of filming inside all day and coming out into the daylight and having that feeling like you're blinded!"

To which McRae concurred: "Going into the silo when it's dark and coming out and it's dark in the short days here in England, there were definitely moments where you're like, am I living in the silo? But I think that adds to it that we have to really lean on each other whilst filming."

Silo season 2 premieres on Friday, 15 November on Apple TV+.