‘I lead one of TV’s biggest sci-fi shows, but no one recognises me’
‘I hope it never changes.'
You’d be forgiven for presuming that most actors enjoy being recognised by an adoring public.
After all, surely half the fun of being famous is to have crowds yell your name as you stagger out of the lobby of a fancy hotel or dodge autograph hunters in Leicester Square.
Well, that’s not what Lou Llobell wants from life.
Despite the fact that she plays Gaal Dornick on Apple TV Plus’s sci-fi juggernaut Foundation and is about to star in André Øvredal’s next unnamed horror movie, the 30-year-old enjoys her anonymity.
‘I was just in Sicily this last weekend,’ she tells Metro at an interview ahead of the release of Foundation season 3.
‘And on my flight there, I heard someone say, “Have you watched this show called Foundation?” I went, “Oh yeah, that’s me”.’
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Previous Page Next PageThe (presumably quite embarrassed) fan went on to tell Lou how much they adored the show, had ‘binged the first two seasons’ and couldn’t wait for the third.
It’s easy to agree with that fan. Foundation is an epic sci-fi saga based on the books by Isaac Asimov and tells the story of Gaal (Lou) and Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), who use advanced mathematics to predict the future.
Believing there’s a huge cataclysm on the way pair set up the titular Foundation to try and avert disaster. All caught up? Let’s get back to Lou and her fan encounter.
‘I hope I get to do all the jobs I want to do, and work and everything, and then no one knows who I am.’ (Picture: Duval/SOPA Images/Shutterstock)Now, you might think not being immediately recognised by the fan on the plane would bother Lou, but it didn’t bother her at all. In fact, she sees it as a bonus.
‘I hope it never changes,’ Lou said. ‘I hope I get to do all the jobs I want to do, and work and everything, and then no one knows who I am.’
‘It’s great because a lot of the fans on Foundation are not necessarily fans of me,’ she explained. ‘They’re fans of the show, and I love talking to fans because of how much they love it.’
Lou’s a modest person despite her success (Picture: Apple)This modesty, for lack of a better word, is part of what makes Lou so endearing.
Indeed, when I asked her how she first reacted to the news that she’d bagged a leading role in Foundation, she admitted to being in a kind of daze about the whole situation.
Apparently, when Foundation co-creator David S. Goyer told her she’d won the part, she replied ‘Okay.’
‘I think [David] was expecting a bit more of a reaction,’ she laughed. ‘I was like, “Okay, thank you”.’
It took a phone call to break Lou out of her stunned stupor and for the enormity of the job she’d taken on to start to set in – although she didn’t realise how much her life was going to change until she visited the set.
Lou works alongside veteran performers like Jared Harris (Picture: Patrick Redmond)‘I knew the scale, and I knew what everyone was anticipating,’ Lou explained. ‘But I don’t think it really hit me until I walked on set or did my first costume fitting’
‘I was like, “Is this what being an actor is? No one told me!” But it was amazing to see how it all came together.
‘That first day on set was jaw-dropping for me, and it’s so funny how adaptable human beings are because it’s now one of the places I’m most comfortable.’
Not that her growing comfort with TV and film sets has made her in any way complacent.
She always knew she wanted to be an actor (Picture: Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock)‘I always want to feel like I’m being kept on my toes and feel nervous because it drives me to show up and make sure I put my best foot forward,’ she said.
It’s good that Lou managed to adapt so quickly, as she was clear with me that acting was the only career she ever considered pursuing.
‘If this hadn’t worked out, I don’t know what I’d be doing,‘ she admitted. ‘It was this or nothing.’
Foundation season 3 will be available to stream on Apple TV Plus from July 11.
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