Sabrina Wu feature images by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Sabrina Wu is taking their range to the depths of space. The writer, actor, and comedian known for their roles in Joy Ride, Abbott Elementary, and Netflix’s Verified Stand-Up is voyaging across the stars with a not-so-homicidal robot in the Apple TV+ sci-fi dark comedy series Murderbot.

The series centers on a group of eccentric research scientists on the PreservationAux who embark on an expedition with a service bot SecUnit (played by Alexander Skarsgård) programmed to protect. Instead it hacked its own system, gained self-control, and called itself Murderbot. But, it would much rather be carefree, watching its favorite TV shows, than killing anyone or providing support to the PreservationAux crew.

In the series, Wu plays Pin-Lee, a lawyer within the PreservationAux crew who is married to the team biologist Arada (Tattiawna Jones). Pin-Lee finds themselves in a contracted polycule with their wife and scientist Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) as they face off against treacherous creatures with the rest of their crew.

Following the two-episode series premiere on Apple TV+, Wu hopped on a Zoom call with me and chatted all things Muderbot. They discussed doing their first stunt, exploring their romantic side on-camera, and the advice Alexander Skarsgård gave them when homaging one of his iconic red carpet looks at the show’s world premiere.

Rendy: So please tell me how did you get involved with Murderbot? What interested you about this project from an actor’s perspective?

Sabrina: I got involved because I had actually worked with the production company Depth the Field before. I was in this FX pilot that they were putting together in 2022, and then the project didn’t go, but I still had a relationship with them and then they had me audition for Pin-Lee. But Apple is so secret. I had no idea what I was auditioning for, apart from just some kind of vague space lawyer is what they told me. And then once I got the role, I read the books and I was legit just blown away at how funny the books were. I just haven’t seen such a dry sarcastic sensibility with this kind of hero sci-fi stories. And then I also just really liked that it was in the tradition of I felt like Octavia Butler, where it’s like, “oh, this is a queer imagining of the future.” So I don’t know. I just thought it was a really sweet, funny, different world. I also, obviously every comedian who becomes an actor, their dream is to get to work on something with action to move beyond an ‘It’s always Sunny’ kind of comedy. I believe there was already an opportunity for me to be in a spaceship and shoot guns, and it just made me happier that it was genuinely funny source material. It didn’t feel kind of overly familiar Marvel stuff.

Rendy: Part of the charm of the series is the camaraderie between the crew and their relationship with Murderbot, that little found family.

Sabrina: I was like, damn. I’m in a lot of gay communities in Brooklyn and we are not that nice. I wish we were that nice to each other. I was like, this is the utopia. I thought the Brooklyn alt comedy scene was going to be and it is not.

Rendy: No, exactly. No, please say that with your chest.

Sabrina: I was like, wait, these gays are not trying to kill each other. You’re not lying for a single spot. No, exactly.

Rendy: They’re all just on a spaceship just wanting to explore and go home.

Sabrina: They’re more valid and they mean it this time.

Rendy: Haha! Please tell me about depicting that sense of community between your cast members.

Sabrina: It was kind of hard for me. I remember sometimes we would cut and I’d be like, “I need to shake this all out,” because it’s so earnest. And thankfully, I think Pin-Lee as a character is one of the more on-the-spectrum of like Gurathin [David Dastmalchian] to Ratthi [Akshay Khanna]. I don’t have to play them so unabashedly earnest and sweet — they have some bite and edge and sarcasm to them as well. But I was like, it’s crazy. The cast is filled with theater actors who I think are some of the most earnest people susceptible to joining cults. I couldn’t even tell if Noma [Dumezweni], who plays Mensa, I was like, are you on Mushroom chocolates right now or are you just kind of a theater actor? I couldn’t tell because of the way they were just so open and like feeling. It was kind of challenging, but I feel like it opened me up as a person and also helped me grow as an actor to be so sweet in that way. Although I do feel like I end up playing a lot of very sweet characters in general. This might be the meanest, hardest character I have played TBH.

Rendy: You depict so much range in the show. You’re dealing with different VX type stuff. You’re dealing with being more action oriented and, as you said, having a hard edge. Tell me about finding that dramatic range as opposed to your comedic background.

Sabrina: I think the key is to just not, at least for me, it was to not always try to be fishing for laughs, which was something that was a struggle for a while. That’s how I knew I was doing a good job was if I was getting laughs. And that was really tricky. And then the other thing that was tricky about this show is there are so many men in green suits holding a tennis ball and, me, expected to not make fun of it, and just earnestly be scared as if my life was on the line. It sort of gets morphed into this montage, but how do people really react to genuine life threatening stress since Pin-Lee is so straight laced? It’s sort of in the show, but Pin-Lee uncontrollably laughs during stress and it really worked. One cool moment I had was just realizing, oh, “I am feeling like my character would laugh in that moment” and being able to take big swings because it is also easy to be melodramatic when you haven’t really done a ton of stuff like that.

Rendy: Your character Pin-Lee, they find themselves in a nice little polycule with their wife Arada and Ratthi, and it’s depicted in a positive light. How was it to portray something that is divisive in our culture, but in this futuristic lens is so positive?

Sabrina: As somebody who has been poly, I was like, “Damn, people hate us. I actually can’t do this anymore. I just feel too alone trying to do this thing.” But I did. That was one thing I did appreciate about the show is just that there are contracts or these agreements, and also it’s not like everybody is equally on board. It felt like all the jokes that were about polycules were from the perspective of someone who really does know poly people or knows that world. For me, I was just like, “I cannot believe art is reflecting my life right now.” I don’t want to be in this polycule, which is great because I don’t think my character super wanted to be in that polycule either.

But yeah, it was nice to see a polycule story where I felt like we were still very much people. I think sometimes in comedies it’ll be like, you meet a throuple and you’re not really meeting the individuals in the throuple. They’re just one big joke. “That’s the throuple, LOL.” So I think that was cool. And I love my queer community and I love the poly community and the sort of way, I don’t know, I’m like, Hey, good luck to y’all. Sorry. I tried. I earnestly have tried.

Oh, I don’t know if you know this, but I didn’t get to have any sex in Joy Ride. So I was excited to be depicted having sex. Obviously this is a long journey for me, so I guess it makes sense that when I have sex on screen, I’m just fully being cucked. Maybe next time I’ll be the cuck-er.

Rendy: Even though you wrote on a show literally called Dying for Sex.

Sabrina: That’s true. That’s true.

Rendy: Tell me about your highly anticipated stunt moment from one of the later episodes. I remember you texting me how excited you were about it.

Sabrina: I fully got to do a stunt where they harnessed me and I got picked up and suspended in the air momentarily. I honestly felt like Tom Cruise. It was really cool. I mean, that was one of the coolest parts. I was so excited to do so much fight choreography and, honestly, I legit feared for my life. Is that fair to say?

Rendy: No, that’s fair to say.

Sabrina: It wasn’t necessarily the pickup that really scared me. It was like we kept having to throw ourselves on the ground with rocks and all the stunt teams were there. I felt safe, but I was just like, wait, I thought there’d be a lot more foam padding. I didn’t know we were just literally throwing ourselves on rocks.

There was a moment where I was just suspended between these two ropes. I felt like when you’re a kid on the playground and you’re riding that one swing that is virtually a diaper. That is how it felt. I felt like a child being picked up by adult men and thrown around like a little baby. And sometimes the ropes would get all twisted when you’re a kid and they would have to unspin you, because you’re a child.

Rendy: It’s like I’m ready for my parents to get me now.

Sabrina: But I am like, “Hey, for future people, I want to keep doing stunts.” I was an amazing high school athlete. I won my high school athletic award. I can do it. I love to run around.

Rendy: Tell me about your iconic fit at the premiere. It was the talk of the town that you were homaging one of Alexander’s old fits. What was the inspiration behind that? What was his reaction?

Sabrina: Oh my God. It was the talk of the town. But it was funniest when people did not know what I was referencing, and they’d be like, “I love this, whatever this is.” I think Anna Konkle was like, “okay????”

Honestly, me and my team, we were like, “we want people to see the show and Alex is so amazing,” and how can we just capture the fact that we are all just silly, fun, and we’re this big family when we were on set. I don’t necessarily like to do ‘sexy.’ It’s not really my thing. Also the show is called Murderbot and I wanted to highlight how fun it is rather than serious murder-y sci-fi. Basically me and my team were just like, “oh my God, we love Alex.” Then it was like, the funniest thing about him is that his IMDB page is still just him pantless. And then I was like, “Should I go pantless?” I was completely kidding. But then someone went, that would be an amazing stunt. I texted Alex being like, “how would you feel if I did an homage?” And he was like, “Nothing would make me happier. Do not forget the sock garters.” And then I was like, “We’ve gotten the A-okay from the man himself.” Then I didn’t talk to him the entire time. I kind of wanted him to forget that I was doing it.

I think 10 minutes before the premiere, I just sent him a photo of just the sock garter, a little sexy teaser, and he was just like, “I love you so much.” And then something in Swedish and I didn’t know what it was, and then I translated it and it was basically the Swedish translation for ‘Alex Skarsgård has Haha-reacted to your photo.” I was like, oh, he’s just a green-text user. I was like, what is this Swedish code he sent me? Then we met each other at the premiere and he giggled. I also think the look turned out quite good, a proper homage. The truth was also when we were putting it on, everyone was like, please do not wear whitey tidies. For real. It is too much. I don’t have Alex’s body, so we had these cute little bloomers that I thought were awesome.” Anyways, that’s my long-winded story of how that came to be and how Alex reacted. He reacted like a boss. He was awesome.

Rendy: What were some things that you did on your downtime while shooting?

Sabrina: All of us were pretty good at hanging out and we would legit play improv games like mindmeld. It was really cute. Oh my God, there were a lot of dance breaks. Tattiawna [Jones], who plays Arada legit, loves Slim Shady. She was a late millennial, and so we would have Slim Shady breaks where everyone was just rapping along to old school Eminem. But also, separately, while I was in Toronto where we shot, I joined a lot of gay sports leagues. I was in the community and also played pickleball, and then stand up. Classic Sabrina.

Rendy: Not you being a fellow pickleball player.

Sabrina: My God. It’s like my whole life now, unfortunately.

Rendy: Given this being such a new form, genre, or venture for you, where else would you love genres to play in?

Sabrina: I kind of want to be in some kind of thriller. And ultimately I want to do a Little Miss Sunshine kind of show tonally. But yeah, my dream is to play someone a little bit evil because I think I come across so sweet. Somebody kind of manipulative or at the top of their intelligence I think would be fun. But also I just want to work.

Rendy: Considering how Murderbot’s entire personality is ‘I just want to watch my show. It’s my favorite thing in the world.’ It keeps quoting the show to everyone around it, so I want to know what is your Sanctuary Moon?

Sabrina: Fuck Joss Whedon, but it’s definitely Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Rendy: Really? That’s fun. Was that one of your favorite shows growing up and everything?

Sabrina: It was the show I watched the most. I had a lesbian Spanish teacher who was like, you would love this show, and I was like, “Okay, whatever.” And then I binged it on my phone an entire summer, and I think I’ve watched it all the way through three times at this point. Rewatched it during the pandemic. Anytime there’s a very stressful period, I watch it and then I’ll watch Angel just to see the same characters. I just get teary eyed at the intro song. I love the show so much. I love the characters, and it is a little campy, I don’t know.

Rendy: Oh, so campy. Peak nineties.

Sabrina: Peak nineties, but it’s just like you love the characters. I don’t know. These days, it is hard to find true characters where you’re just like, ‘I care about them so much and I feel their pain!’ It’s a lot of watching rich people eat themselves. I feel like right now TV is a lot of watching people you hate versus people you deeply love.

Murderbot is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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