{"id":139950,"date":"2025-09-13T01:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T01:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139950\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T01:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T01:53:11","slug":"bayta-mallow-actor-synnove-karlsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139950\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayta Mallow Actor Synn\u00f8ve Karlsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foundation<\/a> season three just dropped its finale episode, \u201cThe Darkness,\u201d and it was jam-packed with reveals and twists<\/a>. When io9 got a chance to talk to Synn\u00f8ve Karlsen, who plays Bayta Mallow<\/a> on the Apple TV+ show, we didn\u2019t hesitate, since Bayta plays a crucial part in what happens in the climax, and there\u2019s no doubt she\u2019ll be having an impact on the show\u2019s just-announced fourth season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t watched \u201cThe Darkness\u201d yet, be warned! We talk spoilers galore.<\/p>\n

\"Io9spoiler\"<\/p>\n

\"Foundation\u00a9 Apple TV+ <\/p>\n

Foundation\u2018s season finale brought the long-awaited showdown between Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), head of the Second Foundation, and the mysterious Mule (Pilou Asb\u00e6k). And we don\u2019t use \u201clong-awaited\u201d lightly; Gaal literally put herself in stasis on and off for 152 years so she\u2019d be alive during the Mule\u2019s rise to power. She\u2019s been having vivid visions of their violent confrontation for years.<\/p>\n

So when the moment finally arrived in \u201cThe Darkness,\u201d viewers were shocked to find the Mule isn\u2019t the Mule at all. He\u2019s just a pirate being puppeted by the real Mule: Bayta Mallow (played by Karlsen), a rich socialite who\u2019s been hiding her true identity all season. Surprise!<\/p>\n

Cheryl Eddy, io9: In episode 10 we learn Bayta has a big secret. At what part in the process did you learn her true story?<\/p>\n

Synn\u00f8ve Karlsen: I learned fairly early on. When I was meeting for the role, they had kind of hinted there was something underneath that they hadn\u2019t revealed yet. And then once I officially signed on, they told me exactly who she really was, which was very exciting.<\/p>\n

io9: How did you infuse that into your performance? Were there any specific moments leading up to episode 10 that felt like hints to the audience?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: It\u2019s really difficult because as I was playing her, she [was] just acting in complete honesty and truth to what she believes in. There\u2019s just one thing that she holds back throughout, so it\u2019s this unspoken thing that she just doesn\u2019t say. I\u2019d say that across the board it was quite easy to play along in a really genuine way, because these were all goals that she really, truly wanted.<\/p>\n

What was harder were moments when, say, [the balladeer] Magnifico\u2019s playing the visi-sonor, or Magnifico\u2019s talking about his relationship to the captain. Nobody\u2019s looking at Bayta, and the camera\u2019s on Bayta. And I think in those moments, I just let her feel how she would have felt. Luckily, there were no lines, so it didn\u2019t give anything away.<\/p>\n

But I definitely think for the viewer, once they know the reveal, when you go back and watch it, it\u2019ll be pretty obvious. There will be some real moments to stick out. I mean, as a viewer of it myself, although I\u2019m in it, when I watch it back, I\u2019ve been like, \u201cOh, god, this is so obvious!\u201d But luckily, I don\u2019t think that many people have kind of caught on to the reveal yet. So hopefully I kept it subtle enough.<\/p>\n

io9: When she says, \u201cI\u2019m the Mule\u201d\u2014what are the emotions she\u2019s feeling right then? What was it like making that scene?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: There were quite a few iterations of that scene, just in terms of length and how the reveal is played out. Ultimately, I think it becomes something of\u2014it\u2019s sort of like when something painful needs to be said, there\u2019s no masking it. You have to say what it is and it felt like a catharsis, really, for me as an actor, and I think for Bayta.<\/p>\n

I think she\u2019s truly a good person who believes in what she\u2019s doing; it\u2019s just she hasn\u2019t been able to say this one truth and she\u2019s been holding on to it for so long. I think the [pirate] describes it as a pre-ordained consummation, so everyone is finally in this room and she\u2019s been waiting for this moment our whole life. To be confronted with Gaal and to have Toran and Magnifico and all these people around her and the pirate dead, it\u2019s this moment of \u201cOh, this is what I\u2019ve been waiting for. And I\u2019m so happy that I can finally be honest about who I am.\u201d So that\u2019s how it felt for me playing it.<\/p>\n

\"Foundation\"Toran (Cody Fern) and Bayta. \u00a9 Apple TV+ <\/p>\n

io9: She says, \u201cI\u2019m going to explain all of it, I promise,\u201d to Toran, but we don\u2019t get to hear that, beyond the flashback that shows it was her childhood, not the Mule\u2019s, that we saw in episode seven. Can you kind of walk us through what you think her plan looked like?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: I had ideas. I think there\u2019s like a really kind of\u2014I don\u2019t really know how to describe it, but kind of like a feral side to Bayta. She has come up through such hardship that she can be super ruthless when she needs to be, and I think she\u2019s also not afraid to almost sell herself in certain ways to be seen and to become famous.<\/p>\n

Her backstory was quite important to me in terms of figuring out kind of how she found Toran. I imagine that it was, as I said, a really difficult path. But she obviously had this power that she was kind of crafting and coming to terms with and trying to understand and use to her favor.<\/p>\n

I think she met the pirate and it felt quite fortuitous, because he was this person who didn\u2019t really care about being a complete brute. She could use him as a pawn and then also claim rightly or wrongly that she wasn\u2019t in control of him in his entirety, so for any of the truly awful things that he did, she can kind of not take the blame for, in a way. Yes, definitely an interesting backstory, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

\"FoundationPilou Asb\u00e6k as \u201cthe Mule.\u201d \u00a9 Apple TV+ <\/p>\n

io9: Did you work with Pilou Asb\u00e6k at all to sort of align your characters?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: Yeah, definitely. We chatted a lot. And I studied his scenes almost in the same way that I would study my own scenes, because I was so fascinated by what his character was really doing and the purpose he was serving for Bayta. But as I said, it was quite intentional that she chose someone like him, because she can kind of be absconded from the blame in terms of the kind of terror and cruelty that he enacts.<\/p>\n

So it was important to me to find something of a similarity in them but also it was just interesting to see the way that he played it. I also watched a lot of his scenes. I\u2019d come and watch him on set and see what he was doing. Because I think there\u2019s a dual awareness in Bayta, and you don\u2019t really know what\u2019s true and what isn\u2019t. It was interesting for me to have that darkness, almost, in her, that this person is out there doing these things and she\u2019s kind of aware of it but kind of not fully in control of it.<\/p>\n

io9: You get the sense early in the season that people underestimate her. She comes off as sort of vapid, and as a result people don\u2019t realize how intelligent she is. Do you think she deliberately leans into that?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: Totally, yeah. And it\u2019s in that that she has so much power in a way because she\u2019s so, as you said, semi-vapid. But once you know\u2014I mean, it was so exciting for me reading the scripts, because when you have the knowledge of who she really is, there\u2019s such a different weight to it. You realize how it\u2019s completely not vapid and it\u2019s completely powerful and kind of amazing.<\/p>\n

io9: Bayta is a character in the Asimov books, though her story is changed a lot for the show, as is the Mule reveal\u2014in the books it\u2019s Magnifico, not Bayta, who\u2019s revealed as the Mule in disguise. Are you anticipating what the audience reaction might be?<\/p>\n

Karlsen: I\u2019m not sure. That\u2019s something I\u2019m a little bit nervous about, but I\u2019m very excited. I think that this is an exciting change. I think that the show has done really well in putting female perspectives into a genre that isn\u2019t traditionally led by many women. So I think that it\u2019s a great twist and I think that it\u2019s exciting. And also, I think it\u2019s fun to be kept on your toes. It\u2019s fun to be entertained and to be shocked and I think this definitely does that. So I hope that diehard fans of the books aren\u2019t too disappointed\u2014but they\u2019re actually excited by this change that\u2019s been made.<\/p>\n

Foundation season three is now streaming on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foundation season three just dropped its finale episode, \u201cThe Darkness,\u201d and it was jam-packed with reveals and twists.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,27333,75384,348],"class_list":["post-139950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-foundation","tag-synnove-karlsen","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}