{"id":472708,"date":"2026-06-11T22:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/472708\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:04:13","slug":"star-citys-agnes-ocasey-and-anna-maxwell-martin-on-soviet-severity-fighting-for-trousers-and-furry-hats-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/472708\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Star City’s’ Agnes O’Casey and Anna Maxwell Martin on Soviet severity, fighting for trousers and furry hats (interview)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For All Mankind’s<\/a>” new spinoff, “Star City<\/a>,” is a certified hit and another brilliant gem in Apple TV\u2019s imposing crown of science fiction shows that includes “Foundation,” “Silo,” “Pluribus,” and “Invasion.” Viewers finally get to see the Space Race from the Soviet perspective inside the heavily guarded walls of the secret cosmonaut training city.<\/p>\n

Created by Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi<\/a>, “Star City” is nearing the midpoint of its 8-episode inaugural season and its dark and enthralling peek within the heart of the USSR\u2019s space program. We chatted with two of its stars, Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Star City’s chilling KGB security commander, Col. Lyudmilla Raskova, and Agnes O\u2019Casey, who portrays her surveillance department protege Irina Morozova (whom we’ve seen as an older woman in “For All Mankind”), to learn more about absorbing the cold atmosphere of 1970s life behind the Iron Curtain.<\/p>\n

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“I have loved playing someone who\u2019s so eccentric, because she’s got such a lid on things and trying so hard to control everything about herself, that her impulses that do come up are so strong and so left of field at times,” O\u2019Casey tells Space. “Like maybe torturing someone.<\/p>\n

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“We’re both very lucky with the characters we’ve got to play. The way that Matt and Ben write, we’re just people. It doesn\u2019t feel too gendered. It’s not a big deal that they\u2019re women in their fields. They’re just sort of surviving and ruthless. It’s a really exciting script to get to work on.”<\/p>\n

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Agnes O\u2019Casey as the younger version of “For All Mankind’s” Irina Morozova in “Star City” (Image credit: Apple TV)<\/p>\n

Martin’s transformation into the monstrous KGB surveillance chief and decorated World War II veteran is a remarkable achievement, and the actor is relishing her part.<\/p>\n

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“I love playing Lyudmilla, she’s an absolute hoot,” Martin reveals before discussing her research process for the role. “I didn’t look at fiction. I think we both kind of read about that period of time, that history. There\u2019s a book we both delved into, which was a sort of verbatim account of people living in the Soviet Union, and that gave you a flavor of what it was like to be a Soviet person. I also read a book about \u2014 it wasn\u2019t a gulag, but it was a female prison \u2014 and that was a pretty awful book. Mind you, there\u2019s female prisons everywhere, but that wasn\u2019t a very jolly book.”<\/p>\n

In terms of costumes helping to achieve an authenticity from which to establish their personas, O’Casey and Martin ponder the questions of wardrobe choices and the necessity of whether or not to break character once the cameras stopped rolling.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

“If Irina is completely disembodied, I think she’d like to be in trousers and flats, but she dresses the part and wears her pencil skirts,” O\u2019Casey adds. “She\u2019s not thinking about fashion. Her life is as convenient as it can be. She\u2019s wearing a costume and not thinking about how she looks. We would\u2019ve had a terrible time if we’d stayed in character. We would have crawled home.”<\/p>\n

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Anna Maxwell Martin as the emotionless Col. Lyudmilla Raskova in “Star City” (Image credit: Apple TV)<\/p>\n

Martin’s crowded schedule of off-screen tasks gave her ample excuses to step away from Lyudmilla\u2019s brutal regimen of torture, and she was not going to wear a skirt!<\/p>\n

“I’m too busy doing things like organizing transport for my children, locating their whereabouts, doing online shopping, and seeing if the dog has been walked that day,” she notes. “So I can\u2019t possibly stay in character, and I couldn\u2019t do those things as Lyudmilla. I could, and actually, if I did those things as Lyudmilla, they might be done more efficiently, actually, now thinking on that.<\/p>\n

“I really pushed and was insistent that I was not to be in a skirt. And I think at first Matt and Ben were like, ‘Uh, she\u2019s in a skirt.’ She\u2019s not, she’s in trousers. And I fought really hard for that, as did Nicole [Fischnaller], our head of costume. Lyudmilla was a tank commander, I just don\u2019t think she\u2019d be wafting around in a skirt. I wanted her to feel genderless. I had a furry hat at one point that I also fought for. In hindsight, now that I see it on the big screen, I think maybe it was a mistake.”<\/p>\n

“Star City<\/a>” season 1 streams exclusively on Apple TV.<\/p>\n

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