T’Nia Miller Describes Motion Capture Experience Playing Jocasta in ‘VisionQuest’

Warning: Spoilers ahead for VisionQuest episode 4.

The fourth episode of VisionQuest, titled “Malware,” reveals who the Butcherbird Killer is. The killer first came up in a news report that Ultron (James Spader) was watching in episode 2, “Theseus.” The Butcherbird is a serial killer targeting the board members of Markridge Biotech. The AI technology company was sold to Stark Industries in 2008, back when Stark was still developing weapons. Markridge supplied Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) with the technology he needed to build his AI system, J.A.R.V.I.S. The same technology was used to create Ultron, which backfired, of course.

In episode 4, Vision (Paul Bettany) and the other AIs housed in his mind work out who the killer will go after next. The target is Katerina Wells (Mary McDonnell), the last surviving Markridge board member. To stop the attack, Vision, Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica) and Lisa Molinari (Lauren Morais) sneak into a gala where Wells is speaking. The rescue does not go as planned.

At the party, the Butcherbird turns out to be Jocasta, an AI based on Josephine Carrington. Carrington was a Markridge board member who died of illness in 2008, though not before she uploaded her consciousness into the Jocasta AI. Carrington/Jocasta is furious that her fellow board members sold her company to Stark, and as Jocasta she appears to be taking revenge. She also seems to be collecting biokeys from her victims for a larger plan that hasn’t been revealed yet.

Jocasta started as a robot bride to Ultron in the comics

The character is based on Jocasta Pym from Marvel Comics, and she differs quite a bit from her source. The changes were necessary because the Marvel Cinematic Universe altered Ultron’s origins. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner created Ultron. In the original comics, Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man (the version Michael Douglas plays in the movies), built him. Soon after, Ultron turned on the Avengers and became one of their most formidable opponents.

Pym used his own brainwaves to help create Ultron, so Ultron inherited Pym’s love for Janet Van Dyne, also known as the Wasp. Ultron eventually transferred Janet’s mind into a robot body he had built for her, giving himself the perfect mate. He named her Jocasta after the wife and mother of the legendary King Oedipus. Janet had helped build him, but she would also become his wife.

VisionQuest keeps very little of Jocasta’s origins

None of that resembles what VisionQuest does with Jocasta. Even the name has a new source. It combines the first and last name of Josephine Carrington (“Jo” and “ca”) with Stark (“sta”).

Despite the changes, Jocasta’s robot form looks a great deal like the comic book character. T’Nia Miller plays both the human Josephine Carrington and the robotic Jocasta, and she also supplied the motion capture performance for the robot. It was her first time working in motion capture. She described the experience when she spoke with Polygon recently.

“I was a bit nervous to begin with,” Miller admitted. “They put this thing on your head and all these dots on you.” After some initial hesitation, she found the process “really freeing.”

“It’s almost like being in theater or at drama school,” Miller said. “You’re just wearing your tracky bottoms and your T-shirt, and you can just move freely. And, because I’m playing a robot, I got to explore what that physicality looks like. We have this big room where I got to play with how she moves — where does she lead from?”

In the end, Miller felt the technology gave her more room to express herself through movement. “I think you can be bigger with it,” she said. “Although it does pick up my minute movements.”

Episode 4 shows the results of that experimenting in the fight between Vision and Jocasta. She lands some impressive kicks and punches and quickly gets the better of him. The fight only turns when Vision lets Ultron take control of his body. Ultron tricks Jocasta into blasting Wells, which disintegrates her and destroys the face key Jocasta needed for her plot. The move puts Ultron and Jocasta at odds. Still, I expect a romantic angle to develop between them as VisionQuest continues, because for all his emotional disconnect, Ultron seems smitten with Jocasta so far.

Source: Polygon