
Surface marks the third project between Apple and Witherspoon‘s Hello Sunshine banner, which is also behind the Octavia Spencer drama Truth Be Told and the music competition series My Kind of Country. I may have missed Truth Be Told this year, but I was a big fan of The Morning Show, and Mbatha-Raw‘s performance especially.
I’ve been following her career for more than a decade, ever since she was cast on J.J. Abrams‘ series Undercovers. And I know she was the female lead on that show, but she was hardly “Gugu Mbatha-Raw” yet, as American audiences had little familiarity with her. She has blossomed into a true star since those days, and Surface sounds like a great opportunity for her, though I do wish that the notoriously secretive Apple had released a logline.
Surface will arrive on the heels of Mbatha-Raw‘s Marvel series Loki, and there may be another streaming series she has a small role in that has yet to be announced for some reason. The actress earned raves for her turns in the “San Junipero” installment of Black Mirror and Amma Asante‘s Belle, and she recently worked with first-time directors Edward Norton and Julia Hart on Motherless Brooklyn and Fast Color, respectively. Her feature credits also include A Wrinkle in Time as well as Beauty and the Beast, and she’ll soon be seen as the lead in Seacole opposite Sam Worthington.
via Collider