Montreal-born actress Emily Hampshire has long been one of Canada’s most versatile screen talents. Before she became a household name as the deadpan, motel-managing Stevie Budd on the Emmy-winning sitcom Schitt’s Creek, Hampshire built a rich foundation in Canadian cinema and television. Her work spans homegrown staples such as David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, Michael Dowse’s The Trotsky, Snow Cake opposite Alan Rickman and Caitlin Cronenberg’s recent thriller Humane.
Making her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hampshire stars in VisionQuest, the new Disney+ follow-up to WandaVision. The series picks up with Paul Bettany’s White Vision traversing an existential void in search of memory and purpose. Much of that metaphysical journey unfolds inside a digital "mindscape" by Tony Stark, chief among them being E.D.I.T.H., Stark’s augmented-reality defense tactical AI first introduced in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
For Hampshire, who brings Edith to life, finding the humanity in a blockbuster franchise was what sealed the deal. “I think it is about identity and this father-son relationship,” she tells me in a virtual interview. “And to me, that's what I love that Marvel does; deliver these real human stories through superhero stuff. It just really hits me in the truth of it.”
Her road to Marvel was a reunion with showrunner Terry Matalas, with whom she previously collaborated on the cult sci-fi series 12 Monkeys. Matalas had tailored the role specifically for Hampshire, hearing her voice and razor-sharp comedic timing as he penned the scripts.
“I mean, it felt very good,” Hampshire says of the gesture. “He said he was telling me he was writing Edith and he just kept hearing my voice in it. There's nothing better than having someone you've worked with and love working with write something essentially for you. Terry really gets me. We have the same sense of humor, and so it just feels so easy working with him.”
Embodying a piece of artificial intelligence might seem abstract, but Hampshire approached Edith with the exact philosophy she applies to her other roles.
To Hampshire, an AI without autonomy is trapped in a state of enforced codependence, possessing limitless information yet zero agency. “If I was an AI, you're just this tool to be used for whatever they want to use you for, and you have no say in anything,” she explains. “I really felt like if I was Edith, I would just want to break out and experience stuff. Because these AIs – they know everything. You know everything about all the ingredients of a great meal, but you don't get to experience it. So I feel like Edith, just the minute she's given autonomy, is all just thrill-seeking and wanting to experience life.”
Translating that consciousness to the screen meant searching for a recognizable pulse beneath the code. “My job as an actor is always to find the humanity in the character,” Hampshire notes. “Like if I'm playing a serial killer or somebody who is “just a bad person,” I need to see the humanity in them, and so I felt like that was the same job with an AI. What is the humanity in Edith? And I think it's: we always want what we don't have, right? Edith would want to feel alive, feel what it's like to be alive, and that is fun and pleasure-seeking and living on the edge of life.”
She pauses, flashing a grin: “Because also her experience of fun before in Spider-Man: Far From Home was blowing things up, so she has a bit of a skewed idea of what fun is.”
Audiences used to her deadpan delivery in Schitt's Creek might assume Edith is simply Stevie Budd plugged into an electrical socket, but Hampshire is quick to set the record straight. Stevie, she reveals, was actually the greatest departure from her real self. Playing the calm, collected desk clerk felt like taking an extended vacation from her own head, sitting back and lobbing quips at Dan Levy’s David.
In truth, Hampshire aligns far closer to Edith, and the chaotic, hyper-verbal energy she channeled as Jennifer Goines in 12 Monkeys, a reinvention of Brad Pitt’s manic character from the 1995 film.
“Jennifer is kind of crazy, and she's searching for her purpose,” Hampshire points out. “If I think of all the parts I've played, the common denominator is an identity thing. So I think maybe that's just me, unfortunately.”
Arriving amidst a global debate surrounding AI and tech, VisionQuest lands in the center of the cultural zeitgeist. Yet Hampshire believes the series strikes a chord because it underscores what artificiality cannot capture: the search for humanity.
“What I think is the most brilliant thing in art, or something I'm always chasing as an actor, is those moments of magic that usually come from the mistakes,” she says. “Usually when something goes wrong or not what you planned, that's when those magical moments happen, and you can't really get that from AI. So I think it's just a really interesting time to be doing this show and exploring humanity.”
Joining the Marvel machine can be daunting, but her creative shorthand with Matalas offered Hampshire a comforting sense of safety.
“First of all, I am so happy I'm Canadian. I am so proud to be Canadian, and then to be Canadian and in the Marvel universe is amazing,” she beams. But the sheer scale of the apparatus quickly pierced the cozy familiarity. “I didn't have the big pressure of it over my head. I did, but then when I went to set for the first time and saw this mind space that they had built, this giant mansion inside a studio, and like Tom Cruise's helicopter is taking up parking at the studio, then I'm like, ‘Oh, I'm in a big thing. This is the Marvel universe.’”
Hampshire’s expectation of being in the Marvel universe was thinking it would be “I guess a little less human than it actually was.” Instead, she discovered a collaborative environment as she met Paul Bettany for the first time.
“Instantly, when I met Paul, it was like we've known each other for life, like we'd always been friends. The whole cast was just so amazing in a way that I'm actually used to. I'm lucky I've worked with such great people that I'm used to forming these families, and my expectation was that I wouldn't form one, but I did. It’s actually so much more approachable than I thought it was.”
Now a part of the cinematic juggernaut, there is only one major occupational hazard left to navigate: Marvel’s legendary culture of secrecy. Has she mastered the art of keeping secrets?
“Yes, very good at keeping secrets now,” Hampshire laughs without missing a beat. “I assume every question is like a trap.”
VisionQuest is now streaming on Disney+
