In Marvel Television’s VisionQuest, Emily Hampshire brings E.D.I.T.H. to life as an AI with an unusual mission: helping Vision rediscover the joys of being alive.
Best known for her comedic performance as Stevie in Schitt’s Creek, the Canadian actress steps into the MCU as an AI who first appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home, when Tony Stark gave Peter Parker access to a powerful global network through a pair of high-tech glasses. Now reprogrammed for fun, E.D.I.T.H. is a thrill-seeker with 21 costume changes, a penchant for chaos, and a growing curiosity about the human experience.
Created with Hampshire’s voice in mind by VisionQuest showrunner Terry Matalas, E.D.I.T.H. is far more than a collection of algorithms and weapons. She is a restless personality trying to understand what it means to live rather than simply observe.
In our conversation with Hampshire, we discuss finding the humanity in an AI, the significance of E.D.I.T.H.’s ever-changing costumes, and the relationship between comedy and tragedy. The actress also reflects on how her character’s origins shape her identity, what makes James Spader such an extraordinary scene partner, and why a story about artificial intelligence can ultimately reveal so much about ourselves.
‘VisionQuest’ – Interview with Terry Matalas, Paul Bettany and James Spader
A little bit about E.D.I.T.H. She is an artificial intelligence, but VisionQuest asks very human questions about identity, memory, selfhood, and all those other things. So what drew you to that aspect of the character?
Well, I mean, my job as an actor is to find the humanity in the character. And so I was like, you know, even if I’m playing a serial killer, find the humanity. And so how do you do that with an AI? I kind of went where I always do: What must it be like to be an AI?
And the more I thought about that, the more I was like, oh, you’re just trapped in—you’re a tool for somebody else. You are constantly told what to do. You have all the information. You have, like, all the ingredients to the greatest pizza in the world, and you don’t get to experience it. So, actually, this character of E.D.I.T.H. was the most alive I’ve ever felt in a part because of that desire to be, like, in on life and to experience life.
So how does it feel to play the character with the most costume changes in VisionQuest? And can you tell us a little bit about some of them?
It feels the absolute best because I have the most of everyone combined. Also, I’m the type of actor where, like, hair, makeup, and wardrobe do 50% of my work for me. On this, they did maybe, I’d say, like, 98%. But what I love about it is that it really informs who E.D.I.T.H. is, because you have to be like, why is she constantly in a new costume? She’s trying on these roles and trying to find her purpose in Vision’s life, in a way.
You know, she’s in this house with F.R.I.D.A.Y., who’s socialization, and J.A.R.V.I.S., who is security, and those are really important things. And she’s like, “My job is fun,” and that’s the first thing, like, you get rid of. In school, like, gym is gone, art is gone. So she’s constantly trying to demonstrate value to Vision. And I think part of that is like, “Oh, here, look over here. You want to go fast?” She becomes an F1 driver or whatever.
But, oh, my favorite costume is—there’s this bag I have, this backpack that they made a little—I think it’s outside. I wish I had it here. But it’s this bag that E.D.I.T.H. wears, this backpack, and then they made a little E.D.I.T.H. with her own backpack on it. It’s like the greatest thing in the world. I kept it.
Where would you like to see her go from there? What would you be most excited to explore if you get to play her again?
I would love to see E.D.I.T.H. go back to Spider-Man because I think they’ve grown, you know? He’s grown a lot since he was a teenage boss for her, and she has had a lot of experiences. So I think seeing them together again would be—actually seeing her in her physical form with him would be really fun, for me in particular.
Right now many people are awaiting Avengers: Doomsday. Perhaps—I’m sure it’s going to be one of the biggest movies of this year. Do you think it’s important to see this show before Doomsday?
Absolutely. I think it’s required viewing. It kind of feels like the—oh no, I wouldn’t—I was going to say, like, the opening band to the, like, big movie, but, like, no. I would say you cannot see Doomsday without seeing this show, which I’m probably going to get in a lot of trouble for. But I just, I think people should see this show because it’s so good, and it’s very nice to be promoting something that you actually think is amazing.
So, but in all truth, like, I don’t know anything. I haven’t seen Doomsday. I don’t know about it. So you probably don’t have to see it, but yeah.
What it’s like to be part of Marvel, even if it’s a television show. How is it to be part of a Marvel TV show? And it’s not even just a TV show. It’s like the third chapter of this trilogy. How do you feel about becoming part of this?
Amazing. The only thing that I don’t love about it is that people keep talking about it being the end of the trilogy, and I’m like, “I just got here. I don’t want it to end.” But the good thing is maybe E.D.I.T.H. can, like your question before, can go on.
But, I mean, joining the MCU is like nothing else. You’re joining a whole universe. And I was very lucky to come into it the way I did, which was that I had done a TV show called 12 Monkeys a long time ago with Terry Matalas, our showrunner, and he said that when he was writing E.D.I.T.H., he kept hearing my voice, slash Jennifer Goines’ voice from the show we did together. And so my entry into this daunting universe was through Terry, so it did feel like going home a bit.
Since the production of this show began, the conversation about AI has become much more intense. Did that change anything in developing or working on this topic?
No. I mean, it didn’t change anything in the show or for me, except that, in this time, and this show is coming out right when it’s all in the zeitgeist, I can’t believe how this show about robots, essentially, is the most human thing I feel I’ve ever been a part of. And, like, E.D.I.T.H. is the character I’ve felt the most human and alive in.
Yeah, because, I mean, I guess when you’re playing an actual human, you’re not like, “I want to feel alive,” because you are alive. But with E.D.I.T.H., you know, she just wants to experience everything that makes zero sense. Like, she can understand anything except: Why do humans fall in love? Like, why do they cry? It’s all those things that, like, don’t actually make a lot of evolutionary sense. I’m sure there’s a reason for it, but it just seems like it doesn’t make sense.
How did you prepare for the role of E.D.I.T.H.? Did you have to see any of the old films or TV shows? Did you have to do physical training? And what was the greatest challenge of the role?
So I definitely watched everything from the beginning because I hadn’t before. But mainly I focused on Spider-Man: Far From Home because that’s, like, E.D.I.T.H.’s birth story.
And I really needed to find the E.D.I.T.H. we meet in VisionQuest, because the E.D.I.T.H. you meet in Spider-Man: Far From Home—the voice—you would never expect that voice to be the E.D.I.T.H. you meet. And I think—so I’m like, how did that happen?
And if you think about it, or at least I thought about it, Tony Stark bottled his energy and put it inside a pair of sunglasses, called her E.D.I.T.H. for “Even Dead, I’m the Hero,” which is a little Stark’s ego, and she had access to the most dangerous weapons, and he gave her to a teenager.
So basically, she’s been trapped in glasses with a teenager for a boss, in a job that is—you’ve got to be very tactical, and if you make one mistake, like, things blow up. So I’m like, what would she be like when she breaks out of these glasses? And that is the E.D.I.T.H. you meet in VisionQuest.
It is—she just wants to have fun, but her idea of fun is blowing things up. And it’s just this—like, E.D.I.T.H. in Spider-Man is E.D.I.T.H. at work in her very corporate job, and VisionQuest is like the weekend.
There’s a lot of inherited trauma and inherited identity in the story. How did you approach the idea that E.D.I.T.H. is this strong individual while also carrying traces of someone’s life and loss?
So this is a—it’s a spoiler, right? You’re going to release this after the fourth episode? Yes. Okay, so you won’t get me fired right now.
I thought that was the most genius thing, because I didn’t know about it until we got the script for it in, you know, when we’re in the fourth month or something. And so it was news to me, and I thought it was so smart because E.D.I.T.H. is the fun one, right? And to have the source of that be from tragedy makes so much sense to me.
I’ve always thought of comedy as kind of the cry of the powerless. Like, I discovered comedy when I lost all my friends. Like, I was like, “I have to be funny.” And I usually think that it comes from something like that.
Or, you know, I’m from Canada. I think people in Canada are pretty funny, and I think it’s because our weather is really bad. And, like, it’s really dark and cold, and so you have to be funny.
So I thought that was—and it’s such a Terry thing to do because something I think we bond over is, like, we make the joke when it’s really sad. We do have a very gallows humor. So I thought it was great.
Do you have any interesting behind-the-scenes stories?
Well, so there was—Paul and I are basically the kids in class who would be separated by the teacher. And because of that, when we’re not shooting, we say things to each other that are not meant to be heard.
And one day, they brought all the press to the studio, and we didn’t know that the press were watching. They were all, like, seated off-set, watching us shoot, and they didn’t turn off the sound or anything when me and Paul were being me and Paul.
And so then we had to go do interviews, and they started asking us questions about, like, the terrible thing I just said. And I mean “terrible” in that, so, being Canadian, why I love working with actors from the UK is that if I make fun of you, that means I love you.
So we’re really mean to each other, and it’s just, like, a term of endearment, but you don’t expect other people to get it, especially not, like, the press. So that was a fun day where I thankfully didn’t get fired.
You talked about Paul, but I would also like to know more about working with James Spader. How was it working with such an accomplished actor?
So when I watched all the movies, that was the first—his Ultron was the first thing that made me think, “Oh, I’ve been thinking of this all wrong. This is funny.” Like, he is so funny as that voice, and in a way that I find really funny, which is dry.
And I didn’t know a lot about—I hadn’t watched a ton of James’s movies and stuff, so I didn’t really know what to expect. And we had this one scene together, the first scene we had together.
He’s the best actor I’ve ever worked with in my life, basically. And I feel like I’ve worked with Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, like, some really great actors. He blew my mind. He makes you better. He is so present.
Somebody—a journalist just before—said that my E.D.I.T.H. reminded them of their daughter and their dog, which I took as a compliment. But I’m saying this because when I think of James Spader, it is like working with—and I mean this as the biggest compliment—a child of, like, eight, or an animal. Because when you work with those, like a child of eight who hasn’t, like, gotten self-conscious, or a dog, they’re just—they’re not acting. They’re just present, and therefore you have to be present.
And it’s the greatest feeling in the world because I think, for me at least, the worst feeling is to be caught acting, or to feel like I’m acting. So being in his presence takes that all away, and I would love more than anything to continue working with him.
VisionQuest seems to ask what makes someone a person. After making this series, what’s your own answer to this question?
Well, I think what I love about that question is that, to me, it goes a little further into, you know, are you who you were built to be? And who are you when the person who made you is no longer telling you who you are?
That really struck me with, you know, E.D.I.T.H.—all these AIs were constructed from parts, and if you think of human beings, we’re all constructed from, you know, our upbringing. And who do you become, though? Are you that kid you were when you were eight? Like, probably not. You’ve changed, but how do you get back to that, and you have those memories?
And I just, like—I find it so fascinating, because it’s robots, but it’s us. Like, the more you think about it, the more it is us.
How much does E.D.I.T.H. resemble you in your day-to-day life?
I’m sorry to say that a lot, except, yeah, it’s a lot. Like, I did this show called Schitt’s Creek, where I played a character named Stevie, and people mostly recognize me from that. They will see me on the street and be like, “Oh, Stevie!” And then I’ll react as myself, which is very excited, and they are freaked out because they’re like, “You are nothing like Stevie,” which I’m not.
I took a very big vacation from myself in that part. This is much more like me, and it’s harder on me. It’s harder on me. So I’m sorry.
Do you think E.D.I.T.H. is really not afraid of death, or has she never had to confront it?
I think she is pressure-testing it in the way that, like, when you have nothing—when you think you have nothing to lose. I mean, I thought about this a lot. If you have nothing to lose, you can do anything.
And so I think there is this weird thing that happens throughout the show: she does develop, like, an attachment to Vision and to F.R.I.D.A.Y. and these feelings that she does not know what they are, and therefore it gets a little riskier to take the risks.
But I think at the beginning, she definitely not only isn’t afraid of death, she’s pushing it, she’s testing it, I think because of that history she has.
What lesson should people learn from her?
I think to appreciate being alive. That’s what I definitely got from her, because I don’t appreciate it on the everyday.
And if you think of it, as humans we’re constantly outsourcing ourselves to—we want to be smarter and faster and put things to remember inside a device. And all E.D.I.T.H. wants is to break out of that.
And it really made me think about how experience is everything. Like, I always think I want to know more and be smarter, but the truth is, like, if you don’t have the experience of it, it’s really nothing. Especially now that there’s AI, because anyone can know anything now.
