‘Sarah Goldberg of Audacity searches for humanity in Silicon Valley

When Audacity Star Sarah Goldberg first joined the series Creator Jonathan Glatzer summed up the show in an unexpected way: The real-life tech titans Audacity Skewers are so focused on creating immortality that they can’t face the fact that everyone – including themselves – has, at some point in their life, taken their pants off.

That combination — “denying our humanity,” as Goldberg described it on a Zoom call with Mashable — appealed to him. AudacityA twisted take on Silicon Valley.

In AudacityA group of technology innovators, Dr. Goldberg’s JoAnne Felder is a weirdo. He’s the therapist for the Valley’s “billionaire” kids, who rent in a sea of ​​wealthy homeowners who don’t care if their Napa house burns down, because they have several other homes to escape to.

Because of her outsider status, you might think that JoAnne would work as AudacityThe voice of reason. But by the end of the show’s first episode, it’s clear that he’s willing to bend the rules to benefit himself as much as his clients. One of them, Hypergnosis CEO Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen), learns that he is using confidential customer information for insider trading.

“In this totally immoral world that JoAnne finds herself in, she feels like her little transgressions are harmless, or for a reason,” Goldberg said.

It comes in AudacityGoldberg wanted a “big departure” from his Emmy-nominated role as BarryStruggling actress Sally Reed. When he first read Sally, he felt like he knew her right away. For JoAnne, Goldberg gravitated to her rhythm, something that often drew her to roles.

In her professional life, JoAnne’s rhythm is slow and deliberate. Goldberg describes her as using silence as a “tool,” which she uses to create space for her clients to open up… and provide valuable information in the process.

“I didn’t have a lot of pressure to do a lot of research and be this really trained doctor, because that ship has sailed for JoAnne,” Goldberg laughed. “It’s dead!”

For the beat, JoAnne’s personal life is another story. As she confronts Duncan’s accusations, the prospect of losing her home, and her strained relationship with son Orson (Everett Blunck), grow increasingly volatile. He drives off-road, catches all distractions (many to his own detriment), and browses the web for guns during sessions with clients. She’s the picture of swagger, her tousled bob in constant motion and a hint of panic.

“It’s really cheating, but honestly, the hair really helped me. I found myself moving a lot, and there’s this staccato quality to her that was born out of the hair,” Goldberg said. “[Key Hair Stylist] Sanna [Seppanen] he told me, ‘I’m going to give you really big hair, you don’t need to do anything.’ He wasn’t wrong.”

Although JoAnne is very different from Sally Reed, Barry fans may see glimpses of JoAnne’s increasingly nervous, occasionally explosive interactions with others. Like Sally’s descent, JoAnne is a woman teetering on the edge.

“I like the frayer. I’m attracted to people who are tricky,” Goldberg said.

He is also fascinated by the dichotomy between Audacity‘s characters’ outer and inner lives.

“There are many people like this world Barry in certain ways,” he said.

Goldberg continued: “I’m always interested in those two things. I’m interested in how we do it every day. Why, when someone calls you, does your voice rise? Why do you speak one way when you order your coffee, and then when you’re in the doctor’s office, it’s different? I’m always interested in our external behavior and what’s going on underneath.”

Sarah Goldberg in “The Audacity.”
Credit: David Moir / AMC

Goldberg is a self-described “technophobe.” He has no apps and no social media, and was incredibly ignorant of Silicon Valley before filming. Audacity. However, even before working on the show, he was learning about the rise of AI, especially how it affects the entertainment industry.

“I hope that this feeling that has come will pass. I don’t know if it is,” he said. “My constant hope is that television and film didn’t kill theater, and I think we’ll always want the kind of communication and nuance that can’t be achieved with AI.”

Audacity confronts the AI ​​with a story line that JoAnne hasn’t thought much about yet, where Martin Phister (Simon Helberg) actually raises and raises an AI baby. As the show progresses, he sees its potential as a therapeutic tool for good, such as when he listens to Deputy Under Secretary for Veterans Affairs Tom Ruffage (Rob Corddry) about his wartime experiences.

“The AI ​​aspect of the show is developed with purity and passion and focus. Seeing what happens when it falls into the wrong hands is where it all gets frustrating,” Goldberg said.

That frustration carries over into real life for Goldberg as well.

“I feel very resistant to it,” she said. “My instincts as an animal are like, ‘Where are we going?’ and it makes me uncomfortable. At the same time, I try to keep a bit of reality. We can’t avoid the march of change, can we? These things happen, so how do we move forward effectively?”

That’s the question Glatzer, Goldberg, and Audacity keep coming back to. What is humanity’s guide as it continues to dehumanize humanity? JoAnne, with her closeness to the dynamic world of Silicon Valley, proves a perfect, if troubling, lesson.

Goldberg believes that JoAnne was once an idealist hoping to help her clients, but when she moved to Silicon Valley, she grew “embarrassed and spoiled.” Still, even in his early days as a healer, he wasn’t completely incorruptible.

“There was something about him that drew him to this world,” Goldberg noted.

JoAnne’s descent into corruption highlights Glatzer once more AudacityA central thesis about the future of mankind.

“What does it take to lose your personality, and can you get it?” asked Goldberg.

“There was a lighter version of this show there [Glatzer] step back, point the finger, and say, ‘Here’s this small group of sociologists who are making so much money doing terrible things,'” Goldberg said. “In fact, he chose the very difficult task of asking big questions about our moral compass as living animals. What are we all born with? What causes this poor decision-making, and once you develop the technology that makes it, where does it go? You really get to the fact that these people did not invent human behavior. They exploit it and sell it, but the seed is in all of us, to invade each other’s privacy. He’s holding a mirror to reach that in a way that I think is really brave.”

New episodes of Audacity are available to air Sundays on AMC+, and air at 9 pm ET on AMC.