As promised, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. began its storyline about Life Model Decoys. The main LMD on the show is the replacement for Agent May (Ming-Na Wen), but there’s no telling how many LMDs there could be. There’s already a new Aida (Mallory Jansen), and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team isn’t even aware their May is an LMD yet.
Elizabeth Henstridge, who plays Jemma Simmons on the show, was at ABC’s party for the Television Critics Association and spoke to Rotten Tomatoes about the current season. Henstridge said that upcoming episodes would explore more of Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons’ relationship, as well as hold more field work for Simmons.
A week earlier, the TCA visited the set of S.H.I.E.L.D. where producers revealed there where three “pods” to the fourth season. Pod 1 was Ghost Rider, pod 2 is LMDs, and pod 3 is still a big secret.
Fred Topel for Rotten Tomatoes: What’s coming up for Fitz and Simmons?
Elizabeth Henstridge: They’re trying to stay together in a relationship. It’s proving to be quite difficult at points. It’s a lot of conflicts. There’s a lot of issues raised, especially now with LMDs coming to the forefront. They might not always agree and that’s what every relationship has to struggle with. It’s just ours happens to be about robots and not about what TV show to watch. It’s fun because it’s very domestic situations, but just in a very heightened reality. Then we see her out in the field a bit more, being more combat ready, which is always fun.
RT: Does the appearance of one LMD make everyone suspicious?
Henstridge: I mean, it would for me, yeah. From this point on, the team has a lot of reactions to what’s happening. There’s not that much planning as “Oh my gosh, this crazy thing has happened. We never saw it coming. What can we do?” We all have to pull together and try and make it work. It’s like that throughout the rest of the season, and it’s brilliant because it’s fast and we’re racing. Everybody’s doing different aspect they might not have done before just to make it happen and come together as a team. So they’re always the best days, when we just get to all work together. It takes so much longer to do anything because we mess around, but it’s fun.
RT: Would Fitz and Simmons suspect each other could be LMDs?
Henstridge: You’ll have to wait and see.
RT: Your showrunners said that this season is divided into three pods, with Ghost Rider, LMDs, and a third coming next. Does it feel that way as you work on it?
Henstridge: Yes and no. I think the writers have done such a great job at seamlessly tying everything in. LMDs are at the forefront now, but they were a thread that’s always been there in this season. So it’s nice to have new characters being able to have their moment, like John Hannah is in it more, and we get to see what his story is. Mallory Jansen who plays Aida — so it’s fun to have different people in the spotlight. In terms of working on it, it all makes sense as a coherent whole.
RT: Have they told you what the third pod is?
Henstridge: No. No one knows. As far as I know, no one knows. I don’t know.
RT: Have you enjoyed doing more action?
Henstridge: Oh gosh, yeah. It’s always so fun to do. We work with the best stunt coordinators and stunt artists. I’ve had the same stunt double since the very beginning, and she’s awesome. It’s always very fun to do. They usually have to rein us back. We always want to do all the stunts, but it’s not sensible for us to do that.
RT: Since both you and Simmons have been training for two seasons now, have your skills increased?
Hensridge: Oh yeah, for sure. It’s a definite skill. Practice makes perfect, and we’re lucky that we get free training sessions whenever we want them. So yeah, I’m definitely more adept.
RT: What can you do now that you couldn’t two years ago?
Henstridge: Oh my God, like touch my toes or just bend my knee and not fall over. Once you warm up the muscles, it’s actually not that bad, but I’m not very flexible naturally, so it was a big achievement.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC
