Meet Adia Smith-Eriksson who plays Ranger West in the Netflix film Atlas alongside Jennifer Lopez and Sterling K. Brown. As Ranger West, Adia is a sarcastic but quick thinking part of Jennifer’s crew who ensures that the mission continues.
Atlas follows Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence, joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past. But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it.
Directed by Brad Peyton, Atlas stars Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Sterling K. Brown, Gregory James Cohan, Abraham Popoola, Lana Parrilla, Mark Strong,
Check out our interview with Adia:
For those who are unfamiliar with the film and its premise, can you give a brief synopsis of Atlas?
Adia: Atlas is saving humanity from a rogue AI by befriending an AI and together they set out on an adventure to save the world.
And you play Ranger West. Can you tell us a little bit about who she is?
Adia: My character, Ranger West, is kind of a badass on the squad and I think she is feeling very confident in her abilities. So when Atlas comes in, she’s maybe not the most pleasant towards her. But I do feel like she has a bit of a redemption arc.
How did you hear about this role and what was the audition process like?
Adia: My lovely agent sent it my way and, you know, it was just one of those things where you get these auditions and you never really know what’s going to stick. And yeah, this one was a wonderful surprise. I was so happy and grateful to get this opportunity.
That’s awesome. When you booked the role, what kind of preparation did you have to do before you actually started filming?
Adia: Mostly it was just working on my accent if anything because, you know, I’m not from the U.S. I had to kind of tone down my English accent for this role.
With a film like this, I can kind of guess that there’s quite a bit of green screen work going on. What was that like? Was it challenging? Did you love it?
Adia: I mean, I’ve never experienced working with green screens before. I will say it was very interesting because everything that I could touch was there and tangible, otherwise you have to kind of imagine you’re in this other world. One thing that was kind of cool about green screens is that the possibilities are endless. While filming, I really had no idea what it was gonna look like when it was done and it was such a fun experience to kind of see it all come together at the end. But you just really have to use your imagination to be like, ‘wait I am falling through space, like this is actually happening.
When you saw the final product, was it anything like you had imagined?
Adia: It was so much cooler than I thought it would be. I didn’t know what to expect because going into it because, you know, they’re like, ‘you’re going to freefall from this space ship. That’s the scene,’ and you’re like, ‘okay?’ But then seeing it, it was like ‘wow! That is amazing!’ Those special effects were phenomenal.
What was it like working with everybody in the cast?
Adia: I honestly felt so grateful for the castmates that I had, like what an honor to get to work alongside JLo and Sterling K. Brown, right? I really did make some friends working on this film that I think I’ll have for a long time to come. Like I’m actually gonna go visit Ranger Shindo [Jared Shimabukuro] and we’re going to go skydiving. But we’ve stayed in touch, we’ll invite each other to birthday events and stuff and it’s such a fun experience and Greg [Cohen], the voice of Smith, who kills it by the way, is definitely amongst one of my closest friends out here now. It’s just so nice getting to meet these people and I am grateful that I connected with them so well.
AI is a huge part of this film. How do you feel about artificial intelligence after doing a film like this?
Adia: I mean, who wouldn’t want their own little Smith, right? I mean, it’d be so cool to have my own Smith help me with household chores or fly to work, minimize the amount of traffic we have, right? Just kind of use it appropriately.
I agree. And in addition to the AI, there’s also a very obvious strong female presence. So what do you hope that people take away from watching this movie?
Adia: Girls can kick butt! We are just as strong and capable as men can be. And I love the fact that they had a female lead in this. It was so much fun to kind of see her journey through this, you know? And to come in and play one of these strong, badass women was just so much fun, you know, and I hope that little girls out there are looking up at the screens and like seeing that we can also kick butt!
For you personally, as a woman and as an actor, what is something that you are going to take away from this experience?
Adia: I really love working in action. That is something that I’m coming to realize more and more and I think I’m just kind of finding a home in this genre. It was honestly such a mind blowing experience to be able to work in this environment. I mean, I’m a huge nerd myself and just kind of like taking away the feeling of taking that space for myself, like I earned that spot and like being able to walk alongside these actors with confidence and grace. It was such a fun experience.
Yeah, I think action suits you for sure. So what’s up next for you? Do you have anything that you can tease?
Adia: I mean, I did an indie film about two months ago, and that’s gonna come out sometime in the fall. And yeah, the hustle just continues, honestly. And just kind of doing commercials and other auditions and stuff. You know, just seeing what sticks.
Well, I definitely wish you all the best with that. Is there anything else that you’d like to add before I let you go?
Adia: I mean, honestly, to all the actors out there, just to keep going, you know? You never really know. I feel like that’s kind of been the biggest lesson– you just can’t give up. Like I mean, this is a small step for me and hopefully in the direction that I want to go in. Hopefully the baby steps just kind of keep coming and eventually reaching the goal of being that working actor in that genre that you want to be in.
