In this exclusive interview, Allegra Edwards and Andy Allo discuss Upload season 3. Warning, there are major spoilers for the season finale ahead.
Upload season 3 is now streaming in its entirety on Prime Video, and it is filled with drama. Nathan has downloaded, but a new Nathan was backed up to the Lakeview system, causing there to be two Nathans. This creates love drama because the other Nathan is still in a relationship with Nora (Andy Allo), while the new Nathan is in one with Ingrid (Allegra Edwards).
We caught up with Andy Allo and Allegra Edwards to talk all about this love square and more. In Upload season 3, it is easy to start liking Ingrid as we learn more and more about her. In this interview Allegra discusses what she has personally learned from playing this character, while Andy talks about the scene where she gets to play Ingrid pretending to be Nora.
Andy and Allegra also reveal how they felt when they first read THAT cliffhanger from the final episode in the script.
Warning: Spoilers for the season are included in this interview.
Andy Allo & Allegra Edwards Talk Upload Season 3
Mama’s Geeky: Ingrid has gone through quite a bit of growth since we first saw her. Do you feel you’ve personally learned anything from her story arc?
Allegra Edwards: Yes. I think number one, the first thought that comes to mind is that don’t give up on anybody, you know? Like, keep rooting for them. Growth is possible and you never know where it’s going to come from. I’m not giving up on Ingrid and I’m grateful for the people that saw glimmers of this in season one. I think it was like episode six, the sleepover, I know I had some team Ingrid people after that sleepover, it was just like a little crack. And from then I was so onboard. Just just a little bit more humanity, a little bit more humanity. I think another lesson is that sometimes awful people are awful for a reason and peeling away the root and the origins of that. Hearing about how – SPOILER – Ingrid’s dad confesses in a moment that sometimes he wishes that Ingrid was in the car with Nathan, is horrendous, and that she’s still rolling with the punches. I think that’s number one. And then and then the other lesson that I’ve learned from her and from this season with Ingrid is that success is not a straight line. When it comes to personal growth, especially, we’re all over the place. But as long as we’re trying earnestly, then that’s positive. And that’s something to root for.
Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about channeling your inner Ingrid in the scene where she uses your avatar?
Andy Allo: Oh my gosh, that has to be one of my favorite scenes to shoot. Getting to play Ingrid. Now I can see why I feel like Allegra has such a blast playing this character because she’s a hoot. She’s wild. Like, what! Getting to be this incredibly powerful, strong woman really. Not to say that Nora isn’t, but Ingrid is more vocal, I’ll say. Whereas Nora probably leads more with being nice and trying to make everybody feel happy and okay. And Ingrid is more like, No, this is not okay and I’m gonna say it. That was so much fun and freeing. And I mean, over the seasons, it’s been a kind of a running theme that someone, every season, uses Nora’s avatar. So it’s kind of par for the course at this point. Whether it’s Lucy or Tinsley, someone’s always just taking advantage. But for myself as the actor, that’s just a blast. And getting to explore what happens in Nora’s skin, or suit, with this personality in there. And finding the balance of like, it’s still her and her mannerisms, but how much of this other person comes in. I’m really grateful because Allegra really helped me. Her work, too, is so specific, it’s so clear, so it makes my job easy because then I can be like, oh, yeah, okay, great. I can just take what you did because it’s brilliant, and just copy that. And thank God I don’t have to do much work.
Allegra Edwards: The only thing I wish, I just wish we could have given you stilts to walk on because they always give me like four inch heels. What’s always surprised me is that I’m already quite tall, and then they give me these killer shoes. If I could just put you on a set of stilts, there’d be no stopping you Andy!
Andy Allo: It was so great telling those guys off. That’s such a great monologue. It’s so brilliantly written and it’s so Ingrid, that just getting to lean in and be like, Yeah. And how many times do you ever in your life say shrimp dicks? Never.
Mama’s Geeky: At what point do you think it clicked for Ingrid that she had a chance to redo things with Nathan and be honest this time?
Allegra Edwards: I think there was a bit of testing. It’s that fabulous scene, I think in episode three. She’s got the haircut. She’s eating vegetables. She’s doing all these things that she thinks are… she’s trying to be Nora. We’ve talked about Ingrid wearing Nora’s skin, but she kind of has practice with trying to make herself into Nora because she thinks that that’s something that Nathan would want. And when he’s faced with all of that, and I think sees through it and goes, What are you doing? It’s very obviously Nora, he says, No, I like you for who you are. I actually don’t think that Ingrid has heard him say that very often. I think they’ve spent a lot of the last seasons probably bickering, or talking about maybe superficial things, but I think that was an opening of like, you don’t you don’t need any of that. I like you for you. And then she tested again, with I’m in my bathtub. And you’re gonna have the same confession that we got at the end of season two with like, surprise, babe. I never uploaded. I’ve been here the whole time. And for his reaction to be, are you okay? How long have you been in there? I’m just glad that you are there. For me. That’s really commitment is like, wow, that’s the generous, empathetic reaction from him, that I think gives her a mile of a runway to just Alright, how far how far can we go? And I think it was just a brilliant piece of writing. And also the tease at the end that maybe she’d been deleting any of the copies of Nathan that didn’t respond well, up to that point. Until she got one that was like, that’s okay, is also a very funny idea.
Mama’s Geeky: When Nora goes to Lakeview this season and runs into the new Nathan, the callbacks to the meeting in the previous season work so well. I love that Nora’s like, yes, we’ve done this before but it is all new to this Nathan. Can you talk about preparing for that scene?
Andy Allo: I’d already done it, so I think in that sense, it was just fun to… I didn’t really have to do much because I’d already lived it. It’s the best thing when you can draw upon something real, and you’re like, No, I already did that. Actually, I really had this conversation with you and I don’t need to have it again. So that it was just fun to lean into that. I think what was more, really the thing that changed it, and made it exciting was that it was a different Nathan, and getting to play off of his reactions, because I was like, I’ve done it, I just did it with somebody else. So in that sense, getting to to see what new Nathan’s responses were and just be in the moment. I think that’s really the fun part in, especially this season, when when you get to be comfortable in a character and you just know it, you just know it. It’s part of you in a way, in a deeper sense, and you just get to be present and really play. You’re not really worried about oh, I hope this comes out right. There’s moments of course like that, but it really is there’s a freedom. Because I was like, Oh yeah, Nora had this conversation already and now I get to just be with this new guy and what’s he doing? I’m here. The writing does all the work. I think that’s what’s so beautiful about Greg’s writing and stewardship of the writers is, it just flows. It just comes off the tongue and as an actor you really just have to get out of the way, without you adding your whatever. Because it’s that good.
Mama’s Geeky: This was quite the love square. Are you happy with how with where your characters ended up? New Nathan with Ingrid and Nathan with Nora or would you like to explore the relationship with the others further?
Allegra Edwards: Listen, Ingrid said straight up to downloaded Nathan, if you had diarrhea for a year and were penniless, I would still love you Nathan Brown. And I think she meant that to that Nathan, I don’t think she just meant that to the idea of Nathan and how many backups. I think there is a part of her that will always love downloaded Nathan and she’s actually gotten a head start on Nora in a way by going through some real real things with him. And even if they weren’t very compatible, she’s actually been through some of that tougher stuff that they’re just beginning to get a sense of. I love the way that it was explored in that episode. I thought it was so beautiful and how both scenes mirrored each other with each of them being with their What ifs at the same time and then being jealous of the other and the suspicious… I thought it was just so brilliantly written. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think there was more to explore between them. I know, I know you’re gonna kill me, Andy. But I think there’s more to explore with download Nathan and Ingrid, because they’ve been through some war. I’m just saying.
Andy Allo: You just leave my man alone. You got yours.
Allegra Edwards: Did I?
Andy Allo: No, you didn’t.
Allegra Edwards: That’s my answer. I think there is more to unpack.
Andy Allo: I’ll add that the scene of them in the travel agency room, you get to see these two people that have grown so much. And they know each other. There’s history there. I’ll take myself out of it, Nora out of it, as someone just watching it. I can be diplomatic. That’s really beautiful in a relationship when two people can be like, I’ve grown and you’ve grown too, and we can see it, because we know where we came from. And I can appreciate you for who you are, especially today. Because I can actually see the work you’ve done. So in that sense, if Nora wasn’t in the picture, that could be interesting of them finally coming into a really healthy place with them together. Do I want that? No. But I can see the beauty in that.
Mama’s Geeky: I hate the one of the Nathan’s has gone. How’d you feel when you first read that script of the finale?
Andy Allo: Hated it. hated it, also. I thought that was the horriblest worstest terriblest cliffhanger.
Allegra Edwards: I thought it was a perfect cliffhanger.
Andy Allo: Of course you did. Of course!
Allegra Edwards: I just want to be different from you. That’s all I ever want. I just want to be contrarian. No, there was part of me that hated it, too, but then there’s also like, oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Obstacles, obstacles, give me obstacles. Give me new problems. Give us a new problem. And also the idea, someone mentioned it earlier, what if? Because we don’t know who it is. What if he is tricking everybody? And what if they are both actually still around but he’s covering? There’s so many possibilities. Just because one of them says they destroyed the other one doesn’t mean they did. I mean, anything could be possible. I’m glad that it ended on such a big question mark that we have to do another season. I don’t want it to be so close ended and tied with a bow that there’s no need for more.
Andy Allo: Honestly, when I think about it, what other cliffhanger could there be?
Upload season 3 is streaming in its entirety on Prime Video.
NEXT: Upload’s Robbie Amell Talks Playing Two Nathans In Season 3
About Upload Season 3
Upload is a sci-fi comedy series from Emmy-winning writer Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation, King of the Hill), set in a technologically advanced future where holographic phones, self-driving vehicles, AI assistance, and 3D food printers are the norm. And, forget about dying – instead, you’ll be “uploaded” to a virtual reality afterlife, and enjoy all the comforts of a world-class resort. Provided you can afford it.
In Upload Season Three, Nathan has been duplicated. While “download” Nathan is reuniting with Nora, a Horizen customer service rep realizes he is missing from Lakeview and restores a backup “upload” of him. Now more than ever, Nathan, Nora, Ingrid, Luke, Aleesha … and even A.I. Guy, struggle to find a balance in their careers, technology, and love between the real world and the virtual reality “after-life.”
Upload season 3 is streaming in its entirety on Prime Video.
