Sam Palladio Previews His New 'Humans' Character, New Season of 'Nashville'

Sam Palladio has a lot to look forward to in the new year: Fans of AMC’s Humans will see him join the British drama for Season 2, premiering Feb. 13 — meet all the new characters in the video above — and, of course, he returns for Season 5 of Nashville, now on CMT, which will air a sneak peak of the two-hour premiere Dec. 15, ahead of its official Jan. 5 launch.

Here, he previews his arc on Humans, and teases the new Nashville and what’s ahead for Gunnar and Scarlett (Clare Bowen).

How would you describe Ed, your character on Humans?
Ed is kind of an everyman, really. It’s quite nice because he’s a representation of just a young guy living in this world populated by machines and Synths, but still trying to do things by hand and still trying to relate back to almost a world before Synths. He’s this guy who’s struggling to keep the family business afloat. He’s running his parents’ old seaside café when we first meet him, and that’s got into real financial troubles and he’s had to hire a Synth to help him out with the workload because his mother is actually very ill and in a care home.

So you instantly see this kind of humanity to him, which I liked. It’s quite interesting to play that everyman sometimes, to play somebody who’s simple and isn’t particularly extraordinary, but actually then trying to find the uniqueness about him. I just thought it was a nice departure from the work that I’ve done previously on Nashville and on Episodes and on other projects. It was a nice to actually play an English character for a change. [Laughs] It’s always been important for me to try and have one foot back in the homeland, and so to be a part of Humans has been really fantastic. To watch the audiences back in the UK [where the season is already airing] freak out weekly on Twitter and show their love for Ed, and then the disgust at the same time as the story develops, has been really exciting.

And it’s Mia/Anita (Gemma Chan) that Ed hires.
That’s right. Mia is virtually hiding in plain sight at this point. I like that relationship they have in the beginning; in a world that’s filled with people that are anti-Synths and abuse the machines, Ed treats her as if she is a human and treats her very well and she sees that. When we first meet him, they’ve been around each other for a period of time and have gotten used to each other and Ed’s still trying to crack jokes and make her laugh, even though he then has to check himself and remind himself, “No, she’s just a machine, don’t be silly.” There’s a playfulness to him and a playfulness to their relationship in the beginning, which comes across really interestingly. Trying to make a Synth laugh is a hard task.

When you say “in the beginning,” it makes it sound like their relation will evolve somehow.
Yes, there is definitely an evolution to the relationship, and I’m not quite sure how much I’m supposed to say at this point… We know that Mia is hiding, she’s hiding in the persona of Anita at this point, and that starts to crack slowly as the relationship develops, so Ed starts to realize that things aren’t quite what they seem. As you can imagine, that unfolds quite dramatically once certain things are revealed to Ed, and he handles things as any human might if he’d gotten to know someone for a long time and then realized that actually everything they said is a lie. For good reason. It’s a very interesting relationship.

I’ve seen you say before that watch Gemma act in Synth mode is fascinating.
Yeah. It really is fascinating because as an actor, you usually play off your scene partner and there’s a dynamic there, and it’s really hard acting opposite a Synth because obviously there’s no emotional response from your fellow actor. My first day on set, I felt like I was doing really badly because the energy felt so different from when you spark off another actor who’s really in the moment, but it was exactly what needed to be done. Ed wants to fill those uncomfortable moments with humor and humanity and he just gets a cold response. So it was quite a challenge, actually, getting into those scenes, but like I said, as the story develops he really gets to see who she is, and then their relationship evolves into a place where it’s truthful and it’s connected and it’s sort like acting with two different actresses. Gemma is very talented.

Is there a chance we could see you in a third season of Humans?
Well, I would love to be. The story is left open for Ed, and I love the writers. You know on Nashville, it’s such a big production, a big writers room, but Humans felt like a little family. I would love to think that Ed might turn up in some way. It might be gagged and bound, or it might be at gunpoint or something. You’ll see what I mean as the story develops, but here’s hoping.

Moving on to Nashville, you’ve got new showrunners (Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz) and a new network. What has you most excited about people seeing the new season?
I think we’ve got a great new home on CMT. They’re so excited to have us, and the whole cast really feels that excitement. I think the story and the characters have more of a chance to breathe this year. I think the writing has allowed that. They’re not trying to fill every second with drama. They’re letting the stories develop as they should, as opposed to rushing it for the sake of drama’s sake, which I think was a big downfall in the last year. Everything was just a little too rushed and a little too soapy and so we’re dialing that back, which is great. And that also gives time for music to have a bigger place in the show because it’s the best character — it’s my favorite character. The songs tell so much of the story, and so it feels really good, it feels like an evolution and it feels like the best version of the show so far.

With Gunnar and Scarlett back together, the question is: are they going to have to rename the band? Or is it too late to re-brand The Exes?
[Laughs] Exactly, right? Well, the Scarlett and Gunnar relationship is never quite as easy as you think. [Laughs] As usual, music brings a lot of passion and a lot of conflict, and they’re both at a stage in their lives where they’ve done the back and forth so much that this season really is about, “Okay, we’re either going to do this wholeheartedly or we’re not.” When we start off, the cracks of all the past troubles and heartbreaks and upsets are still very much under the surface and bubbling away for the two of them and that does start to cause some problems. But it’s definitely a case of “Okay, let’s just do it or let’s not,” and that story is still playing out. I don’t even know where we’re going to end up [Laughs] but hopefully it brings out some good songs in the meantime.

Fans really love the Gunnar-Will-Avery scenes. Is there time for those three to have scenes together in Season 5?
Oh, I hope so. Chris Carmack and Jonathan Jackson are great, great friends. Doing scenes with those guys, it’s so easy, and I think the true friendships shine through into the characters. The “three men and a baby” stuff was some of my favorite work last year. Everybody is in a slightly different place this year. I think Avery moves out, Will starts looking for a place with Kevin, so there’s not as much, but I hope there’s still a chance for some bromance to seep back in there as we carry on because that’s always fun.

Related: ‘Nashville’ Season 5: Meet the New Faces

You mentioned the music will be a bigger character this season. Is there a song in particular we should keep an ear out for?
Yeah, Scarlett and Gunnar’s big new single is the song that drives a lot of the storyline early in the season. It’s called “All of Me,” which I think is a fantastic song. It’s gonna have a big presence throughout the episodes: I think we do an acoustic version, and then we go and shoot the big music video for the song, which all goes terribly wrong. It was fun to put Gunnar in a music video where he feels out of place. That was really fun to play. It’s a very stylized, sort of 1930s video that the two of them shoot, so I’ve got my hair parted down the middle and eye shadow and suits, and it’s definitely visually very striking, very different, and that’s a kind of big moment for the two of them. This song goes on to be a bit of a hit for them so, we’ll get to hear that song a lot. [Laughs]

Humans Season 1 will marathon Dec. 30 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on AMC. Season 2 premieres Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. ET. CMT will air a sneak peek of the two-hour Season 5 premiere of Nashville Dec. 15 at 9 p.m. The season officially premieres Jan. 5 at 9 p.m.

Catch up on past seasons of Nashville now on Hulu and Yahoo View.