Black Mirror season 6 episode 1: Salma Hayek on ‘Joan is Awful’

Black Mirror season 6

There are a number of memorable episodes across Black Mirror season 6 and yet, “Joan Is Awful” has to be a highlight. The story is funny, absurd, and incredibly inventive. We’re also still somewhat shocked that creator Charlie Brooker got Netflix to fund it, since the entire thing is a send-up of them where a fictional streaming service starts to make exaggerated shows out of people’s real lives.

During this episode, Joan (Annie Murphy) begins to realize that her real-life actions are being portrayed on a daily basis by Salma Hayek. The story of course gets more complicated than that, but we don’t want to reveal everything over the course of this article!

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What we do want to discuss further is what Hayek herself thought about this crazy journey. Speaking on the subject to the Independent, she makes it clear that doing this episode was absolutely liberating, especially since she got to access a rather different part of herself:

“I got to explore the concepts and clichés people have about me and be self-deprecating … It’s as if I created an alter ego where I could do the most disgusting, grotesque things that you would never do in real life … and have permission to do that.

“…There are so many moments that shocked me in the script. There is one huge one that I had to come to terms with, and made me ask myself, ‘Do I really want to do this? Am I going to get in trouble?'”

For those who have seen this episode already, you can probably guess what this one moment is, and it’s something that she and Murphy probably share on some super-bizarre level. These two actresses were the perfect two people for this episodes, as well — you would never think to link the two of them together and yet, that is what made so much of it brilliant.

Related Be sure to get some other updates on Black Mirror, including the chance of a potential season 7

Is “Joan is Awful” your favorite episode of Black Mirror season 6?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back for so much more.

(Photo: Netflix.)

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.

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