“Survival is a big theme of the show,” Martin told UPI.
1 of 2 | Rhys Ifans and Anna Maxwell Martin star in “Star City,” premiering Friday. Photo courtesy of Apple TV
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Death Comes to Pemberley star Anna Maxwell Martin says Lyudmilla Raskova, the KGB surveillance agent she plays in the For All Mankind spin-off Star City, can’t afford to be sympathetic.
Premiering Friday on Apple TV, the alt-history drama shows how the Soviet government spied on its own engineers and cosmonauts after their team beat the United States to become the first to land on the moon.
Spider-Man: No Way Home and House of the Dragon actor Rhys Ifans plays Sergei Korolev, chief designer of the Russian space program.
Safety is not guaranteed.
The first two episodes of #StarCity are now streaming on Apple TV. pic.twitter.com/JLMleXyncN— Apple TV (@AppleTV) May 29, 2026
“Does Lyudmilla have a heart?” Martin, 49, laughed in a recent Zoom interview when UPI I asked how she got into the character’s head and heart.
“Lyudmilla is Colonel Lyudmilla Raskova, so she’s a colonel in the army and she’s in the KGB. She’s overseeing intelligence at Star City, the center of their space program,” she said.
“So, she’s trying to keep a lid on all their secrets and that becomes — after our alt retelling of the moon landing — that becomes a more paranoid and fragile situation, which means she has to keep tighter control of the reins, which is probably going to lead to — don’t want to give anything away — difficulty.”
The Black Doves and The Miracle Club alum Agnes O’Casey, 30, plays Irina Morozova, a young agent who ends up working for Lyudmilla.
“We meet Irina as quite a low-ranking KGB operative, listening in on cosmonaut Valya (Adam Nagaitis) and [his wife] Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) and she sort of forces her way into Lyudmilla’s sights,” O’Casey said.
“She’s incredibly ambitious and we watch her learn what the cost of that ambition is.”
In the beginning, Irina greatly admires Lyudmilla, even after witnessing her kill a cosmonaut she wrongly suspected had betrayed her country.
“When the season begins, she doesn’t really know Lyudmilla at all, but she completely idolizes her and there are shots of her looking at her office door and there’s a real longing to progress,” O’Casey said.
Martin added: “They call [Lyudmilla] the ‘night witch.’ But I think, actually, for Irina, it’s like ‘opportunity witch.’ It’s exciting. Where’s the opportunity here? And it’s like dancing with danger, being around Lyudmilla. But that’s something that Irina clearly embraces.”
O’Casey pointed out that Irina equates ascension up the government ranks to more freedom and safety.
“Even though that’s not true. So, it’s sort of a survival game for Irina,” she said.
“For all the characters, isn’t it? Survival is a big theme of the show,” Martin said, noting that Lyudmilla and Irina are both loyal to and love their country, despite all of the restrictions they have to live under.
“They don’t know any different and I think that a lot of [Irina’s] motivations are probably more emotional than ideological,” O’Casey said.
“But I don’t know if she realizes that she’s incredibly lonely and desperate for approval and sort of seeks that in Lyudmilla,” she added. “But, I think, in her mind, she’s loyal to the state and believes what she says.”
Martin said Lyudmilla has gotten very good at suppressing her feelings to accomplish what she needs to.
“You’re making a constant choice and the choice really usually has to be the Marxist-Leninist way of life that’s ingrained in you,” she added. “That has to be the safe choice.”
