Fighting the Invasion
As Invasion returns to Apple TV+ for a third season, British actor India Brown opens up about making the epic sci-fi drama, how she has emerged as a key player in its story and the route she took to graduate from child star to adult roles.
As the ramifications of an alien assault continue to reverberate across the globe in Apple TV+ drama Invasion, it’s not just the show’s ensemble of characters whose lives have changed.
When British actor India Brown joined the cast in season one, she played a supporting character in Jamila, whose fate becomes entwined with her school friend Caspar after aliens first reveal their presence.
Now in season three, which debuts on Friday, she is a firm fixture in the drama as a series regular, starring alongside fellow returnees Golshifteh Farahani, Shioli Kutsuna and Shamier Anderson.
“I never imagined that Jamila would even make it past season one,” Brown tells DQ. “So to be able to be here talking about season three, it’s just insane, and the journey she’s gone on, I could have never imagined I’d be fortunate enough to be with a character for so long and go on the journeys she’s embarked on. This season specifically, I’m super excited for her as a character, as a person and what she’s growing to become, which is quite cool.”
Set across multiple continents, Invasion debuted in 2021, following an alien invasion of Earth through perspectives of different people across the world. S2, released in 2023, picks up months later with the aliens escalating their attacks in an all-out war against humans as the fight for the planet’s survival continues.
In the 10-part third season, which will roll out weekly until October 24, the show’s numerous perspectives begin to collide in new ways. When the show’s main characters are brought together to work as a team on a critical mission to infiltrate the alien mothership, the ultimate apex aliens finally emerge, rapidly spreading their deadly tendrils across the planet. While new relationships are formed, old relationships are challenged and even shattered as these characters must become a team before it’s too late.
Farahani plays Aneesha Malik, a determined mother fighting to keep her family safe; Anderson is US Navy SEAL Trevante Cole, who becomes a central figure in the fight against the aliens; and Kutsuna is Mitsuki Yamato, a mission control engineer for Japan’s JASA agency who has a personal connection to the aliens.
Brown’s loyal and resilient Jamila has forged a close bond with Trevante and Caspar (Billy Barratt), whose psychic abilities have pushed him to the forefront of the planet’s defence against the aliens.
“It feels like a natural progression, so it’s nice to be all together again working on this, and it’s really a pleasure to be able to be with a character for three seasons,” Brown says. “Some shows get cut after one, so to be able to have such a fun character to play over this three-season course has been a real joy.”
As for what’s in store this season, she’s not giving anything away: “Jamila goes on an emotional rollercoaster of discovering and finding out the truth and realising that really all the characters have to come together to save the world.”
Invasion represents the biggest stage yet in 20-year-old Brown’s screen career, which began more than 10 years ago and has seen her juggle appearances in children’s shows such as Topsy & Tim, The Athena and Hetty Feather with roles in dramas including Fortitude, Silent Witness and The Stranger.
Acting and performing from a young age, taking part in school plays and joining a stage school, “it was just naturally something I just loved and gravitated towards,” she says. Brown has never had a strategy behind building her acting career, however, bypassing drama school or university to earn her acting education on the numerous sets she has been a part of.
“I’ve been able to just learn from every job, go on to the next and learn something from that, learn from my co-stars, and they’ve all led up to where I am today,” she says.
Going to work on primetime dramas such as Silent Witness never fazed her. “That was one of the shows I remember being spoken to about, saying, ‘The subject matter of this is quite serious. You can audition for it, just go for it, see what happens.’ But I never felt when I was on set that I was in some sort of ‘dark’ show or anything like that because, through the eyes of a child, you have an incredible time on set,” the actor continues.
“I’m really lucky because, on all the jobs I’ve had, people have been so kind to me and I’ve learned so much. It’s always been a joy. When I go into a new job, it’s exciting and it’s fresh, no matter what the subject matter is.”
Brown’s breakout role came in the BBC’s 2019 reboot of family favourite Worzel Gummidge, a three-part series based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd. Written, directed and produced by Mackenzie Crook (The Office), who also played the titular walking, talking scarecrow, the series ran for a total of six episodes until 2022.
The actor remembers being around 12 years old when she first auditioned for the role of Susan, who together with her brother John leaves the city to join Worzel at Scatterbrook Farm. She was then 14 when filming began, and 16 when the series ended, “so Worzel Gummidge has always been in my world. To hear how many lives the show’s impacted and how special they find it, how magical they find it, it just honestly brings so much joy to my heart,” she says. “It was such a special moment in time when I got to film that, and so to be able to look back on it and hear people still say it now, ‘I love Worzel’ – I love Worzel too.”
Brown describes Crook as “one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with” and someone who led by example with “poise, grace and humility.” “The amount of dedication it took for him to rock up every single day, get into that whole gear of looking like Worzel and then literally being the last to leave at the end of the day because he had to take that off, as well as direct, it was so precious to see,” she remembers. “I really think he made Worzel, truly. He led us and we followed him, and all credit goes to him because he’s honestly one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”
Moving on to Invasion was “insane. It’s the only way to really describe it,” Brown exclaims about joining the globe-spanning sci-fi drama that dramatises humanity’s fight with aliens. Undoubtedly the biggest role of her career to date, it’s one of “high scale, high risk – it’s just so exciting,” she says. “I’m a fan of the show, so to be in it is just on another level. I’m just grateful to be here, grateful to still be doing it, and to be part of such an awesome show on a great platform.”
Each season, Brown gets a rundown about what might be in store for her character Jamila. On S2, that came from director Alik Sakharov, writer Tatiana Suarez-Pico and David Weil, who co-created the series with Simon Kinberg. The latter then gave Brown an update for S3. “I remember being a little bit gobsmacked,” she says. “I remember I couldn’t say much; no words really formed. I just remember going, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It’s been cool. It’s been a good job.”
Filming Invasion, which is produced by Boat Rocker, Brown admits it’s easy to forget the breadth of the series when recording scenes between just a couple of characters in her corner of the story. It’s only when she sees the edits of each episode that the whole reach of the show becomes apparent.
But as the series has progressed, storylines have converged and Brown has got to spend more time with her co-stars. S1 was shot in numerous locations including the UK, Morocco and Japan, before shifting to the UK and South Africa for S2. For S3, everyone came together in Vancouver.
“That’s been an interesting thing to experience,” she says. “When we film it, you can’t imagine what it’s ever going to look like. You can’t, because our directors’ minds, even Simon’s mind, our writers, when they’re thinking of things and connecting things, you can’t even fathom where they’re going to take it. So every season, it’s a new adventure, it’s a new surprise, and it’s just a really cool journey to be on with them.”
The actor believes Invasion stands out among alien-centred sci-fi dramas thanks to its focus on character over creature, as the show emphasises humanity’s response to an invasion. “I haven’t really seen that in a show before or a film, where we get to really know these characters before they’re slaughtered off,” she says. “Normally in alien shows or films, we get to see aliens be the main character, but this is spun on its head. Invasion takes the characters and makes them the focus. We get to see everything unfold through their eyes. That’s what our show really brings to the table, something new and something fresh.”
This latest season also represents “the most work I’ve done ever on a show,” she notes. “I was very much in it all, and when I wasn’t in it, I was granted permission to go behind the scenes and shadow our directors and our producer. To be in rooms that actors are not normally allowed to be in and just learn and observe such a high-scale show, to understand all the moving parts of this machine, was super exciting. That intrigued me, and they saw my passion for that.”
That hints at Brown’s ambitions beyond acting. In fact, she has already produced and starred in a short film, Danny Gibbons’ 2024 drama Sherbet, and has been writing her own material.
“I love filmmaking and storytelling, so for me, certain avenues like writing, directing and specifically producing have really caught my eye,” she says. “Our producer [on Invasion] very much saw that from season two, and gave me such a wonderful experience to be able to go behind the scenes and even see my co-stars work.
“I am writing. I hope to do something with that one day. To be able to have both the control and also the input, and to be able to be heard creatively, has been something that definitely has increased my passion.”
Brown would next like to take on a horror, a thriller or something set in space that further embraces her love of sci-fi. “My dream role would be something where I get to do martial arts in it, or a Lara Croft kind of character,” she says. “When I see actors like Octavia Spencer, she’s one of my inspirations, she can play it all and to be able to try [everything] at least would be interesting and fun to do. That’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to try it all.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
War of the Worlds: After an alien attack devastates the planet, scattered survivors struggle to fight back against an unexplained extraterrestrial menace while dealing with the collapse of civilisation.
V: When seemingly benevolent aliens arrive on Earth, a handful of humans discover their true – and sinister – intentions.
The 100: A century after a nuclear apocalypse, a group of juvenile delinquents are sent back to a ravaged Earth from a space habitat to test if the planet is survivable.
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tagged in: Apple TV+, Boat Rocker, India Brown, Invasion, Worzel Gummidge