Watching You follows thrill-seeking paramedic Lina (Aisha Dee), who, despite being happily engaged, has an impulsive one-night stand with a mysterious stranger. Their dalliance is secretly filmed and used to blackmail her. As her life spirals and paranoia grows, Lina sets out to expose the voyeur – only to discover the true threat is far closer than she ever imagined.
As Watching You currently ranks as Stan’s No. 1 most popular program, Peter Gray spoke with both Dee and her on-screen bestie Olivia Vásquez to discuss the instant building of their chemistry, the joy of playing flawed characters, and what they think the series is saying regarding intimacy in a surveilled world.
One of the things that I loved immediately about the show was the two of you bouncing off each other. It felt very natural. Was that something instant? Was it something you had to build intentionally? Were there rehearsals or conversations that unlocked that relationship for both of you?
Aisha Dee: I mean, I don’t want to speak for both of us, but I do think it was love at first sight (laughs). I think there’s always going to be a level of intentionality about it. We were blessed with this really long rehearsal period, so we had time to just kind of get to know each other and look at the script more in depth than usually we’re given in the TV space. It’s usually so rushed, but (here) we had a bit of time.
Olivia Vásquez: Yeah, for me, the first time we connected was my final callback, and we were over Zoom, and I remember just straight away we were vibing and improv-ing a lot. I remember Peter Salmon, the director, just said, “Just improv and keep going,” and we just kept going. We were on a roll. I don’t remember what scene it was exactly, but I just remember vibing, and it was just instant. It really was love at first sight.
Do you feel that there was a particular scene between the both of you that almost feels like the heart of the series? One that sums up the friendship’s fragility or depth?
Olivia Vásquez: That’s a really beautiful question.
Aisha Dee: You know what I think of often is the fact that at the end of episode one, when Linda is having her spin out, and I know this is not technically a proper scene, because you don’t really see (beyond) Lina leaving a voicemail for Tess, but I feel like that’s a really important and pivotal moment. It shows the depth of their friendship. I think it also shows that they both have this similar thing in that they’re both a little bit chaotic and tend to have lot of, I don’t want to say drama, but drama!
Olivia Vásquez: So much drama, for sure. Lina is always there for Tess, and Tess is always there for Lina, no matter what. It’s a ride or die friendship and relationship. I feel like there’s someone in our lives that we can relate to watching the show. I’m like, “I know that friend. I’ve got that friend.” It came very naturally to us. It was just real.
You can tell it was real. Just that first interaction at the bar between your characters, it felt like these people were very lived in. I believe these people. I wanted to hang out with you! And Aisha, I wanted to ask you when you first read Lina, was there something that scared you, or that made you feel protective of her?
Aisha Dee: Absolutely. I think the things that I always gravitate towards…I know that something’s right if I have a kind of knee-jerk reaction. I don’t want to do it simply out of fear. I think I had read maybe the first two episodes before I met with the creators of the show, and even from the first two episodes, I was like, “Okay, if there’s four more after this, I see that the show is very intense.” I know that walking into a project I tend to give all of myself to it, so I had to make sure that it was the right thing for me. To your question, I did feel very protective of her. And that’s how I also knew that Lina is my girl! I had to make sure that her story is told.
Olivia, you come from the world of theatre and musicals. Everything is so amplified in that space – your voice, your body, your presence. Screen acting demands a stillness and micro-expression. What was the most surprising thing for you in that shift in learning how to be seen differently?
Olivia Vásquez: For me, I found that Tess is naturally a bit larger than life. When I did the audition, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I know this chick. I grew up with this chick in Western Sydney. Liverpool, man, that’s the hood!” So when I put (the script down) I just went there. And you’re right, screen is a different medium, so you don’t need as much with some things. It’s more internal, right? But I really brought myself to Tess. She’s like me, but times 10. She is quite naturally theatrical, but lived on the page, so the moment I read it I knew she was naturally passionate and protective over Lina. She wants to protect her and help her. And the same thing that Aish was saying, you defend your character. She’s doing some silly things, yes, and you’ll see in the next few episodes coming out, I think more of their relationship blossoms, but also you’ll see the intricacies and complexities that they have. But it stems from love. They have the ability to do better. They’re both flawed, but that’s also what I loved about it. They’re two amazing humans that have their issues.
Same with theatre. I just finished doing In The Heights, and that’s a very human story. There’s no villain in the story. It’s very acute. It’s a community on stage, and we got to represent our Latin culture. I feel like the whole process was very unapologetic in the sense of brining myself to it. I’m a naturally larger than life person anyways, so it was really fun to just bring in those moments of truth.
You definitely have that naturality on screen. As you said about Lina being quite flawed, it made me think about how she is making bad choices, but they’re choices rooted in loneliness. Do you see her actions as self-destruction? Or as someone who wants to be seen?
Olivia Vásquez: I feel like Tess knows. I feel like Tess knows Lina’s heart so much, and, if anything, Tess is the friend that’s like, “Come on girl, do another bump” (laughs). They both egg each other on, because it’s about love and fun. With episode three out we can talk about that Dan (Josh Helman’s character) has come in and is a homewrecker. And because Tess is very protective of Lina, maybe some would say too protective, but it’s like, “Excuse me, who are you? I know that Lina and her boyfriend are having issues, but how dare you come in!” Even though it takes two, I’m more mad at him. And I do that with my friends. I’ll be honest with how I feel about it, but I’m that friend that is there for you, whatever you need. I can also see the bigger picture for Lina. There’s something about (Dan) that is off, and I feel like Tess maybe knows about this guy, but not as intimately as Lina does, so she’s seeing it from a different point of view. And as the show unravels, you do see Tessa’s intuition, because she’s so protective of Lina, right?
Aisha Dee: I think the moral of the story here is that Tess is right about everything.
The show really demonstrates how terrifying technology is, but the real horror is emotional. Aisha, do you feel the series is saying something about how fragile intimacy is in a digital world?
Aisha Dee: Yeah, for sure. It’s commenting on a lot of things. I think it’s commenting on surveillance and the way that we connect to each other and our privacy. I just want to go back to something that you asked earlier, and I know it was really about Olivia, but I just have to say I was so impressed with the way that Olivia walked onto set and seemed like she had been doing it forever. She completely took it in her stride, and brought an authenticity to the character. Even though, yes, Tess is larger than life in a lot of ways, but I was really, from the first day, just so impressed with the fact that she managed to walk on set and own it.
Olivia Vásquez: Well, I learned from the best. Seriously incredible. I learned so much.
Aisha Dee: But I think the show is commenting on surveillance and how we connect to each other in a digital age. I don’t see a lot of shows doing it in quite the way that Watching You is doing it. I think it’s a really interesting story and an interesting way into just opening up conversation around it.
I was going to ask, as this is a story about friendship under surveillance, both emotional and literal, is there one thing you hope women watching Watching You will feel seen in?
Aisha Dee: I always am so terrified at the thought of, “What is the takeaway going to be for people watching?” It’s so completely out of your control. We’re just trying to tell an authentic story at the end of the day. I think for me to have any kind of say over what people take away from…it’s not my business. But I do hope that the show just opens up conversations for people, because, yes, as much as it’s about a lot of things – surveillance, coercive control – at the end of the day, Lina is somebody who has a good heart. At the beginning of the show, we find her in a place where she’s using people as almost a drug. She uses different people in her life as a way to get validation. Validation is her favourite drug, and that need for more validation is what gets her down a path that she can’t go back from.
Olivia Vásquez: I think one of the main reasons I loved this script was that I could see myself in it. I feel like a lot of people, especially women, will be able to see themselves in these characters. And what I love about Lina is she’s a lead (character) in an Australian television show. An incredible bi-racial person of colour leading this cast. And then you got your Latina bestie, which doesn’t happen. I know this is a bit of a tangent, but (Australia is) such a melting pot of ethnicities, and these are flawed women. They aren’t perfect. Lina isn’t doing everything right, but we do that as humans. It’s asking what you would do in that situation? I get texts from friends who are watching episode three asking me, “What is Lina doing?” All these people are interested and consumed by it.
I think people see themselves in these characters, and women, it’s scary out there. I’m pretty protective of myself. I never really post in real time. I’m very careful with where I’m posting. And reading Watching You, it was just confirmation how you have to be careful. Especially as a woman. I feel like this is a really important show to be shown right now. Everybody’s watching each other. It’s a bit scary.
The show is dealing heavily with that private versus performative-self sort of thing. Did playing these characters make you both more aware of how much we all perform in our real lives?
Aisha Dee: That’s a really interesting question. To take it back to what we were saying about flawed characters who aren’t the pinnacle of morality, especially as a woman of colour, I think what is really special about it is that we are showing someone who is themselves, who is not the perfect version of an overly virtuous, broken bird victim. She’s imperfect. I think that’s really important to see. And I hope that representation like that inspires people to be more authentically themselves.
Olivia Vásquez: Speaking about Tess, specifically, it reminded me to be more unapologetically myself. Reading the script, I was like, “Fuck, she’s really going there. She’s really saying that.” But, yeah, maybe she can be a bit softer with her approach sometimes, but she’s saying it because she loves (Lina). And she’s a woman, too, and she wants to protect her from the craziness of the world. I’m about to head into my 30s, my partner is in his early 30s, and there’s just something when you get to your 30s, you have this “No fucks given” thing, in a good sense. Doing this show really helped me just be ride or dies for my people, and to stand up for what’s right.
Watching You is now available to stream on Stan.
