‘The Listeners’: Rebecca Hall Teases Tense Showdown in Finale

The source of the mysterious hum that only a few people in a small English town can hear is revealed in the finale of the moody UK import The Listeners. Tragically, the explanation comes too late for some in the cult-like group of “listeners” that English lit teacher Claire (Rebecca Hall) has joined.

Claire is no longer the happily married mother with a sharp, practical mind we met in the premiere. The hum — ascribed by doctors to a mental health condition after extensive tests and investigations — changed all that. “The world looks completely different, and she questions all of her life because of a thing that separates her from her community,” says Hall.

Looking for solace and companionship, she’s now living with other listeners including her teen student Kyle (Ollie West) in the country home of a couple who encourage those who can hear the hum to embrace it. To outsiders, they look like a cult. Hall acknowledges the metaphor for contemporary life: “It’s one of the more quietly political and zeitgeisty projects I’ve been involved in; it touches on a loneliness epidemic and need for connection.”

To hear the hum, Hall used an earpiece while shooting. She explains, “The sound department and [director] Janicza Bravo designed hums that we could have in an earpiece. There were varieties — intense ones, softer ones, comforting ones. As the story progresses, the hum takes on different attributes or brings out different emotional things in Claire.”

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Another behind-the-scenes detail Hall shares is how Bravo used subtle visuals to define Claire’s relationship with Kyle. “It’s not a romantic relationship but it is an incredibly profound connection that plays on us almost being the same person. It’s a slight doppelganger situation. There are shots leaning into the fact that mine and Ollie West’s bone structure in our faces are very similar. I remember a day where I walked on set to do a scene in a cafe. I thought, what is odd about this setup? It gradually dawned on me that there were duplicates all over. The background actors were peppered [with] sets of identical twins, and then two dogs that look the same. It seeps in on an unconscious level.”

Suspense builds in the final episode as the listeners’ loved ones demand they leave the compound. Kyle’s mum is particularly distraught, and it seems Claire and Kyle may be torn apart. This leads to a tense showdown before Claire returns to what society calls sanity. But she’ll never be the same. Says Hall, “It unlocks something profound inside her psyche that she wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.”

The Listeners, Season Finale, Friday, July 10, 9/8c, Starz