{"id":1916759,"date":"2026-05-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916759"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:00:00","slug":"the-audacitys-sarah-goldberg-searches-for-the-humanity-in-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916759","title":{"rendered":"‘The Audacity’s Sarah Goldberg searches for the humanity in Silicon Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Home<\/a>><\/span>Entertainment<\/a>><\/span>TV Shows<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘The Audacity’s Sarah Goldberg searches for the humanity in Silicon Valley<\/h1>\n
“What does it take to lose your humanity, and can you get it back?”<\/div>\n
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\n \u00a0By\u00a0<\/p>\n
Belen Edwards<\/a><\/p>\n
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\"A<\/p>\n
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Belen Edwards<\/div>\n
Entertainment Reporter<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.\n <\/div>\n

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Sarah Goldberg in \"The Audacity.\"<\/p>\n
Sarah Goldberg in “The Audacity.”<\/span>Credit: Ed Araquel \/ AMC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When The Audacity<\/em><\/a>star Sarah Goldberg first met with seriescreator Jonathan Glatzer, he summed up the show in an unexpected fashion: The real-life tech titans whom The Audacity <\/em>skewers are so focused on creating immortality that they can’t face the fact that everyone \u2014 including them \u2014 has, at some point in their lives, pooped their pants.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/span>‘The Audacity’ tears Silicon Valley a new one: Review<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

That juxtaposition \u2014 a “denial of our base humanity,” as Goldberg described it in a Zoom call with Mashable \u2014 attracted her to The Audacity<\/em>‘s warped take on Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n

In The Audacity<\/em>‘s ensemble of tech founders, Goldberg’s Dr. JoAnne Felder is the odd person out. She’s a therapist to the Valley’s “billionaire man-children,” a renter in a sea of obscenely wealthy homeowners who don’t care if their Napa house burns down, because they have several other homes to run back to.<\/p>\n

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Due to her outsider status, you might think JoAnne would serve as The Audacity<\/em>‘s voice of reason. But by the end of the show’s first episode, it’s clear she’s willing to bend the rules for personal gain just as much as her clients. One of them, Hypergnosis CEO Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen), learns she uses confidential client information to conduct insider trading.<\/p>\n

“In this completely morally bankrupt world that JoAnne finds herself in, she feels like her tiny little transgressions are harmless, or even justified,” Goldberg said.<\/p>\n

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Sarah Goldberg and Billy Magnussen in \"The Audacity.\"<\/div>\n
Sarah Goldberg and Billy Magnussen in “The Audacity.”<\/span>Credit: Ed Araquel \/ AMC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Coming into The Audacity<\/em>, Goldberg wanted a “big departure” from her Emmy\u2013nominated role as Barry<\/em>‘s struggling actor Sally Reed. When she first read for Sally, she felt she knew that character right away. For JoAnne, Goldberg was more drawn to her rhythm, an element that usually pulls her towards roles.<\/p>\n

In her professional life, JoAnne’s rhythm is slow and intentional. Goldberg describes her using silence “as a tool,” wielding it to create space so her clients can open up… and give her valuable information information in the process.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t feel huge pressure to do major research and become this really qualified therapist, because that ship has sailed for JoAnne,” Goldberg laughed. “It’s sunk!”<\/p>\n

Rhythm-wise, JoAnne’s personal life is another story. As she weathers blackmail from Duncan, the possibility of losing her home, and her thorny relationship with son Orson (Everett Blunck), she grows more erratic. She drives off the road, snaps at every inconvenience (many self-inflicted), and browses the web for guns during session with clients. She’s a picture of volatility, her blunt bob swaying with each panicked snap.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/span>‘The Audacity’ throws shade at Apple without ever saying its name<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

“It’s a real cheat, but honestly, the hair really helped me. I found myself gesticulating a lot, and there’s this staccato quality to her that was born out of the hair,” Goldberg said. “[Key Hair Stylist] Sanna [Seppanen] told me, ‘I’m gonna give you hair so great, you don’t have to act.’ She was not wrong.”<\/p>\n

While JoAnne differs wildly from Sally Reed, Barry <\/em>fans may catch glimpses of her in JoAnne’s increasingly nervous, occasionally explosive interactions with others. Like with Sally’s decline, JoAnne is also a woman fraying at the edges.<\/p>\n

“I love a frayer. I’m attracted to fraying people,” Goldberg said. <\/p>\n

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She’s also attracted to the dichotomy between The Audacity<\/em>‘s characters’ external and internal lives.<\/p>\n

“So many people in this world are similar to Barry <\/em>in some ways,” she said. “They’re living two lives, one with a very thick veneer to perform who they need to be in their business or job.”<\/p>\n

Goldberg continued: “I’m always interested in that duality. I’m interested in how we do it day to day. Why, when someone calls you, does your voice go high? Why do you speak one way when you’re ordering your coffee, and then when you’re in the doctor’s office, it’s different? I’m always fascinated by our external behaviors and what’s going on underneath.”<\/p>\n

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Sarah Goldberg in \"The Audacity.\"<\/div>\n
Sarah Goldberg in “The Audacity.”<\/span>Credit: David Moir \/ AMC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Goldberg is a self-described “technophobe.” She has no apps and no social media, and she wasn’t incredibly familiar with Silicon Valley prior to filming The Audacity<\/em>. However, even before working on the show, she had been reading up on the rise of AI<\/a>, especially how it pertains to the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

“I’m hoping that this doomsday feeling that was setting in is overblown. I don’t know that it is,” she said. “My hope I always hold on to is that television and film didn’t kill theater, and I think that we’re always going to crave a kind of connection and nuance that’s not going to be available through AI.”<\/p>\n

The Audacity <\/em>tackles AI through a storyline that JoAnne hasn’t figured into much yet, one where Martin Phister (Simon Helberg) is essentially raising and nurturing an AI child. As the show goes on, he sees potential for it as a therapeutic tool that can do good, like when it listens to Deputy Under Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs Tom Ruffage (Rob Corddry) about his wartime experiences.<\/p>\n

“The AI aspect of the show is being developed with such purity and passion and focus. Seeing what happens if it falls into the wrong hands is where it all gets so frustrating,” said Goldberg.<\/p>\n

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