Meet Sara Serraiocco, The Actress Behind ‘Counterpart’s’ Dangerously Sexy Assassin Baldwin

Starz‘s new thriller Counterpart opens on a murder scene in a slanted version of present-day Berlin. The one survivor — a woman discovered sobbing in a shower stall — soon reveals herself to be a deadly assassin named Baldwin. This short-haired gamine soon kills her way across parallel universes, but the actress who plays her, Sara Serraiocco, is the person stealing the show on Counterpart so far. In Episode 1, she tussled with two different versions of J.K. Simmons‘ character Howard Silk, and in this week’s all-new episode, we’ll meet Baldwin’s other, a stunning violin star named Nadia Fierro.
Serraiocco told Decider that when she signed up for Counterpart, she had no idea what she was in for. “Well, I didn’t get the scripts when I got the part because I’m the baby of the cast,” Serraiocco warmly quipped in a thick Italian accent. “I got just the first two episodes, and at the beginning just one, [so] I didn’t know about playing two different roles. When I realized I had to play two different roles, I was, ‘Oh my god, really?’ But it was an important experience, incredible, to work with J.K. [Simmons] and all the other actors.”

The teaser for this weekend’s episode introduces Nadia. Serraiocco suggested that Baldwin, the assassin, feels a certain level of disgust for her other. “Baldwin and Nadia were the same person, but from a certain point on, they begin to live two separate lives. So, Nadia, for example, is a successful violinist. She’s classy, elegant…she’s always dressed up. She has a beautiful apartment in Berlin…She has all the things Baldwin never had.” She added, “I think they are really different, but they are really connected because they have the same past.”
Serraiocco had a not-so unique path to acting: she started out as a dancer. “I was a professional dancer and I used to teach dance. Then I broke my ankle five times and I had to get out,” she told us. “I mean, I’d always been interested in the performing arts, but I would never have thought I’d be an actor. I thought I would be a dancer or a dance teacher or whatever.”

The former dance teacher is now one of the hottest talents in Europe. At the age of 19, she made her film debut in Salvo. The Italian film won The Critics’ Week Grand Prix at Cannes and Serraiocco went on to win the Italian Golden Globe for her performance. Since then she’s appeared in a string of independent films that have taken her to Sundance and that have earned her the Shooting Stars Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Still, she acknowledged that Counterpart might be the first American audiences are seeing of her. “I think most people in the U.S. don’t know me at all,” she said with a giggle. “I got an agent in London last year and he told me about this new project called Counterpart. I did a self-tape from Italy –“

“Without speaking a word of English,” co-star Nazanin Boniadi jumped in to say excitedly. “She didn’t speak a word of English when she got this job!”

“Not a word,” Serraiocco confirmed. “And they wanted me to do a screen-test in London, but I didn’t speak English — (laughs) — but I learned the lines.”
Counterpart star Olivia Williams told us how remarkable Serraiocco’s progression was over the course of filming. “I mean, Sara’s extraordinary. She really did not have a firm grasp of language when we started…and she just pulled in that performance! But that incredible sense of isolation…. She’s so dark, her character!”

Serraiocco gave credit to the Counterpart team. “They made me feel [like] part of a family and they were supportive to me,” she said, before particularly praising Boniadi for being a “great help” on set. “I learned a lot from her. Yeah, because she was my point of reference.”

Episode 2 of Counterpart premieres on Starz this Sunday, January 28th. 

Where to Stream Counterpart