When Netflix’s Girl From Nowhere: The Reset came around, I was interested to see how the show would approach Nanno this time, and how Becky Armstrong would step into a character like this. Nanno has always been unpredictable, but here she feels a little more restrained, less about direct punishment and more about watching people slowly expose themselves, especially in stories centered on bullying and social pressure.

Across six episodes, the tone keeps shifting, and that comes through in Becky’s performance. She brings a strong sense of control to the character, building Nanno through small, precise choices, the way she watches people, the pauses, the sense that she’s always a step ahead. It’s a performance that feels both subtle and deliberate, making this version of Nanno especially compelling to watch.

When we spoke, Becky got into how much of that came from the process itself, from workshops to physically demanding shoots, including an underwater scene that only lasts a few seconds on screen but took hours to film. She also talked about the challenge of stepping into someone so emotionally detached, especially since she describes herself as a very empathetic person in real life.

Below, she breaks down her approach to Nanno, the themes behind Girl From Nowhere: The Reset, and what makes this version of the character feel different.

Nexus Point News: Looking back at your journey so far, what have been the most important lessons or moments that prepared you for a role as complex as Nanno?

Becky Armstrong: I mean, I have to say, whatever role I take on, I dedicate myself to the role 100%. I give my 100%, and I respect each role. I would say the challenge with Nanno is that it’s a very different personality to how I am in everyday life. I’m seen as this kind of sunshine girl. So I would say that Nanno brings out this dark side of me, which I believe that everybody has in themselves. But I would also say that the whole time I was playing it, I felt this sense of therapy because it’s a different side of me that I feel like nobody gets to see just from the eyes, the body language, everything.

It’s very different, but it’s super interesting to play as well. There was a lot of preparation going towards this role, which is from the workshops that we did. There were six episodes, six directors, different styling, different directing. In each episode, we all worked together to try and make the best outcome.

Nanno is a character that blends mystery, power, and vulnerability. How did you find the balance between these elements to make her feel unique?

Becky Armstrong: I think finding Nanno’s character was quite challenging. How do I want Nanno in The Reset to be portrayed? I feel like if you look at this generation right now, let’s say 2025, 2026, the Gen Z generation. It’s a lot of mind games people play with each other, not always direct revenge or direct consequences, but it’s a very tricky complex of mind games, I would say. So I try to incorporate that in being Nanno by playing all those, like, with the eyes, with gestures, and, like, leading you to decide what you want to do.

I’m not forcing you to do anything, but it’s more what you actually want to do subconsciously, but you didn’t want to show it beforehand. So it’s this idea of bringing this Gen Z kind of vibe. So it’s a kind of modern girl Nanno.

What was the most fun or challenging part of exploring Nanno’s duality – her protective side versus her vengeful side?

Becky Armstrong: All the parts of exploring Nanno’s personality are very interesting. She has lots of different emotions, different ways of portraying each. She can be sad, then she can be happy, then she can be straight up. Like a killer eye vibes or like she changes her emotions a lot in one scene. But there’s this very playful side that I really enjoyed exploring and I think as I watched it as well, I felt like, ‘ah, Nanno, here you go again. Here you go again’.

Nanno deals with extreme situations of bullying and injustice. How do you maintain the intensity of the character without making her predictable or over-the-top?

Becky Armstrong: I would say the storyline is probably predictable to some because when bullying happens, people would expect consequences. But in some parts of it, you don’t see the consequences how people might expect. Because in reality, in real life, sometimes that’s what just happens. Nothing happens or that’s just reality for everyone. These are some episodes which feel more surreal than others.

Some episodes might not feel real, some episodes may feel this. I feel like as a viewer you would get a lot of different emotions, different feelings watching each episode. So I would feel like there’s a lot of topics like bullying, injustice, corruption, all those kinds of things that society faces, which is an uncomfortable topic for people to talk about. But in the series you can see it portrayed through the different characters.

Can you tell us about your preparation for playing Nanno? Did you do research, specific exercises, or draw inspiration from somewhere?

Becky Armstrong: Preparation for Nanno started out from literally her breathing, her walking, what she saw. I would see the room and everybody in the room as a bright orange, a bright, flickering orange. That’s that sense of danger, that’s that sense of power. And it wasn’t easy to find the color, but I did a lot of trying to imagine what it could be. I mean, a lot of people say that the eyes are quite this. It’s strong eyes. It seems like those psycho eyes. It’s from the color that it seems.

And another thing I would say is what animal do I think of when I see Nanno when she’s on her playful side? I would see it as an orange cat, which is playful. But when you don’t want to play with someone, you just observe. If you think of an orange cat, you’ll get what I mean. I grafted out her emotions, how I would want it to be. I felt like going back to my point of wanting her to be a very Gen Z Nanno. And from my background, I’m a Thai, half Thai, half British. So we decided at the start that we’re not going to portray her as like a hundred percent Thai girl, because she’s not.

She’s a girl from nowhere. She’s literally like no background or nothing. But based on how it is, we decided that if we do this, then I could add in some English words or expressions differently. So it was very fun.

The series deals with intense themes like bullying and revenge. How do you prepare emotionally for such heavy scenes?

Becky Armstrong: Actually, I have to say, by being Nanno, you don’t have to have any feelings, which is kind of hard for me as a Becky person, because I have a lot of feelings. I’m a very empathetic person. I care a lot about how people feel, so I have to wipe those feelings off. And there were a lot of workshops to try to wipe those feelings off. Meaning when I play with someone and people can’t see that, oh, I feel sorry for you. I might pretend I feel sorry for you, but I’m actually having a lot of fun, which I felt that came home with me a lot and I had to try to get that out because in reality, I’m a very empathetic, caring, understanding person.

Sky always seems to find Nanno, no matter where she is. How do you see this unique connection between them, and what does it reveal about Nanno?

Becky Armstrong: So in this version of Girl From Nowhere: The Reset, I would say that Nanno isn’t someone that anybody can see. People may have had a bit of a misunderstanding in episode one, where it seemed like you could easily search Nanno up. Nanno is only shown to people that she wants to be seen by. Nanno is someone that you can’t just want to appear, she’ll appear if she wants to. Then she will only appear for Sky. She came in to test the limits of Sky. This person faced bullying to the maximum, wanting to commit suicide, which is very extreme, very strong. And in the end, he didn’t go the way that Nanno thought he would go.

It’s mainly how you get treated, you treat people that way. But instead, Sky was more like, ‘I give you another chance. It’s okay, don’t worry, let’s better ourselves.’ And actually, something Sky could show is that you need more people like that in society, because we lack people like that in the real world. I wouldn’t view them relationship-wise or anything, but Nanno just sees this person as different and wants to explore more. Is there anybody in this universe that’s kind of like him? Sky is a sense of hope.

Girl from Nowhere: The Reset addresses bullying, social pressure, and female empowerment. What message do you hope viewers take away from your version of Nanno?

Becky Armstrong: I want people to feel like this is actually the real world, and that this is what actually happens. Bullying happens in every form, in school, at work, on social media, cyberbullying. It’s strong. You see the number of people struggling because of mental health, physical health, reading something online constantly, every day, hearing things that put you down, it’s something the world still faces, and it still happens every day. And I hope people watching the series kind of learn from it and don’t do that to others. Because the first guy, it was a lucky case, honestly. But in some cases, it’s not.

Don’t be the reason why someone doesn’t want to smile or live anymore. And I would say, I would feel like Nanno in society. I think it’s better in this generation. There’s a lot more women empowerment. Women have more rights. Women can be themselves more, but there’s still a lot of societal pressure on women. And I feel the character of Nanno shows that breakthrough, because Nanno is like, ‘I’ll be who I want, and no one can tell me what to do.’ And I hope more people are like that as well.

As a young actress, how do you see the importance of portraying strong, complex female characters like Nanno?

Becky Armstrong: I would say Nanno probably gives an inspiration to people who are facing all these injustices in society and facing all these hardships in their everyday life. I mean, in reality, I don’t know if you’re gonna have a Nanno in your school or in your life, but I want you guys to look at the bright side. There’s a solution to life, and there’s positivity surrounding your life. But sometimes society just is like that. And I hope one day it really does change. I hope for the next generation, or the younger generation right now, I hope you guys are kind to each other and be fair to each other. I hope it creates a better society for everyone

Is there a particular scene you remember fondly, or one that was especially fun or challenging to shoot?

Becky Armstrong: One that really stood out to me is being underwater. There’s an underwater scene that you’ll see in episode six. You’ll probably see it for a few split seconds, but filming it was intense. It was six hours in the water. Me and Sam had to go down at the exact same time. I had to open my eyes underwater for a while. It’s hard to breathe at some point. Oxygen was lacking, my eyes were getting blurred. I wasn’t feeling very well at all that day, and it was very hard to film. But we were pushing each other, being like, ‘okay, we can do this, we can do this.’

It’s something that I think a lot of people face as an actor or actress while filming, when your body is weak or not feeling well, and you still have to film these hard scenes. But when it’s portrayed online, it looks like just a five-second scene. But we actually filmed for like five, six hours, and it took a lot of time, a lot of emotion, stability, and a lot of support from each other. It’s something that I really appreciate when I look back at it, because those are the times where you’re like, ‘wow, I really pushed my limits.’ And after filming that scene, you find it’s raining and you have to film in the rain. It’s a lot of emotional stability and a lot of, like, ‘okay, I have to do this, I can do this.’

Is there a particular trait or habit of Nanno that you especially love and think fans will notice in the small moments?

Becky Armstrong: Her thinking pose, where she taps her cheek a couple times, and that’s when she’s plotting and something bad’s gonna go down. I feel like that could be a signature of hers and something I’ll always remember, because we created this in the workshop. I remember the acting coach told me to be like an orange cat and play it out, like how an orange cat would portray this.

So I came out with that thinking, and you’ll see it in every episode. So I would say that’s the trait of Nanno. Yeah, and also some winks. I feel like when you go up to someone and just randomly wink at them, it’s low-key annoying and really gets to someone. So it was interesting how that was played out.