Jane Luk isn’t here to make you comfortable. In The Institute, MGM+’s harrowing new adaptation of the popular Stephen King novel, she plays Maureen, a woman whose courage is buried under years of hardened silence and fear. You’ll find her mopping floors, moving like a shadow through fluorescent-lit corridors, clocking in and clocking out. But don’t let her invisibility fool you. Luk knows exactly who Maureen is, and she’s not afraid to take you with her into the dark.
“Maureen is ex-military, so there are some things that I figured for me, a body sense memory of how to steel yourself going into battle,” Luk explains, like it’s the root of everything. “There’s a mindset, you just put that armour on and move forward.”
For much of the series, her morally grey character does just that. She walks forward, past the cries of children, past the men in white coats and listens to the orders given to her. “She answers to Sigsby, her boss, and she knows that she’s got to give her something. So, in a way, at the beginning, she sort of betrays the kids because she’s telling on them.” Set inside a sinister facility that experiments on gifted children under the guise of psychological research, Maureen is trapped in a moral rut and surrounded by villains. She stands as the perfect person to prey on; alone with no family, with a traumatic past and desperate for a job. Sigsby moulds her into the perfect bystander with a badge who is willing to look away from the atrocities around her for survival.
“At first, she doesn’t see them as children because Sigsby doesn’t,” Luk says, softening her voice. “She’s been conditioned not to. When Luke reaches out to her, she finally sees them as human, as children. I think that is what helped me propel her. I thought she had to find a way to protect at least one of them; she doesn’t think she can save all of them, but she can help one, because he reached out to her.”
Luke, played by newcomer Joe Freeman, is a child prisoner whose telekinetic abilities make him a prime target for Sigsby’s cruel experiments. He can sense there is more to Maureen and can understand the goodness that is overshadowed by fear and regret. Their relationship serves as a turning point that allows her to recognize just how disturbing the institute is. “Luke reminds her of her own son,” Luk reveals. “That’s what gives her courage. ‘This is something I can do to help him and to alleviate some of her guilt’.”
It’s a small, staggering act. Not loud or cinematic, but deeply human. “She was at, like, rock bottom. Even as a janitor slash orderly – she answers to Tony (Jason Diaz), who is also an orderly, so she’s like at the very bottom with no power. So, for her to do what she does took incredible courage and the love of her son.”
Her portrayal of Maureen doesn’t reach for big emotions. She’s surgical, calm, thoughtful and exacting. But when she talks about her character’s awakening, something shifts. She becomes the juror, not just the performer. “She’s not a hero or a villain,” She says firmly. “Not in her own head. I think she sees herself as making up for her time in Afghanistan, and also what she’s not been able to recognize while she’s been working at the institute. She’s trying to make up for that.”
There is a pause, and Luk lets the silence hang. It’s hard not to connect Maureen’s story to real-world parallels; Luk does so herself, cautiously and with depth. “There are a lot of situations in the world right now where people are victims; I do see Maureen as a victim to some degree, but also, as the oppressor.” The words land with a jolt; rarely do actors speak directly about the duality of their characters yet Luk doesn’t flinch. “It took her a lot of awakening to no longer be that – the oppressor and also not be the victim. This allows her instead to become a victor, a survivor.”
Maureen’s reclamation of her soul acts as an honest and raw example of what if feels like to try and be good in reality, after doing so much wrong. Is redemption truly possible? Can someone truly forgive themselves when they have crossed the point of no return? When I asked Luk how she hopes audiences will connect to Maureen’s journey, her answer is soothing.
“In her depth of despair, she is just existing; she’s not living. I know it’s easy in our society to cast heroes and villains, and yes, there are real villains in this world. But it’s the people who get caught in the crosshairs; when things happen so fast that they can’t stop it, and they are stuck with this guilt and these labels. They have to make a choice.” She pauses again, thoughtfully, then adds, “It’s how you choose to respond to something bad at the end of the day, and she does just that. She owns that she has turned a blind eye, that she’s done bad. Now, it’s her choice to do good.”
If there is one theme that pulses through Luk’s performance, it’s salvation in defiance. Bittersweet and courageous, they are the heartbeat of Luk’s Maureen. In many ways, Luks’ own life threads into her performance; observations from her parents’ journey as immigrants in Canada and her experience as a young girl growing up here. “I was bullied a lot, and I thought, ‘Okay, what can I do? I can’t change their minds, but I can choose not to be in a place where they can make fun of me. So I tried to befriend them, I know it sounds weird, but that’s what I ended up doing.” It’s not weird at all; it’s a tale of survival and the potion that taught her the empathy she needed to play Maureen.
At one point during the press tour, Luke was asked what superpower she’d want most. Her answer? “I wish I had the power to make someone feel the pain they are about to inflict on someone else,” she tells me. “Just for a moment, so maybe they’d think twice.”
It’s the kind of answer that says more about her than a dozen bullies ever could. In Luk’s world, compassion is strength and survival is learned. As The Institute unfolds, you might not notice Maureen at first. She’s quiet, she fades into the background, not asking to be seen. But stay with her, watch closely. By the time you realize her impact, it’s already done.
Jane Luk doesn’t need to raise her voice to shake you. She just needs you to listen.
The first 4 episodes of The Institute are now available on MGM+
