‘Each season's got its own sort of flavor': ‘Slow Horses' director on crafting a darker, more emotional chapter
Although it might be intimidating for a director to hop aboard a successful television series a few seasons in, Adam Randall didn't have that problem on Slow Horses. "The speed with which the show is filmed meant that only season one was out when I got the job," he told Gold Derby. "Season 2 was coming out about two weeks later, and Season 3 was when I was already in post [production]. So it hadn't reached the level of success that it was going to [have], but it would still have made a big splash" given its high pedigree and A-list cast. "I was unbelievably excited and definitely intimidated going in."
Based solely on what he had seen and read, it was clear to Randall that "each season was very different" and evolving. "They've established a world, they've established these characters, but each season's got its own sort of flavor, plays with genres in different ways, has its own tone. So that was one of the really exciting things, being able to take something from this remarkable world and put a stamp on it," Randall said. And in this case, "We definitely felt that it was a darker season," and every decision he made branched off from that.
More from GoldDerby
Tom Cruise finally gets his (honorary) Oscar moment: Here's his complete awards history
Alan Cumming would be the 4th person to repeat in Best Reality Host: See fresh Emmy odds
Dolly Parton adds honorary Oscar to her trophy shelf: A look back at her legendary awards history
Season 4 of Slow Horses was "heavier emotionally, and in a way, it was the first season that was genuinely emotional," considering it dealt with, among other things, retired MI5 officer David Cartwright's (Jonathan Pryce) decline into dementia and the effect it has on his grandson, River (Jack Lowden). Combined with the inciting terrorist attack in Episode 1 and Frank's (Hugo Weaving) "bizarre" story set at a French compound "allowed for a much darker, heavier visual palette and score." There were even "elements of horror in there" in its portrayal of David's decline, "as well as the thriller elements," but also "the comedy and the drama that people love" from previous seasons.
Slow Horses was Randall's first foray into television, as he'd previously only worked in films. Considering he directed all six episodes, "it was a very easy transition, because in effect these are six-hour movies." That was mandated from the beginning by Gary Oldman, who stars as crotchety MI5 agent Jackson Lamb. "That was one of the things that he was adamant about, that he wanted one director for all six [episodes] and to treat them like a movie." Because of this, "the show was allowed to be very director-led," Randall explains, "so once I figured out the lay of the land," he realized it was "very similar to a film, and I could push it in certain directions and think about it from start to finish."
He gives due credit to lead writer Will Smith, who is "the loveliest man on earth, as well as incredibly talented and very, very funny." The two had actually met years prior because, Randall reveals, "he was in a short film I'd directed a long time ago that no one should ever see," even though, "Will was good in it, and it was lovely meeting him through it." Although the scripts Smith had written "were already great," Randall was able to bring in his own "had thoughts and ideas," especially when it came to the action sequences. "They just have to evolve and change, and he was always really open and allowed me a lot of freedom."
SEE Gary Oldman on 'Slow Horses' being 'an extraordinary show to work on' and 'one of the highlights of my career'
That collaborative spirit extended to his relationship with the cast. "It's interesting with this, because obviously most of them have done three seasons, so in some ways I was catching up," Randall divulges. "I was asking them about their characters," and also "what they wanted to achieve in season four." Although he'd rehearse certain scenes before filming, his directorial technique "really depends on the actor. Some actors like to keep it very fresh on the day, some actors like to talk in a lot of detail about everything, from the props they may be holding to their intention in a scene." When they arrived on set, "we'd just be very loose and play," coming up with new ideas on the day.
"The one thing with those actors is how remarkable they already are," Randall continues. Whereas in "some of my previous work" he had to "try to find the performance," in Slow Horses, "it was already of such a standard that had I have not turned up it still would've been a great scene. So you're not trying to find the performance, you're trying to find what else can we bring? What other nuances can we bring? How can we play? Can we bring out any humor here? Is there any more we can push it towards?" It helped that "we also had a lot of new cast" who brought "different energies," which allowed the veteran stars "to do very different things this season."
Randall submitted the fourth-season final for Emmy consideration, which he admits "was a hard decision." He chose the episode because, "I thought it balanced a lot of the different things that I was really proud of." For one thing, "it was the most emotional episode" for all of the characters, especially River and David. There was also "a lot of action, which we were really proud of, and we were bold in how we did it." The finale "was a way of weaving all of these different elements together, telling all of these different character's stories, holding this emotion in a way" that still feels in keeping with the rest of the series. It was "a huge challenge," yet the result was "an hour of drama that I'm really proud of."
As Season 5 is set to premiere in September, Randall is already in post-production on Season 6, although true to the art of spy-craft, he's keeping tight-lipped about any details. "I definitely can't share details, other than I'm really, really proud of it," he reveals. "It takes this show to new places. It's a big, dramatic, and emotional season, and I'm very excited about it."
Slow Horses is streaming on Apple TV+.
Best of GoldDerby
'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin')
Sam Rockwell on Frank's 'White Lotus' backstory, Woody Harrelson's influence, and going all in on 'this arc of Buddhist to Bad Lieutenant'
Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh admit they 'never had the audacity to realize' a show like 'Deli Boys' was possible
Click here to read the full article.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Set Out to Make Her Own ‘Fleabag' — Her ‘Really Sweet' Rom-Com Took Her by Surprise
Welcome to It's a Hit! In this series, IndieWire speaks to creators and showrunners behind a few of our favorite television programs about the moment they realized their show was breaking big. Erin Foster is pretty organized. She'd have to be, thanks to a packed schedule that includes many personal obligations (wife, mother, sister, friend) alongside a stuffed professional calendar (which includes her hit Netflix series 'Nobody Wants This,' which she created, plus podcasting, running clothing company Favorite Daughter alongside sister Sara Foster, and much more). More from IndieWire Everything to Remember from 'Squid Game' Season 1 and 2 'Matlock' Production Designer Adam Rowe on How Two Canceled Shows Gave the CBS Hit Its Scale So when we got on Zoom a few weeks ago to talk about the smash first season of 'Nobody Wants This' in the context of the current Emmy season, Foster was thrilled to hear that there was an agenda in place, mostly hinging on chatting through a favorite IndieWire question: 'When did you know this show was a hit?' Still, all that organization and planning soon went out the window, because in addition to being organized and busy, Foster is — much like her alter-ego on the show, Kristen Bell's Joanne — disarmingly honest. ''I don't know' is the not-fun answer,' Foster said with a laugh. 'I definitely didn't know when I first watched it in editing. When I was in the editing process, I was by no means like, 'Wow, get ready, everyone. I have a hit on my hands!' At all. I remember very clearly thinking, 'It's sweet, it's really sweet. I don't think that my friends will make fun of me. But I think they're going to be like, 'It's nice.'' I didn't know if the message I was trying to get across was going to come through.' But while most people would argue that Foster did get her message across — more on that message, and the very personal experiences that inspired it, below — the creator and Season 1 co-showrunner (she shared duties with Craig DiGregorio) was initially concerned that the general genre packaging around the series was different than she was expecting. 'It's sweet and it's soft,' she said. 'I set out to make 'Fleabag' and I ended up making a sweet rom-com. I was like, 'OK, it's not the edgy thing that I thought I was making, but it's actually really sweet.' Then it turned out that was its superpower.' But while the show, which follows Adam Brody and Bell as a seemingly mismatched but extremely appealing new couple, was a hit out of the gate — with strong critical reviews and big-time viewing metrics that pushed it to the top of the streamer's top 10 in its first week — it took Foster a little longer to realize what she had made. I told her that I realized it was breaking through by way of my own metric: my mother had watched it, twice in its entirety, before I had enough time to burn through its first 10 episodes. 'For me, it happened one little step at a time. It was inch by inch,' she said. 'It's different for me than it is for you, with your mom saying that to you, because I had lots of friends' moms saying that to me, too, but it's my show, so they're always going to say that to me. They're going to say, 'I loved your show. I watched it in one night!' It's very hard to gauge outside perception when you're at the center of it.' When Foster saw other celebrities — crucially, other celebrities that she does not personally know — saying in interviews or sharing online that it was their favorite show of the summer, that struck her too. 'That's weird to me,' she said with a laugh. 'I know who you are. You don't know who I am!' While it's relatively easy to measure success by way of stuff like total hours streamed or how quickly it was renewed for a second season (just two weeks after the first season was released, not too shabby), Foster's rom-com also succeeded in other arenas. Like, oh, reminding people just how much they love Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, and giving so-called elder millennials a potent dose of teen nostalgia packaged in something brand new. 'I can't let you call us 'elder millennials,' it's so mean! It is so mean,' Foster said when asked about tapping straight into her own generation with her inspired casting. 'I know that's what we're called. Not to brag, but I had breakfast with Adam when we were offering him the role, and I was sitting across from him and I'm like, 'Damn, this could really work. He is so cute, why don't people know about this?'' That doesn't mean that casting Brody as kind and sexy rabbi Noah and Bell as his more outspoken lady love Joanne was a slam-dunk from the start. 'I was a little bit nervous about this millennial [nostalgia] thing, this 'The O.C.' meets 'Veronica Mars' [casting], because I didn't want the show to be cheesy. I wanted the show to be really well-received and not cutesy. I didn't want it to feel soapy,' Foster said. 'I was a little bit nervous about that, and hesitant about it, but luckily I have people around me who are smarter than me that were like, 'Millennials are going to eat this up and this is great.' Once I got over my fear, I just leaned into it. And when I watched him on camera with Kristen, their chemistry is psychotic. I got lucky, because you can't plan that.' While much has been made of Joanne and Noah's first kiss, for Foster, that 'psychotic' chemistry and obvious romance are on offer almost immediately. When did she know she had really made the right casting choices? 'It's the walk to the car in the pilot [episode],' Foster said. 'That scene was always really, really, really important to me, and it never changed from my original writing of it. Well, the 'Fiddler on the Roof' joke was not mine, that was added later. Originally that line was, 'Say something rabbinical,' and he says, 'Never pay retail.' We changed it to, 'There's a fiddler on the roof,' because it really made us laugh. That scene, I really felt it. I just felt like this is exactly how I wanted the show to feel.' In the first episode, written by Foster and directed by Greg Mottola, brassy podcaster Joanne meets the more strait-laced and steady Noah at a pal's dinner party. That he's a rabbi is one of many things that surprises her, along with his easy charm and clear interest in getting to know her better. When Noah walks Joanne to her car at the end of the evening, their banter is thrilling, but so is the sense that Noah gets her. Even if that means fudging on what he's actually doing. 'I tried to come up with creative ways to get him to be sexy and romantic that's not cookie-cutter,' she said. 'It was like, he's being chivalrous and walking her to her car, but she's like, 'Don't walk me to my car,' and he's like, 'No, my car is right where your car is.' He has a plan, like, I know a girl like this isn't going to want me to walk her to her car, so I have to tell her that I'm walking both of us to our cars. Then, when we get there, I'm going to be like, 'Oh no, I got a space up front.' I didn't have to draw attention to it.' Small moments like that stand out throughout the series, which is based on Foster's own romance with her husband, Simon Tikhman. While Tikhman is not a rabbi (he's in the music business), he is Jewish, and Foster converted to the religion before they married in 2019. For many characters in the series, the pair's mismatched faith is one of the biggest obstacles for their relationship (a rabbi and an agnostic podcaster?!), but Foster's own experiences inspired plenty of other elements of the show, even if not everything is directly pulled from her life. 'Whatever's the best story is what goes on screen. It's not like it has to be true to life by any means,' Foster said. 'My husband's not a rabbi, so there's many things that I have to embellish and change. But I would say that my philosophies are in the show, my philosophies on love, my philosophies on relationships.' She's not just saying that. For Foster, 'Nobody Wants This' is funny, sexy, and romantic, but it's also based on some very personal and quite hard-won life lessons. 'My husband really represents, for me, this idea of a kind of man that I didn't know existed,' she said. 'It doesn't mean that he's perfect Prince Charming or anything like that, it just means that, as modern women, we have been made to believe — because it's true a lot — that you have two options. You have a spicy, sensual, exciting, exhilarating love with a toxic person, or you have a consistent, boring, regular safe option with a nice person. I was really scared of how to make that choice. I was probably going to go with the toxic person, as most women do, because rom-coms typically show us getting the toxic person to choose you and not be toxic anymore. In my experience, you can't get the toxic person to stop being toxic.' When Foster met Tikhman — just like when Joanne meets Noah — it forever altered her perception of what a relationship could be. And she wanted to see that on the screen. 'My relationship with my husband opened my eyes to this third option, which was emotionally healthy, confident, strong, honest, truthful, funny, romantic, but not a pushover,' Foster said. 'I knew how much it blew my mind. I'm like other women, I have a strong personality, but I want an equal partner, someone I can't walk all over, but someone who lets me be myself. I was really excited to show a love story with that kind of guy, because I want every woman to end up in the same kind of marriage I ended up in, which is healthy and fun.' When translating that to the show, Foster didn't get precious about making tweaks and changes to true stories, all the better to serve Joanne and Noah's story. Consider the genesis of the sixth episode in the first season, titled 'The Ick,' in which Joanne feels turned off by Noah trying to impress her family. 'I got the ick with my husband early on because I just got spooked. I got spooked that he was being really nice, and he was trying really hard with my friends and family, and he really wanted this to work out. Those are really nice things,' she said. 'Somehow, it scared me. I had gotten the ick a million times in my life, 'Oh, he's got salad dressing on his mouth, I can't marry him.' The littlest thing can turn you off from someone because they falter in some way. But I never had a guy on the other end of it stop me and be like, 'Don't do that. What are you doing right now? That is stupid. I'm not going to feel embarrassed because I want your parents to like me. You should feel embarrassed.' He really just called me out on it. That was obviously very attractive to me.' The 'ick' that Joanne feels in that moment might be silly or stupid, but it's also deeply human and enormously relatable. That makes it both funny and worth sharing, the kind of entertainment that sticks with you, because it's pulled from the truth. 'I fell madly in love with my husband, and then this really dumb thing made me think that I actually never wanted to be with him again because I wasn't mature enough in that moment to see past the way he said 'Prego' or whatever,' Foster said. 'That's a made-up thing, but the idea of that is true. It's not that I'm proud of being that way, but that's the human experience. I was fucked up and I had bad habits, and I was lucky enough to find someone that my brand of crazy worked for.' As Foster prepares for the series' second season to hit the streamer in October — a season she already promised IndieWire won't hold back on all the stuff its audience already loves, including both romance and comedy, naturally — she's intent on keeping up that kind of honesty, even when it can be a little tough. 'I'm not all the way there, but I'm pretty comfortable exposing my flaws, and when you personalize something, it helps people connect,' Foster said. 'I am willing to do that, because it also makes me feel seen.' The first season of 'Nobody Wants This' is streaming on Netflix. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
Netflix is looking more like the cable model it used to say was doomed
Netflix just made a groundbreaking deal to show a TV network's live and on-demand programming. Starting next summer, people in France will be able to watch content from French TV network TF1, including "The Voice," soaps, and big live sports events. "This is a first-of-its-kind partnership that plays to our strengths of giving audiences the best entertainment alongside the best discovery experience," Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement. "By teaming up with France's leading broadcaster we will provide French consumers with even more reasons to come to Netflix every day and to stay with us for all their entertainment." And just like that, Netflix is looking more and more like the cable model it used to say was doomed. It's unclear why Netflix chose France for its first such partnership and if it could signal the start of a broader push. Industry watchers were quick to speculate that more could follow. "I would expect to see these deals crop up in other markets," Ampere Analysis' Guy Bisson said, pointing to the UK as a natural next market. Netflix is far ahead of the paid streamer pack. To keep growing, it has to continually unlock new kinds of content that keep subscribers sticking around. That's why it has moved into live sports and other events, as well as kids' shows and games. But it has never signed a deal for live TV channels, and the TF1 partnership fits Netflix's goal of being a one-stop entertainment shop. It also feeds its advertising ambitions. Netflix is leaning on ads for its next phase of growth, and advertisers place a high value on live audiences because they're seen as more attentive. Netflix's ad tier reaches 94 million monthly active users, according to the company. All in, it has more than 300 million paid subscribers. There's also an upside for cable and linear TV broadcasters in partnering with Netflix. Their audiences are waning, and Netflix and other tech platforms can connect them to more viewers. TF1 is free to air in France, so being on Netflix doesn't cannibalize subscription revenue, though it could jeopardize the broadcaster's standing with advertisers by distributing on a platform it doesn't control. TV networks' partnership with tech platforms has taken other forms, as well. Media companies in the US, needing short-term revenue, have long licensed their shows to Netflix, for example. TV companies have also put full episodes of shows on YouTube as they look for new sources of revenue and viewers. Streaming industry analyst Dan Rayburn said the TF1 deal won't likely be replicated in the US anytime soon, however. US TV companies like Disney and Paramount are invested in their own streamers. Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery 's cable networks are soon to be out there on their own as their parent companies prepare to spin them off, but he doubted either are big enough to be interesting to Netflix.
Eater
3 hours ago
- Eater
Frenchette Team Is Opening a Restaurant Inside A24's West Village Theater
Historic New York City theater Cherry Lane Theatre is getting ready to reopen — now in the hands of film studio A24, behind recent films like the Materialists and Babygirl . The intent, according to news that first circulated in 2023 about the company purchasing the theater, was to turn it into a clubhouse of sorts for events, performances, as well as film screenings. A cool concession stand would make sense at any new theater, especially one with as savvy a marketing team as the one at A24. This year, A24 released its own line of chocolate bars — the synergy is already there. Community board filings show that the film studio is taking it a step further, working to open a lobby restaurant and bar. It appears to be in collaboration with Galactus Group LLC, affiliated with Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson, two of New York's biggest restaurateurs, known for Frenchette, Le Rock, and most recently, Le Veau D'Or. The latter in particular showcases their commitment to honoring a space's past, where they relaunched one of the oldest French bistros in New York. It wouldn't be the team's first time working in a cultural center, either: they also opened Frenchette Bakery inside the Whitney Museum. A source close to the restaurant confirmed that the project — a new hospitality concept — is underway and looking at a fall opening. A 2023 liquor authority application for the Cherry Lane Theatre listed the dining room seat count at around 60. The theater, located at 38 Commerce Street, has seemingly never had a restaurant, but the space dates back to 1923. It was once known for its counterculture, off-Broadway plays, and has hosted performances from playwrights to musicians and writers — such as Bob Dylan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sam Shepard, and David Mamet — but it struggled in its later life. With in-person film attendance dwindling in recent years, others in the industry have made attempts to restore these sacred entertainment spaces. In 2023, Eater LA reported on director Quentin Tarantino's new cafe inside his Vista Theater. That same year, Netflix announced it had purchased the Paris Theater in Midtown. Most recently, HBO's John Wilson is opening Low Cinema in Ridgewood. Eater has reached out to Hanson and Nasr's team and A24, but did not hear back before publishing. See More: Coming Attractions NYC Restaurant Openings
