The live adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic The Sandman is finally here, and the cast and crew talked with superfan Felicia Day to break down everything from Tom Sturridge’s naked introduction to that diner episode. You can check out the full video below, but here are a few highlights. Warning, mild spoilers ahead.
On Dream’s nearly naked introduction
“How do you introduce your protagonist when he doesn’t speak and he doesn’t move?” Sturridge asks rhetorically. “It was incredibly important to me to somehow articulate this otherworldliness, this inhumanity, this quality of Endless.”
“I did work very hard, hopefully to create an image that would tell an audience that story with no words; to create a body that wasn’t human, that wasn’t muscular... like an Abercrombie & Fitch dream,” he explains of his character’s sinewy physique.
That physique is literally put on full display in the first episode, as his character, Morpheus, is imprisoned naked in a glass sphere.
As it turns out, Morpheus’ nude debut took some work — not all of it what you might expect. “You think when you enter the DC universe, they go, ‘OK, there’s a room. It’s on the backlot. There’s a samurai there with a machine. It takes 20 minutes a day. And he tells you the secrets of how to become [a] superhero,” Sturridge says. But as the actor discovered, there’s no samurai; you just have to put in the time and work out.
On performing an exorcism in an actual church
Jenna Coleman, who plays paranormal professional Johanna Constantine, had to do some very different kind of learning for her role. In one memorable scene, Coleman shot an intense exorcism in a real church in Greenwich. “It was fun! Never done an exorcism before,” she chuckles. “It clearly worked,” showrunner and executive producer Allan Heinberg chimes in. “The demon’s not there anymore.”
On the diner episode
Sandman’s punishingly bleak fifth episode is ripped straight from the comics, but it’s a surprise nonetheless. The episode tracks John Dee (David Thewlis), who steals a powerful gemstone from Dream and uses it to unleash the subconscious desires and dreams of a full 24/7 diner. Things do not go well. “It’s awful and it’s implacable and it’s heartbreaking and it’s monstrous,” Gaiman says. But there’s a small silver lining. “If you get through it on the other side,” Gaiman continues, “our most heartwarming, our gentlest, our kindest, our most healing episode is there waiting for you.” So if you’re in a funk after watching “24/7,” don’t worry: there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
There’s plenty more to discover in the full video, from a breakdown of that twisty finale to Boyd Holbrook diving into the characterization of The Corinthian to Gaiman discussing the adaptation’s long journey to the screen. You can check it all out below, but be warned — there are spoilers ahead!
