‘Colin can be SO STRONG AND CAPABLE BUT ALSO DEEPLY HUMANE’
Show producer Simon Kinberg on the qualities Colin Farrell brings to new series… By
Colin Farrell is stepping into the world of private investigators in the contemporary noir series Sugar. The eight-episode series begins on Apple TV+ on Friday, April 5, with two episodes. New episodes will land every Friday. The show is a contemporary take on the private detective story, with
Colin Farrell playing American private investigator John Sugar.
Sugar’s tasked with looking into the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of Jonathan Siegel, a legendary producer in Tinseltown.
But as Sugar tries to get to the bottom of what happened to Olivia, he ends up uncovering Siegel family secrets — some long-buried, some which are more recent.
The series also stars Kirby Howellbaptiste as Ruby, Amy Ryan as Melanie, Dennis Boutsikaris as Bernie Siegel, Alex Hernandez as Kenny, Lindsay Pulsipher asvanya and James Cromwell as Jonathan Siegel.
Mark Protosevich created the series and executive produces, alongside Farrell, Audrey Chon, Simon Kinberg, Sam Catlin, Scott Greenberg and Chip Vucelich. Fernando Meirelles, who also executive produced the series, and Adam Arkin directed Sugar.
Colin Farrell opened up about what drew him to the character and to the series — noting that while“he swims in waters of the darkest recesses of human behaviour, he also loves the beauty that human beings can create”.
He said,“his only true allegiance is to finding people, locating those lost souls who usually have been the victims of kidnap or abduction, and returning them home to their families.”
The Dubliner added that Sugar is “somewhat mercurial, incredibly fastidious, and incredibly intuitive”.
He continued,“he knows people, sees people and he sees into people.
“And he has a wound of his own from his past that compels him forward in the work that he does. So that means that the work he embarks upon is incredibly personal to him. It’s not just a job.”
Simon Kinberg told how he had
“always been a big fan of the detective mystery genre”and is“always looking for new ways to do it”— and how he and Audrey Chon had been drawn to
Protosevich’s story, as he opened up about how Farrell quickly “locked into the character of Sugar”.
He continued,
“Colin loves detective stories, so he was drawn to that aspect of the genre, but he just locked into the character of Sugar.
“Like Sugar, Colin can be so strong and capable but also deeply humane and decent and chivalrous in real life, and I think he saw himself in Sugar.
“Sugar is unlike any character I’ve ever seen or read.
“He combines this really strong, capable side with a more human, fragile psyche.
“It’s the dualities, the contradictions, within Sugar that help make him so
watchable.
“There’s a slightly innocent — or even naive — way he looks at the darkest corners of our world and human condition that make his perspective so surprising.”
Chon was intrigued by the idea of bringing the“charming, chivalrous” private investigator to the screen — noting that Sugar is both modern and has a“a classical leading man quality to him”.
She continued,“sugar is a great character because you never know what he’s going to do next.
“He’s complex and an enigma who embodies a variety of different traits that wouldn’t often be found in one character.
“I hope the experience of learning about, and de-constructing Sugar, will be thrilling and unexpected for the audience.”
Chon told how Farrell was“incredibly involved”from the get-go, and “collaborated with our directors, writers, actors, and department heads in every facet of the show”.
She continued,“colin embodies any role he plays wholeheartedly in a transformative way.
“He did this playing John Sugar while also bringing his own wit and humour, his distinctive physicality, and mannerisms, to the role.
“It added a whole other dimension to Sugar, which made the character that much more unique and memorable.”
Director Fernando Meirelles recalled meeting Farrell to talk through Sugar — as he praised the actor’s portrayal of the private investigator.
He said,“i don’t know how Colin does it, but he manages to make the viewer instantly interested in his character, to the point that the main focus of the series is to find out who John Sugar is, rather than unraveling the disappearance he investigates, and, in fact, this is a big point in the story.
“Once I arrived in Los Angeles, the first thing I did was schedule a one-onone conversation with Colin.
“I went to his house, and we talked extensively about our expectations, about how John Sugar would be, whether it would have humour, if it would be sweet or drier and how he would observe the world.
“I like to perform as if it were a play, and with three cameras, I capture the angles I think I’ll need. By doing this, all scenes are always shot from beginning to end, without cutting, which allows actors to improvise when they feel like it. That was something we agreed on right away.
“I told Colin that I like to film as if playing jazz, feeling and adapting as I go. He replied, ‘I love jazz.’ And so our journey began.”
Sugar spends time at the Hotel Del Corazon, which is inspired by Hotel Belair, while working in Los Angeles — and Farrell told how the city has got“some of the most character of any city I’ve ever been in”.
He said,“i’ve lived in Los Angeles for 20 years and it has some of the most character of any city I’ve ever been in.
“Every now and then you see a film that seems to grasp an aspect of the spirit of this city, so the idea to investigate Los Angeles as a character — everything that’s beautiful, everything that’s broken, and all the parts in between — was really attractive to me.”
Kirby Howell-baptiste plays
Ruby, Sugar’s colleague and righthand woman — and someone who is“the brains behind the whole operation as well as someone who’s very tech savvy.”
The Sandman star added that the role was described to her as“m meets Q from James Bond”as she opened up about the ambiguity in Sugar and Ruby’s relationship.
She said,“we don’t know what the root of their relationship is, but Sugar and Ruby have known each other for a really long time.
“They’re really close. They have this mutual respect and they know each other very, very well. Ruby probably knows Sugar better than anyone else, and vice versa.”
Howell-baptiste told how it is“very exciting to play this character who sits in the center of two worlds”.
She continued,“it offers a lot of intrigue both as an actor and as a character. “I’m trying to figure out Ruby’s intentions, but at the same time Ruby is trying to figure out this bigger story of what’s going on and what she’s a part of. It’s not cut and dried.
“In fact, I don’t think there’s a single character in the show that is exclusively good or bad. They’re all really complex.” Oscar-nominee James Cromwell plays Jonathan Seigel, while Dennis Boutsikaris plays Bernie, a ruthless movie producer who is Jonathan’s only living son and Olivia’s father. Boutsikaris joked how Bernie gave him “a chance to play my inner jerk”.
He said,
“I’ve certainly been around people who say what they’re thinking and don’t care what you think about what they’re thinking.
“You always wonder, how does this person get to be like this?”
The actor noted that when audiences first meet Bernie, there are a lot of different things that“come together as a tense stew”as the journey begins — and it doesn’t just come down to Olivia’s disappearance.
Amy Ryan plays Melanie Matthews, Bernie’s third ex-wife who has“kept this very strong connection to her stepdaughter, Olivia”. She said,“melanie has a lot at stake here. She’s very eager to help Sugar with the investigation, but is also wary of giving too much away since she doesn’t quite trust him and doesn’t know his motives. She only doles out a little bit of information at a time.”
Ryan explained that Sugar and Melanie create a close bond over time, and it becomes“more about that connection, respect, love, and helping each other”.
She continued,“they have something a bit deeper that’s longer lasting and you see that evolve. That trust builds and builds through the course of the season.”
And with the series paying tribute to classic American cinema, Kinberg explained that it was always important that the contemporary noir series feels like it could be a feature on the silver screen.
He said,“this series is a love letter to Hollywood, most especially the classic film noir movies that inspired pretty much every mystery or crime show and film of the last 50 years.
“Fernando, Colin, and our writers are all so well versed in noir, the show is drenched in references to our favourite stories, many of which are in the show itself.”
Chon told how the magic of the film industry — as well as of film noir —“is infused in all aspects of the show”.
She said,“you see its influence on Sugar’s character. It’s embedded in the visual language of the show.
“We infused our episodes with clips of classic films.
“Our central case involves a highprofile Hollywood family in which we use to explore various aspects of Hollywood.”
Farrell added,“you get the sense that there are things going on in Los Angeles that the city might be ashamed of.
“There are secrets, there are ambitions thwarted. Hopefully we did that genre good service.”
The first two episodes of Sugar will debut on Apple TV+ on Friday, April 5, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.
“HE BROUGHT HIS OWN WIT AND HUMOUR AND MANNERISMS...”