Hey. How's it going? I'm well.
How are you?
Very well, thank you. Very well.
Congratulations on the show. Thank you.
I've been speaking to some of your producers.
And cast, and they're all lovely. I have a few more to go yet.
So it's been a good day.
It's a good show.
I have to say, it's. It's wonderful.
I've asked everybody that so far.
I'm going to continue to ask this.
It's there's so much going on in the show,
and there's so many wonderful themes and stories and characters.
But I wanted to ask you about the opening
title sequence because it is it's just wonderful.
And I was just talking some of your cast, and they were saying
it was kind of the one time
they all got to spend some time together because of COVID and because of shooting
schedules and everything.
And it kind of was a great moment for them.
So what was your thinking behind that?
Yeah, I mean, I love title sequences.
I just come from such respect for them and I write title sequences into my script.
So that was written in.
It was a different song in the script, but just I wanted in a show like this
where you sometimes go into some heavy, heavy material.
I wanted to give an audience a gift in every episode and a gift of joy,
a celebration of life to remind them at the end of the day,
despite all the tears LAUGHTER is just as important.
And I can't think of any other just primal way of expression of joy
besides dancing. Right?
We all have that little babies dance even when they're like, you know,
just a few days out of the womb.
So it was just such a one.
It was amazing experience. I love shooting that.
Have you managed to see Kogonada's After Yang?
Yes, I love it.
Yeah, it's hard.
I didn't think anything would be able to top that. Yeah.
And this is this is equal to at least.
But did Kogonada shoot it it was it was it of a people
the director for both shooting their own episodes at that time.
So, yeah.
And then we go.
And as for you, as as a showrunner, this I mean, this book is so epic in scale.
And you've managed to make it on something like Apple
TV where you're able to tell it exactly how you want to tell it.
You're able to not cut things.
You're able to make it in the way that the cover of the book allows you to.
Wow. What was important for you about making it in this way
and giving it kind of a mini series in that respect?
Well, it's not a mini series is an ongoing series.
So yeah, it's not a limited series, I would say.
And I think I love adaptations.
It's what I prefer to do,
but I don't think every book needs to be adapted. Right.
So the only reason I'm interested in adaptation is
if there's something that I feel like I can say that I can bring to the project.
And with this book, you know, there is it is big, it's vast.
But that in itself isn't the reason to do it.
Once I realised I was really interested in the dialogue
between the generations, right.
And how they speak and how they contrast and how they clash,
then all of a sudden I was like, Oh, this is a show.
This is a story I feel like I can tell.
And that was just, that was pretty exciting.
Yeah.
I just spoke to your executive producers and they were talking about how Apple TV
have swung for the fences, and this was something
that's been kind of gestating for
for a couple of years and was one of the big shows
that they kind of swung for in the initial instance.
How was it working for them?
Because they've got so much content at the minute.
It's really hard to keep up.
I mean, not just Apple, everyone is just too much content, period.
In the world, period.
And that's why I like, you know, how do you stand apart from everything else?
And I think you can't be cynical about it because the minute you try to game
the system, the system changes its rules on you, right?
Yeah.
I think the only way to really
is just make work that try to think of
timeless pieces, be part of the canon, just try to make things that feel
like they can exist at any moment in time.
And Apple, they've just been tremendous partners.
I mean, yeah, this was a swing for the fences.
But, you know, I think they believed in the show and what it could be.
And for that I'm really grateful.
And now, obviously, you've done season one and you're kind of doing the impression
everything else looking back.
Did you manage to achieve everything that you hoped for from from season one?
Or are you still
you know, if you still got a few things for season two yet to come?
There's yeah, there's an ongoing series, so there's still some things to come
If your question is if I think season one is perfect, the answer is no, right?
You know, like I always say, like in each show, what percentage of me is in there?
And the higher that is, the more of a success
that show is in my eyes of what I wanted to accomplish.
And I would say this is about 90% so almost.
Is that right?
Is there a I mean, it's a one connected story,
but is there one period that that's your that your favourite that you enjoyed
making the most?
Was was is it is it also either that is is the important thing for you?
I didn't I don't think of it as which time period I love better.
There's definitely some scenes that I love.
I there's so many scenes that just are Hallmark scenes for me.
Or it's also on the flip side,
there are scenes that when you're shooting you're going - I'm worried about the scene,
I'm not sure if it's going to work. Who wrote this scene?
You know, and then you're delighted in the editing room.
You like it works.
Those surprises are just wonderful.
Yeah, absolutely. I wish for the best for the show.
Thank you so much for your time.
And yeah, good luck with the next series and if it goes really well.
So yeah, thank you.