Hi. Hi, Sarah.
Hi, Sarah. Hi. Hi, Sarah
Cook from.
HeyUGuys how are you guys doing today?
Yeah, very well. You. Yeah, very good.
I was just saying in the previous interview that I'm
just like halfway through episode three
and I'm like on tenterhooks still right now.
Like, my heat's going.... because I say, what's going on?
So congratulations on such an incredible show
as you get that you're on tenterhooks.
Yeah, it's really, really good.
I was wondering
if we could just start by introducing the audience to your characters
as part of the show.
Sure, I play.
I'm Leila and I play Gabby or Gabrielle Hoffman,
and I'm Alex Hoffman's wife and me.
Me. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm playing.
I'm playing.
The Swiss detective with the name is Jean-Philippe Leclerc
And that's why they choose a French guy or
French talking guy.
And I am.
I am the detective in charge of this huge story.
Absolutely.
So what drew you guys for the project in the first place?
Had never done a
psychological thriller, and I loved the book.
I think Robert Harris is a genius, and
I suppose I like the international feel of it.
And I I heard actually that Gregory was going to be on board.
I was very excited about that.
And yeah, I just wanted to try something different
and sort of horror slash psychological thriller.
And project, yeah, the same,
I first I never I never shot in English, so it was
it was quite a challenge for me and I was very frightened about that
because I was not sure I was not shooting.
Yeah, to be in,
to be a good choice, but it's always a problem.
Nice.
And but
finally, I. I
really enjoy this moment because.
I really like
my character, I really like this guy.
A is maybe is maybe is quite funny and and is
very is very different from all the other one.
And and I think it's what what's good for the story?
And I met delicious people like,
of course, Leila, Arsher [Ali] and and Josh [Hartnett].
It was a
fantastic experience.
But I didn't know this book writer.
I didn't know this writer and I knew that it was a very famous
and it was really brilliant.
A brilliant guy, brilliant writers.
And it was.
I discovered something new, so it was exciting to discover
this writer and this entire works.
It's too
late in the day, it's all good, it's so great.
Was going to say that I really into your detective
because he comes and he just doesn't trust addicts right away.
Yeah, yeah.
Never, never is very
I don't know what to say, but it's trusting.
Yeah, exactly massively.
And there's also a kind of
he makes this comment about wealth and how he was kind of forced out
of his own city by the wealthy and addict if it meant a little bit of.
I just don't want to believe him because he's the rich and wealthy.
He's in my own time.
And so, yes, of course. Of course.
Of course, this guy is absolutely different, different
from from the other one is from the
and from the American one.
And so we discover a word and is not very trustful.
All the guys, you know, he was born not far from here.
He is living in a small, small village
very peacefully in the, you know, so
when you have to when you have to work on this case,
on the strange case, of course, it's in new.
You know that something could be.
Maybe it could be.
You it could be a huge story, so.
So I think is more involved
in this affair in this case than the other one.
So I think it's a very normal detective at the beginning of this story
and at the end of the story is a better one.
Yet, you know, is more,
you know what I mean?
Absolutely.
And, Leila, from the beginning, the kind of Hoffmans' marriage
seems like a dreamy marriage in the first opening sequences
and then sort of like this distrust and secrets start to appear after the attack.
How is it developing that with Josh?
It was it was great, actually, we really wanted to make sure that we that
their love was it was a kind of recurring theme
throughout and even even at the end when it's really being.
Test it
in. They love each other and soap marriage, at least that where they're
still attracted to each other and happy and enjoying each other's company
makes it all the more painful and tragic when it all falls apart.
And she feels like the wool has been pulled from her eyes and is kind of going...
Oh my god, it is, you know, have you?
Do I not know who you are?
And that,
of course, would be a terrifying prospect to start to wonder
if the person that you're living with
and sharing your life with is not the person they pretend to be.
And I suppose because you know, it's a Britain, an American living in a
in a foreign place where there is more reliance on each other.
And we don't hear much mention of their friends
or their friendship groups, really until they are at for each other.
So if that is damaged, in some ways, it's devastating.
Absolutely.
And I also find her artwork is so fascinating
and it really plays into the kind of other aspects of the story.
What research did you look into in MRI's and especially
her own grief and memory and how fair plays on that?
Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
I think it's a really interesting
kind of
technique that Robert Harris did, which is that she took her grief
and she channeled it into her creativity, which is her art, her work.
And it's sort of science and art overlapping, which is interesting,
taking those memories and making them a thing of beauty and wonder with perspex.
The artist, they were actually by a brilliant artist,
and I hope I'm getting her name.
I think she's got Angela Carter. It's
so embarrassing if she's not, go back, but let's just go with Angela Carter
And yes, she's she's an absolute
huge intellectual, brilliant artist who dissects bodies
and brains and skulls and does build them up with sheets of perspex
that I think to break apart anything like that is fascinating.
Deconstructing any received thing like the brain that we just see
as this round strange, slimy thing and breaking it down into sheets ,
this is an interesting thing,
and this is what the show is doing is breaking down that the elements of fear.
You know what is fair? Why do you feel fear?
How much does fear affect people? Would have fear.
Might people do? It is about breaking it all down, I think.
Absolutely.
And by extension of that, I feel like Gregory, your character as a detective
has to kind of exploit people's fear to get to the heart of the crime.
What kind of investigation did you do into police work and detective work?
You know, I think that everything is written in the script as every time.
So all the things around and of course, I'm
trying to have a little, but you know, you know,
as well as me that we can find we can find a story
about a detective in all the TV show in the all around the world.
So it's not so easy to know how it works
so much.
But what interested me, it's the gap,
the real gap between this character and the other one?
And how could I mean,
how could I make a different detective than we can
determine a
little bit different than the other one in the other show? No.
And but in fact,
when I read the script, I immediately think about Mr.
Columbo. And that's why I want it to be.
I want to be dressed like him.
It was my it was a little match to Mr.
Columbo because Columbo and the first time you see him,
you say, Oh, fuck, he never is, is not able to do tune in
to detect anything you know is that
finally is more is a smarter and more intelligent than that
we thought and I wanted to do exactly the same thing.
When you see this character, oh,
what's going to happen within a year is just out of the
he just goes out of his village and.
But finally, this man is more
is maybe smarter than he looks like.
And that's what interested me.
That's really great because I actually had Columbo with my notes here.
Yeah. Yeah, because it was it was a real.
It was a true reference for me.
I wanted, yeah, I thought it was funny to make to try to
to to try to have this reference.
Yeah, I love that.
Well, you guys do it so brilliantly.
I can't wait for people to watch this TV series because it's got me hooked
and I'm going to go back and finish watching the episodes now.
Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for talking with me today.