Tom Sturridge strips down in ‘The Sandman’—and adds some layers of his own

Tom Sturridge is bare inside an elevated glass sphere on the heart of a large room enveloped in never-ending archways. He’s uncharacteristically underweight and his pasty pores and skin is sort of glowing within the white gentle. He’s on set for Netflix’s The Sandman, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novels from the late ’80s and ’90s, which shortly reached mainstream recognition (a rarity for the style). As he waits for the subsequent take to start, Sturridge makes an attempt to discover a place that’s comfy (for his personal sake) and modest (for the sake of the crew), because it proved troublesome to get contained in the clear orb—and apparently impractical to toss him a gown between photographs. He had to be bare.

The actor, solid within the titular function, is in good spirits concerning the uncomfortable vulnerability his first weeks of capturing required. Maybe, partially, it’s as a result of he’s dwelling out the fantasy of each child who ever picked up a comic book ebook: to develop into one of many characters that devoured and outlined his youth. Sturridge’s Sandman is a cosmic being—extra akin to a god than a superhero—who, within the actor’s phrases, is a “curator of the universe’s unconscious,” appearing because the anthropomorphic personification of goals and all that exists exterior of actuality.

The filmic interpretation of Gaiman’s fantasy horror world has been lengthy anticipated, dwelling in developmental hell for many years, since earlier than the written sequence had even been accomplished. It was at all times too expansive for the time limitations of a film, which it had initially been positioned as—a prospect Sturridge calls “silly” and thoughtless to the narrative. Now, the difference is realized in sequence type, permitting for an correct portrayal of the story’s many layers.

Forward of the sequence’s launch this Friday, Sturridge joins Doc to debate turning into the Sandman, why dreaming that your tooth have fallen out doesn’t imply you hate your canine, and stripping down on set.

Megan Hullander: In diversifications of graphic novels, how carefully do you assume they need to match the literature they’re based mostly on?

Tom Sturridge: I feel it will depend on who’s concerned in adapting it. While you’re a fan of The Sandman and also you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman, actually you simply need to see him discover and increase on that. With [this production], Neil posed the query, ‘It’s 2021 and I’m making The Sandman once more. What would I do in another way?’ The reply is just not a lot, as a result of it’s a fucking masterpiece. However actually some issues, not solely due to the best way the world has modified, but additionally as a result of, I feel, even when you’re a superfan of the graphic novels, you need to be shocked—you need there to be a way of hazard, which I feel can solely come from new concepts.

Megan: This venture was in developmental hell for many years—do you assume there’s something that resonates with this story now that’s completely different from the best way it might need if it had been made earlier?

Tom: It’s at all times been forward of its time in its exploration of gender and sexuality, and its illustration of ladies. I feel we stay in a world that’s way more ready to interrogate these concepts. However I feel it was in developmental hell as a result of it’s 3,500 pages lengthy. To make a two-hour film out of it—it’s only a silly concept. It’s inherently antithetical to what it’s. The Sandman is a narrative about tales. And so the one method you can also make a film out of it, is to take one story out of it, which simply destroys the entire which means. It’s concerning the legion of tales, the legion of goals, that every one sorts of various beings have.

“He’s a curator of the universe’s unconscious. In the event you create goals, it means what individuals are dreaming. If what they’re dreaming, it means what they’re feeling.

Megan: The place did you’re feeling such as you had probably the most room to play creatively with this character?

Tom: That is going to sound actually pretentious, however roll with me. While you’re constructing a personality that already exists, it’s kind of just like the distinction between when you wrote a sonnet, in comparison with a bit of free poetry. Weirdly, when you will have guidelines, it’s extra releasing. I really feel like I do know what I’m combating in opposition to. Whereas if somebody says, ‘Do regardless of the fuck you need,’ I discover it limiting—as a result of, truly, my first concept most likely is just not that fascinating. It’s fairly near who I’m, and fairly small.

Firstly, I’m a fucking fan of The Sandman; I care about it a lot. I had no real interest in having a brand new tackle it. I simply needed to comprehend the film that I’d already made in my head once I learn it. I needed to do justice to everybody else who cares about it as a lot as I do, [and base it] on the Bible that’s these graphic novels.

Megan: These imagined worlds individuals develop when studying The Sandman are clearly rooted in some similarities picked up from the books’s visible parts. However I think about that everybody has a diverse interpretation of what the voice can be. The place did that come from for you?

Tom: It’s actually scary. Since you assume it so effectively while you’ve learn all of it, and also you immediately understand, Shit, I don’t know what it seems like. In the event you have a look at the graphic novels, his voice is written in white capital letters and black speech bubbles, and that does evoke one thing. However I very bluntly requested Neil, ‘What does he sound like?’ And he mentioned that two issues are actually essential: He’s thought each thought that’s ever been conceived. Subsequently, when he speaks, it must be prefer it’s etched in stone. He’s not reaching for an concept. He is aware of precisely what he’s saying. And, he ought to sound just like the voice within your head that asks you to fall asleep and leads you thru your goals—which is essential, as a result of to start with you have a look at the photographs of him and, as an actor anyway, you at all times type of need to be like, [Batman voice] ‘That is what he seems like.’ What it truly is needs to be authoritative and harmful, however it has to even be seductive sufficient so that you can settle for the invitation to dream.

Megan: How do you go about humanizing a personality who’s so godly?

Tom: It’s all fairly summary. I simply requested myself the query, What’s it that he does? He’s a curator of the universe’s unconscious. In the event you create goals, it means what individuals are dreaming. If what they’re dreaming, it means what they’re feeling. Subsequently, he needs to be terribly empathetic. As a result of it’s the universe’s emotions; it’s a variety of emotions. What do you do while you really feel an excessive amount of? You push it down, you suppress it—you want self-discipline to manage it. I feel he comes throughout as introverted and remoted, as a result of he’s somebody who’s making an attempt to manage this wealth of emotion.

Megan: Have you ever develop into extra cognizant of your personal goals since beginning this venture?

Tom: I’ve at all times had fairly good goals. I take pleasure in dreaming. I feel I’ve been conscious of my energy inside them—that I’m producing them, and subsequently I can generate new photos and concepts. I dreamt about him the day I obtained the half, [which was] actually bizarre and extremely satisfying. I’ve undoubtedly tried to search out him once more—I haven’t.

Megan: Do you consider the which means of goals in another way?

Tom: No. In my minor expertise of dream evaluation, I feel it’s too gentle. Goals are so complicated, and within the depths of our unconscious. I feel it’s unfathomable—the entire, like, Your tooth fall out, subsequently you don’t love your canine.

“While you’re constructing a personality that already exists, it’s kind of just like the distinction between when you wrote a sonnet, in comparison with a bit of free poetry.”

Megan: What’s your course of, by way of stepping into character? How did it differ from previous roles you’ve taken on?

Tom: Firstly, I didn’t just like the bodily side of it. To start with of our story, he’s bare. I actually needed to determine a method to bodily articulate the truth that he wasn’t human. There are very particular photos of him when he’s imprisoned within the graphic novels. I consider it as, like, he’s metabolizing goals, and so he kind of has no flesh. Making an attempt to attain that was a brand new factor for me. It took months of type of coaching and never consuming, which was weirdly satisfying as a result of, as we’ve already talked about, [the acting] is so summary. So that you create a personality; it’s work and it’s luck. Whereas altering your physique is like, when you do these three issues, it would work.

Megan: What was it like filming that shot? Stripping down day one sounds kind of awkward. Or is it simply a part of the job for you?

Tom: It was embarrassing. I felt like an entire fool. The glass sphere [I was in] was actually troublesome to open, so I couldn’t get out of it in between photographs. It might waste an excessive amount of time. As a result of it’s glass, you couldn’t have, like, a blanket in there in between photographs. I simply spent your entire time determining bizarre yoga poses to guard the opposite individuals. We did it for a month like that. And what was hilarious—at the start, everybody was actually candy about it. However, like, day eight, everybody was identical to, [mimics them blocking their eyes in disgust], ‘Oh, for God’s sake. Once more? Jesus.’

Styling Sarah Toshiko West. Hair and make-up Kim Verbeck.