CITIZEN CANE
SUGAR Elegant and electrifying, this modernday LA noir starring Colin Farrell blends the new with the old to hit the sweet spot…
Your next must-see show, Sugar sees PI John Sugar (Colin Farrell) criss-cross LA in his Corvette convertible to unravel the missing-person case of Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler), granddaughter of Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell). Five of the eight episodes are directed with sophistication and brio by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), who leans in to the show’s roots in the film noirs of the 40s and 50s even as he subverts tropes to create a fresh, modern take. Teasers tracks down Meirelles and executive producers Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon to get the sweet and lowdown…
A love of classic film noir flows through every frame of Sugar. Is it a genre you adore?
Audrey Chon: I’m a fan!
Fernando Meirelles: Actually, no. I really hadn’t seen many films. When they invited me to the series, I thought it was a good opportunity to know and understand the genre. So I watched lots of films.
Simon Kinberg: It’s a genre I’ve loved forever. I took a film-noir class when I was in college. The attitude and swagger of those old movies, you know?
Film clips from classic noirs are elegantly spliced into the action. How did you go about finding them?
FM: This was maybe my best contribution – to include all those clips. My editor, Fernando Stutz, watches a lot, and he takes notes. But I had lots of clips also fresh in my mind because I’d just watched, like, 50 films! It was great, trying to find scenes and match the story or the emotion that we were looking for.
You introduce fresh flavours. John Sugar is brutish when he needs to be, but he also has tremendous compassion…
SK: Yeah, absolutely. I think [the show] feels modern in so many ways, starting with the character. He’s modelled on those Humphrey Bogartstyle detectives, but there’s this whole other side of him that is kind and compassionate and chivalrous. Fragile. It’s almost like he’s hard-boiled with a runny inside.
Why did you think of Colin Farrell for the role of John Sugar?
AC: Colin can transform into any character, and he has such a fantastic leading-man quality. But he’s also incredibly kind and thoughtful, and that’s pretty much written into Sugar as a character. When we watched him perform on set, the lines were blurring between Colin Farrell and John Sugar in a very interesting way.
FM: When I was invited [to direct], I said, ‘Well, Colin Farrell, I’m not sure I want to work with him.’ Because the image I had of him was that wild boy that he was a long time ago. But then I spoke to him for one hour to see if I was going to join or not, and he’s such a wonderful guy – lovely and kind. And so collaborative.
He now has a calmness and wisdom that fits John Sugar…
FM: Yeah. Sugar is very gentle and kind, and Colin is like that. He gets to set and talks to everybody. He’s always available.
SK: Just being around him, and hearing the way he talks about people, and about characters, it’s with the compassion and empathy that comes from experience. As we get older, we go through more profound kinds of suffering, and through more profound kinds of joy, too, as a parent. I think he brings all of that to what he’s been doing in cinema.
Did you enjoying shooting all over Los Angeles? The driving scenes are terrific!
FM: Very much. All of this driving wasn’t in the script, but watching all these films, you see a lot of cars parking in front of houses. I never use establishing shots in my films or TV, but there are a lot in film noir. So I tried to replicate this. It’s to show LA, which is a big part of the story.
It’s a different LA from the one we usually see. Is that because you’re Brazilian, viewing the city with fresh eyes?
FM: I think it helps. You look and try to understand it, and then give your take on it.
AC: Fernando and his long-time collaborator and DoP, César Charlone, have this run-and-gun style. They’re not even lighting many of the scenes. They show up, the crew do a runthrough, and then Fernando will say, ‘All right, let’s shoot.’ Our crew weren’t used to filmmakers like that!
‘Colin can transform into any character, and he has such a fantastic leading-man quality’
AUDREY CHON
The female characters played by Kirby, Amy Ryan and Sydney Chandler are great, too. Film noir’s always given us fabulous women…
FM: Yeah. Kirby, I think, has a great role. The way she’s bossy at the same time as kind. I like her performance, and I like her character.
SK: As macho as [classic noir] is, it also has these incredibly strong female characters, and incredible strong actresses playing those characters. We have Amy and Kirby and these really strong actresses who are multidimensional performers playing complex characters. It’s not just a bunch of guys running around in suits with guns.
AC: You can see the influence of female character archetypes that existed in film noir. However, it’s very much a modern take on that.
There’s so much more you could explore. Will there be a Season 2?
FM: I’d love to come back, working with Colin again, and the production and the producers.
AC: Yes, there’s so much more you can explore – not only Colin’s character, but his relationship with Los Angeles.
SK: We loved making this show. We loved the character of Sugar. We feel like he’s a character that you could follow into many other mysteries and stories. JAMIE GRAHAM
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