Sister Boss Jane Featherstone & Abi Morgan On Working With The “Fearless” Benedict Cumberbatch In Netflix’s ‘Eric’ And Taking A Talent-First Approach To “Challenging” Times
EXCLUSIVE: Global TV and film studio Sister is gearing up for a string of projects to hit the small and big screens and today might well see the launch of its most daring.
Netflix’s Eric about a desperate father battling his own demons on the streets of 1980s New York as he searches for his missing nine-year-old son features Benedict Cumberbatch and a custom-made seven foot puppet, which is visible only to Cumberbatch’s character, the flawed Vincent. Abi Morgan’s six-part series ties together themes of belonging, addiction, loss and police brutality in a familiar setting. It was described as Sesame Street meets Taxi Driver by one British reviewer, although Sister creative chief Jane Featherstone compared it in scope and theme to Steven Spielberg’s ET.
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Speaking exclusively to Deadline, Featherstone said the show is testament to the Chernobyl and This is Going to Hurt studio’s commitment to taking a talent-first approach. She has worked numerous times with Morgan over the years and Morgan features on a Sister talent roster that includes the likes of Will Sharpe, Joe Barton and, more recently, Natasha Lyonne.
“I often say that I hope working with Abi is the last thing I do in this business,” said Featherstone, having also paired with her on BBC drama The Split, which was Sister’s debut commission. “For us it’s about working with writers and talent – I follow them and choose them based on how much they tell the truth and how much their work inspires.”
More Netflix series including Jeff Goldblum-starring Greek mythology retelling Kaos and Barton thriller Black Doves with Ben Whishaw and Keira Knightley are incoming imminently but Featherstone acknowledged it has been a “challenging” couple of years beset by Covid and the commissioning contraction, although she labeled the latter a “slowdown rather than a collapse.”
Sister, which Featherstone co-founded as Sister Pictures with Elisabeth Murdoch and Stacey Snider nearly a decade ago, can use the fact it is independently run to take advantage of the current chaos, Featherstone added.
“Everyone wants to spend less money so rights could become more flexible and that means there are different ways of putting financing together,” she added. “So I think we are in a position to be nimble. We just have to hold firm to working with the best writers because in a slump you have to hold onto your own judgement, otherwise you can get a bit sidetracked.”
Featherstone heaped praise on former Netflix duo Cindy Holland and Jane Wiseman, who are now running the show in the U.S. and were instrumental in striking the first-look deal with Russian Doll co-creator Lyonne’s Animal Pictures, a deal revealed by Deadline earlier this month. “They are of the same mould, top quality, able to do things at a budget and sticking to the long-term ambition of working with the best talent,” added Featherstone. “It’s tough in the States, fewer things are getting commissioned.”
Working with Cumberbatch
Featherstone was also wowed by working with double-Oscar nominee Cumberbatch in Eric.
“It’s a brave thing to take on because the character is so complex,” she said. “Ben’s fearlessness and sense of adventure to come in and play such a complicated character was a remarkable decision.”
Emmy-winning The Hour creator Morgan said Cumberbatch is chameleonic, citing standout performances in the likes of Patrick Melrose and Doctor Strange. “But what hit me on the first day like a bullet train was that he is so dynamic, generous and playful,” she added. “He comes alive to the experience.”
One way in which Cumberbatch was forced to “come alive” was in the scenes with the giant non-CGI puppet, an invention of Vincent’s mind that emerges to help get his son back. “The actor had to interact with Benedict from the inside the suit,” added Featherstone. “It was quite analog, which really suits the show.”
Eric “exists in the real world-setting” of 1980s New York, Morgan added, and the team including director Lucy Forbes spent hours pondering over the puppet’s design and took months with the build, eventually settling on a highly specific color scheme and New York-style chevrons on Eric’s back.
“I am 20 years into making TV and you always want to play with form,” explained Morgan. “We knew the show would have this element of magical realism as Eric is a manifestation of Vincent’s psychosis.”
Morgan spent some time living in New York in the mid-1980s looking after a child and said she wanted to “fuse” that experience with that of having grown up with parents from creative backgrounds.
“This period was vibrant and exciting, like the New York I’d loved in all the movies but with that darker underbelly,” added Morgan. “I got a sense of homelessness, addiction and nightclubs, and there were other things. So Eric is a fusion of moments in time and a desire to explore the creative genius in a family.”
She said the end result, which also stars Gaby Hoffmann and McKinley Belcher III, is testament to the way in which Featherstone allows her to “let ideas breathe and plays table tennis” with them, which led to immediate enthusiasm for a project about a puppeteer who goes on a quest to find his son.
“I hope Eric finds its place in a rich landscape of TV,” she added. The show launches globally today on Netflix.
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