It’s a Sinis anything but what its title suggests.
Young and living it up, their lives will soon be upended by the spread of AIDS.
But it was much worse, of course incurable, in fact.
Ben Blackall/HBO Max
But he hadn’t seen the British experience shared with the world.
So he changed that.
Some really incredible stories.
Ben Blackall/HBO Max
So what was it you wanted to say here that wasn’t in those?
As a gay man.
I’m drawn to watch any queer drama, and certainly anything with HIV content in it.
Ben Blackall/HBO Max
But actually, I felt that the ordinary British experience haven’t been felt.
We are in the shadow of the American experience in terms of our culture.
Incredible pieces of work.
And recentlyMatthew LopezwithThe Inheritance.
We have done our own stuff.
There have been stories of Britain.
And I hadn’t seen the passage of time.
It was important to me that this takes place over 10 years it was from 1981 to 1991.
And so I thought this was a good structure to do.
Within that, I had things to say as well.
I’m very proud of it as a drama.
And that contained something I’ve always wanted to say.
So, yeah, I have things to say.
Let’s be honest, I would have taken any shape or form.
If they turned me down, this would now be me discussing mymarvelousstage play.
[Laughs] Or a novel.
Everything else I’ve ever done just tends to one-offs.
And I like that.
[Laughs] I’m just like that as a lover.
So like Ritchie in that way?
[Laughs] Oh, I wish I was like Ritchie.
I think we all wish we were like Ritchie.
Isn’t that a phenomenal performance?
Olly is just fantastic.
Even though this is an ensemble, he’s really kind of still leading the way.
[Laughs] Exactly!
This is it."
And then I had to pretend to be interested for the rest of the interview.
But that’s how instant and immediate it was.
The timing was perfect.
Which no actor needs to be that’s not their job.
But he’s the triple-threat, he’s the real deal.
That’s just by chance.
I wanted them to quite poor.
I wanted them to be living on the fringes of society.
But, yeah, I almost thought about not doing the singing thing just because he’s a singer.
What’s the backstory of the title?
How did you come toIt’s a Sin?
It was originallyThe Boys, and we knew that the Amazon showThe Boyswas looming on the horizon.
It’s a brilliant show.
We can’t advertise something with the same title as another channel."
[It’s a Sin] is my favorite I’ve ever come up with.
I literally just sat down and thought of it.
I sat down thinking, “What can we do?
Oh,It’s a Sin.”
So everything is crystallized around that song.
And it wasn’t [a sin].
She was a Hitchcock blonde, auntie Maureen.
She wasn’t an old auntie with curly hair.
She was absolutely fantastic.
At her funeral, the priest patted the coffin and went, “Well done, Maureen.
[Laughs] That’s a life well-lived.
I want someone to do that to me!
So yeah, [the title’s] got a lot of connotations for me.
It just fit it very nicely.
All five episodes ofIt’s a Sinare streaming now on HBO Max.
