Do you remember what you were doing when the world changed?
“It came from nowhere.
We were halfway through an episode,” Grint recalls.
Apple TV+
“We finished a scene and suddenly the first assistant director called everyone in for a big team meeting.
They said ‘yeah, we’re shutting down.’
Is the world ending?'”
Apple TV+
But life as we know it has certainly changed since last March, including for film and TV productions.
Strangely enough,Servantalready had an inkling of how weird things were about to get.
The saga of Jericho
Servantfirst premiered on Apple TV+ in November 2019.
Apple TV+
But even then,Servanthad an eye for claustrophobic horror.
The truth is that Jericho died before the events ofServantbegan.
But rather than reckon with the horror of his death, Dorothy shut away the truth in her mind.
The obvious follow-up questions “is this the real Jericho, brought back to life?
Is it a random stranger’s baby kidnapped?
Is this human baby an illusion and it’s still just a doll?”
Leanne, who Shyamalan says is the titular “servant” of the show, is even more important.
“Really, there’s two storylines here,” he says.
But on top of that is this story of Leanne, and she’s the title character.
That story is just beginning."
Whether alive or dead, Jericho is still just an infant, so not much of a conversationalist.
She fled the Turner house, and the human-seeming Jericho is once again replaced by a lifeless doll.
Free describes this turn of events as “a complete 180” on Leanne’s part.
Never meet your heroes!
It starts to unsettle Leanne," Free says.
Their relationship becomes infused with a new, dangerous energy.
She’s like a villain now, she’s scary."
Dorothy isn’t just scary, though.
Then they had a fake baby.
Then it was replaced with a real baby, and now it’s a fake baby again.
Jesus, keep up!"
The makers ofServantknow that, too.
Due to Sean’s work as a consulting chef, season 1 ofServantwas suffused with food.
Kebbell did a lot of the cooking himself, for real, with the help of professional chefs.
His costars praise his abilities, but Kebbell says it’s relaxing.
“With cooking, you start at the beginning and you finish,” Kebbell says.
“In acting, you don’t often get that.
You do a piece here and then a couple of days later you do another piece.
Or have a cast member or somebody else eat them.
So I actually use it as a great escape.”
So most of the food in season 2 (both on-screen and off) comes from the pizza oven.
“The big thing was getting the dough right,” he says.
“We were for months expecting it to be really dry like a napkin.
But instead we made it light and airy, and it’s just delicious.
When we make some, if you’re not on it immediately, it’s gone.”
“But I think in season 2 the house takes on a whole new energy.
We take on new areas of the house that you didn’t even know existed.
It’s a different animal.
I’ve enjoyed not knowing where we’re going, it’s thrilling.”
One new area of the house becomes a focal point for the conflict between Dorothy and Leanne.
“It doesn’t look like the rest of the house at all.
It isn’t just the attic that’s new, either.
