Neil Sandilands – Sweet Tooth

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What made you want to be a part of “Sweet Tooth?”

A) First and foremost, the opportunity to work with Jim Mickle and Linda Moran again. So, that was a reunion for us. When I got to America, my first production that I booked as a series regular was with Jim and it was “Hap and Leonard” that we did for AMC and we shot that in Louisiana. Some of the other fellow cast members were James Purefoy, Christina Hendricks, Jimmi Simpson and Will Sage. It was based on the novels of Joe R. Lansdale. So, that was, for me, has sort of a great biographical value. It was a lovely time. The people of Louisiana are incredible. A lot of people have been enchanted by New Orleans, specifically. That kind of enchantment I understand. It was a really magical time. Fast forward, Jim Mickle is attached to “Sweet Tooth” and my agent, and I had been aware of the project for quite a time. We got the invitation to audition and that went well. Communication started happening between Jim and myself again and it turned out positive. I got to collaborate with Team Downey in New Zealand. If Jim ever cares to collaborate with me in again the future, I’d raise my hand. So, his attachment was certainly of great value. Then, I got to dive into the material – the adaptation. I read it and it was really awesome. It’s out there and I liked the character a lot because he seemed…Let’s assume for a second that he is the “bad guy.” It seemed to me that you could approach him in a very playful way. In the midst of this pandemic and everything, he’s enjoying everything about it. I thought I could bring that to the character. He’s described as a leader in the aftermath of a global pandemic who leads through intimidation, wit and quirkiness. Hopefully, I brought the right combination of those attributes to the table. It was a combination of Jim and Linda and then certainly the material. The material was good. They sent me the pilot episode, which they had filmed pre-COVID. The pilot was filmed before any one of us knew about 2020 and how it would roll out. It was shot in New Zealand and then we went back there and shot the following seven episodes, which now makes up the eight episodes. So, it’s wild.

Q) To your point, no “bad guy” sees themselves as the bad guy. How does Abbot view himself?

A) Well, you hit the nail on the head with that. I try to think about how it would be…I think I’ve done bad guys by that. In fact, that was the instruction – bad guys who marvel in the fact that they are bad. Their reason for existence is to derive pleasure out of exactly that. I think Abbot is way more complex than that. He absolutely believes that his positioning is one that has the greatest good in mind and he’s just the man for the job. So, if you think about that carefully and what that represents, it is a fundamentalist position. That’s where it lies. He can not for a single second think that he is the hero of his own narrative. If you look at the people that populate the planet and the nation states and leaders of nation states, the Abbot types are not very difficult to spot.

Q) You mentioned a little bit about your own take on him. Obviously, you have the comic series to lean on for backstory. Did you create any of your own though to add to the character?

A) I deliberately did not. I did do a measure of due diligence. I was especially intrigued by peoples’ perceptions of the graphic novels and then I tried to reconcile that with what I read in the script. I decided to not inform myself to such a great extent and let me be informed by the material as I received it and try to create my own synthesis of that. So, primary for me was serving the script and serving the collaborative effort of Team Downey and all the co-collaborators, which was the production design, the cinematographer and the fellow actors. Everyone – what they wanted to bring to the table I was completely open and receptive to that. I decided…if you listen closely, it’s almost like an ensemble to hear the instruments that all the fellow collaborators are playing and finding what it is you need to play in there. It may be the piccolo, but by boy when my time comes to play the piccolo, I’m going to be present. It was more that kind of approach and a very deliberate choice to discover it in the moment as opposed to a well curated idea of “this is exactly how I’m going to do it” and expecting the process to adapt to me. I reversed that.

Q) We loved the behind the scenes pictures you shared with the cast and the moments from being on set. What episodes truly stand out to you?

A) As you’ve seen, his presence in the opening in the first few episodes are felt rather than seen. We hear about it. Then, there is a moment…I believe it is episode two or three…He has these keen moments where he has to have the correct temperature to facilitate the story. In the beginning, you don’t see him as often as you hear about him. I think what they did really well was to (for this season, certainly) is to minimize that presence, but when it is there to really give it a legitimacy for existence. It’s there for a good reason and finding those notes. I think you’re left with a sense of the character. You correctly alluded to the wealth of backstory that there, indeed, is that we could still explore. There is a lot to go into there. I know a bit about it. During conversations that I’ve had with Jim and some of the other collaborators. But I deliberately keep that away from me, so it comes to me new. Favorite moments that I really enjoyed doing…[laughs] Certainly the one where I eat the chili. I probably had like eight or ten…I don’t know. I had a lot of chili that night and there was something nice about doing that while munching down on some chili. It was this complete irreverence, and he uses her spoon, too! [laughs] I guess that’s the kind of guy he is. I enjoyed the time on set with Adeel [Akhtar]. We had a couple of tete a tete, but it’s so early that I think it leaves a lot for exploration. Then, if I had to imagine a little bit, if I had a wishlist of anything, it would be very interesting to see an interaction between a certain big man, Gus (Christian Convery) and Abbot – how that would unfold. Even I’m sitting here and going, “That would be pucker!” That’s going to be fireworks. I’d love to see that.

Q) You are a part of social media. What kind of fan feedback have you been receiving to the show?

A) I was so blown away. I said this earlier, as an actor I think it’s such an inexact science when you leave a production, and you see the end product and you don’t have to cringe, “That’s good. Phew! I got out of that one alive.” So, I left New Zealand thinking we did such a fine job. It wasn’t a frenetic, headless chicken. It was consummate work throughout with all departments. Even now, if you look at it and I listen to some of the score and the music choices and some of the stuff I’ve seen in the trailers – everything about it is considerate and that makes me feel particularly proud to be a part of it. Then, it was introduced to the world and the resonance was…I’m still in a measure of disbelief a little bit. I’m still trying to figure out why that is and I’m trying to determine the reason why people responded so well. And the best I can come up with is from a considerate point of view is that they really paid attention to pretty much anything. Actually, about the peoples’ responses, I have had consequent conversations more so with people who are in the same line of work. So, a couple of observations (which I felt were dead on) were that nobody felt alienated. I think that’s a good thing. Old young, in between, race, gender, political spectrum – everyone can plug in to it on a certain level. I think primarily what you’re dealing with is viewing the world through the innocence of a child’s eyes – the wonderment, the expectation, the challenge and all of that. Certainly, we all have that in common. We at one point in time looked at the world a certain way before the veil of innocence dropped. And I think that’s the commonality. There is a very funny thing…If you talk about archetypical value, I had one fellow here…he would be the equivalent to say a cowboy from Montana doing horse wrangling and driving a big old Chevy pickup. It’s that sort of equivalent but here locally and this guy was so taken by “Sweet Tooth” that he made a TikTok video and just expressed his gratitude and how awesome he thought it was and he shared it. I was thinking, “Boy, this comic book – a children’s story (which it’s not) – if that can touch a grown big burly man like that then we must have been doing something right.” But the response here, locally, has been amazing. Also, I don’t know how it is for Adeel and Nonso [Anozie] and the rest of the cast members, we’re very international. We represent different regions of the world. I know what my experience is like here and how people are responding to it. I wonder if their experiences are similar. Back home, I think there are people who are particularly proud of them because that’s certainly the case here.

Q) Have you been working on anything else recently?

A) I’ve been (touch wood, as I always say) working nonstop since the beginning of 2020. I did three series, including “Sweet Tooth.” I did a radio drama. I’ve written a lot and I put out a music album in Afrikaans, my native tongue, which went straight to – prior to the release of “Sweet Tooth,” it went to #1 on iTunes in South Africa. I’ve been a really busy man.