The much anticipated second season of Apple TV's suspense thriller Servant is back and show creator M. Night Shyamalan and co-star Rupert Grint talked to Hollywood Speaks about the series and working within COVID-19 restrictions.
Five Things You Need to Know:
- Apple TV's Servant is about a Philadelphia couple in mourning after the unspeakable tragedy of losing their infant child. They hire a young nanny to take care of a reborn life like doll named Jericho, helping them get through their trauma. The doll, which the mother believes is her real child, was the only thing that brought her out of her catatonic state following the death.
- The psychological horror streaming television series was created and written by Tony Basgallop, who also executive produced alongside M. Night Shyamalan. The series stars Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free, and Rupert Grint who plays Dorothy's brother and Sean's brother-in-law.
- M. Night Shyamalan films have grossed more than $3 billion and include such hits as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Glass and Split. Besides producing and directing a few episodes of this series, he just completed directing an upcoming feature called Old. Both projects had strict COVID-19 protocols. Shyamalan said: "I’m sure most productions were rethinking everything, but we were very limited on who we were seeing and on both projects, we had maybe one day we had extras, but it was a very lucky situation. I think it made us bond a lot. I know on the movie we all felt really close to each other because we were all staying with each other for that 10-week period and felt very lucky to be there and protective of each other." He adds, "This isn’t just a job when you are on one of my shows, we are very very close, so this kind of movement of what we needed to do during the pandemic and needed to be safe, just celebrated those aspects. Again I couldn’t do it if it was 30 weeks or something like, I couldn’t ask people to do that."
- In January 2020, Francesca Gregorini filed a lawsuit against Servant producers including Tony Basgallop and M. Night Shyamalan, the production companies involved, and Apple TV+, alleging copyright infringement for her 2013 drama film, The Truth About Emanuel. Basgallop and Shyamalan responded that neither had seen her film and that any similarity is a coincidence. On May 28, 2020, a federal judge threw out the copyright lawsuit against Shyamalan and Apple, ruling that the TV show is not similar enough to the film to merit a lawsuit.
- Rupert Grint who is now 32, rose to fame for his role as Ron Weasley, one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film series. Grint was cast as Ron at age 11, having previously acted only in school plays and at his local theater group. From 2001 to 2011, he starred in all eight Harry Potter films. Beginning in 2002, Grint began to work outside of the Harry Potter franchise, playing a co-leading role in Thunderpants. He has had starring roles in Driving Lessons, a dramedy released in 2006, and Cherrybomb, a drama film of limited release in 2010. Grint co-starred with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt in Wild Target, a comedy. In 2017, he starred in and was executive producer of the television series Snatch, based on the film of the same name. Grint says it was a tough season to shoot. "It’s a real challenge to shoot a show that is set in one house and staying completely socially distance but they did a good job," he said. "I had a baby in the middle of the pandemic so that was a whole new element coming back with a tiny human so it was a strange second part of the season."