Interview: Daniel Brühl, Himesh Patel, & Lolly Adefope Talk ‘The Franchise’ at NYCC

HBO

The cast and creative team behind the HBO Original The Franchise were at New York Comic Con, and Nerds and Beyond had a chance to sit down and chat about the new comedy series at the convention following its recent premiere.

The Franchise follows the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. The comedy series shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking to ask: How exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? 

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nerds and Beyond: Daniel, did you have anything to do with the Ron Howard joke?

Daniel Brühl: No. No, no, no. I asked Sam Mendes if we could change the director. And he said, “No, no.” So I was totally blaming Sam Mendes. I then went to Australia to shoot with Ron Howard, and I chose the right moment to tell him that I was making a joke. He said, “Oh, why would you do that?” I said, “Well, because it’s a comedy, it’s a show.” And he went, “Ahhh.” And I said, “It’s all Sam Mendes. You know the Brits. You know how they are. I would never do that to you.”

Nerds and Beyond: Throughout the course of your careers, you’ve probably encountered different types of pressure going into different roles. What was it like taking on the pressure of literally being the people that are filming you?

Himesh Patel: You feel a certain responsibility to reflect them correctly. So I had a conversation, when we shot the pilot, with our first AD, just to get an idea of what it takes to be a first AD, and how he got to where he got to, but also his experiences working on big franchise movies as he had done. And that was invaluable to me and also ongoing. We had more or less the very people we were trying to represent in front of us at all times.

Nerds and Beyond: The show is obviously a comedy, it’s very funny. But there’s also a lot of heart — there’s depth to your characters. What is the main takeaway that you want audiences to get from this series?

Lolly Adefope: I think it’s a love letter to people who make the art that we consume. There are so many people involved, and they all work so hard. Each one of them, individually, is so valuable to the creation of these films. It’s about people who are working hard. The dysfunction doesn’t come from a lack of talent or a lack of creative ambition. It’s often from too many people being involved or a corporate presence that is kind of unhelpful. It’s just trying to celebrate all of their work, especially people whose work doesn’t often get highlighted.

The Franchise is now streaming on Max.

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