00:00Playing this part and that part, you know, big challenges to me because it's not something I've never done before.
00:05And at least in this one you get to use a bit of magic, get that out of your system
00:09early.
00:11Do not play with things you do not understand.
00:16I've heard that she is a witch.
00:19Are you a God-fearing man?
00:24That dream is a message from your ancestors.
00:27They might reach out to you.
00:28Well, Sheldon, hello. Congratulations on a creepy show.
00:33Commiserations on a complex one.
00:35Because I guess on days like this, it must be quite difficult to tease what it's about without giving away
00:41too many kind of plot points.
00:42So what can we say? How would you kind of describe the vibe of this show in a few sentences?
00:49Oh, God.
00:50Possession is a supernatural thriller.
00:57It's set between Jamaica and Britain and it flips between the present day and the 1760s and it explores the
01:09idea of or the question of what happens when a past that has been buried and sanitized continues to shape
01:17our lives today.
01:18And it raises some serious questions surrounding inheritance and reparations and racial identity.
01:27That was really good.
01:28That was really good.
01:29Listen, listen.
01:29Hey, look at that.
01:31I started with a difficult one there.
01:33I was going through a list of things that we shouldn't talk about in the show and you realize there's
01:38so many interesting bits that it just gives away too much straight away.
01:43Belle, first and foremost, when you were cast as Aunt Petunia in Harry Potter, congratulations, by the way.
01:48Oh, my God.
01:49I thought Belle Powley is like quite a positive, upbeat person.
01:52I've always got kind of good energy from you.
01:55And I thought that might be a bit of a stretch.
01:57But in this, you are quite the misery.
02:02So I wondered, Wes, how much do you enjoy playing these kind of embittered, frustrated characters?
02:12I like it because I like the challenge, you know.
02:14I don't want to do the same thing every time.
02:17That's boring.
02:18You want to keep being stimulated and learning and doing new things.
02:22And playing this part and that part, you know, big challenges to me because it's not something that I've ever
02:26done before.
02:27And at least in this one, you get to use a bit of magic.
02:29Get that out of your system early.
02:33Sheldon, as much as this is a thrilling supernatural mystery, there's some quite hard themes in there as well.
02:38Like grounded themes like anger, trauma, guilt, fronts up to the topic of reparations, as we talked about,
02:45while still being this like colorful show of the vibrance of the people in the country of Jamaica.
02:49As a man from Kingston himself, how kind of how personal was this show and this kind of material for
02:56you to kind of bring to life?
02:57I would say it's in my DNA, you know, man.
03:00It's as personal as my DNA, my actual DNA, my fiber of my being.
03:05And I said this before and, you know, you can't teach a fish to swim.
03:09So you can't, about Jamaica, I don't know everything or claim to know everything.
03:15But about Jamaica, I think I'm verse, you know what I mean, in the subject.
03:20So whenever a role comes like this one, I allow for it to flow through me.
03:25You know what I mean?
03:25I don't put up a resistance or anything.
03:27I just allow for it to flow.
03:28I know the script.
03:29I know the story.
03:29I know all of that jazz.
03:30But then I tap in, you know what I mean?
03:34And yeah, the rest is on the screen, man.
03:37Whenever we see shows or films that touch on the topic and portray kind of the issue of slavery,
03:43it's always kind of a difficult watch in a way because it's ingrained in all our shared history,
03:48this awareness of things that have happened.
03:49But to see it actually on camera is never like easy to kind of front up with as an audience
03:56member.
03:56What kind of toll does it take on you guys when you portray that on film?
04:01Do you have to kind of put yourself in a certain headspace and then get yourself back out of it
04:04again for both of you?
04:05I think in Britain, it's something that we don't confront.
04:09You know, we readily talk about our role in the abolition of slavery,
04:15but we don't really talk about our involvement in slavery or the slave trade
04:20and also the wealth that it generated for the UK.
04:24I think what possession does so well is it brings that history right into the present
04:31and forces us to confront something that makes us feel uncomfortable.
04:36Is it a different sort of, I guess, a different experience for you, Sheldon, being from Jamaica,
04:40being within your roots, probably knowing that side of the history more than we're taught in schools in the UK?
04:46I guess it's for us, yeah, we face, we hear it every day.
04:51And even the idea of reparations, it's being talked about, you know what I mean?
04:56But the action now, and what this film does is it presents it in a so-called a fantastic way.
05:01So it's digestible, you know what I mean?
05:03It makes the subject matter easier to converse upon, you know what I mean?
05:07So then now we find that it's coming into your living room and people can now,
05:12families can now see it and be like, hmm, hmm.
05:15And then the question, the answers, the conversations,
05:19and that is what we want from a series like this and a topic like reparations to repair.
05:26We want positive conversations leading after.
05:28And speaking of kind of positive conversations,
05:31this is written by Carla Crome, an actress in her own rights and loads of good stuff.
05:35She was great in Misfits years ago.
05:37God, I miss those shows.
05:39Not that this isn't great, I just miss being, you know, 15 years younger.
05:43Do you guys ever feel the difference?
05:44Can you sense the difference as a performer when something's written by another performer?
05:49Is there any difference at all when someone is an actor who's put the words on the page?
05:53That's a really interesting question.
05:56It's not something that I'd thought of.
05:57But now that I think of it, maybe it did make a difference.
06:01Maybe it did.
06:01Because the way Carla has drawn the characters and everyone's personal arc
06:06and all of their nuances, it's so detailed and so specific.
06:12And I wonder if maybe someone who wasn't an actor wouldn't have done that.
06:16I agree.
06:17I never thought of it before.
06:19And now I'm thinking of it.
06:20I'm like, hmm, interesting.
06:21Because her script, the script, it was remarkable.
06:24Couldn't put it down.
06:25Couldn't.
06:25All five episodes, back to back, I just read them right when I got them.
06:28And I was like, I actually told her, I said, it's the best script I've read.
06:32Period.
06:33You know what I mean?
06:34In terms of working in film or whatever.
06:36So maybe, maybe there's some magic to that.
06:39I'll leave you guys to chew on that thought for the rest of the day.
06:43As I head back outside into 28 degrees in my trousers.
06:46Which is a really stupid idea today.
06:50Pleasure.
06:50Really enjoyed the show.
06:51I've seen three episodes.
06:52It's got a lot to it.
06:53It really flies through as well.
06:56Yes.
06:56And looking forward to what comes at the end of the year that I'm sure you're legally obliged not to
07:03talk about.
Comments