"Enola Holmes 2" stars Henry Cavill (Sherlock Holmes), Millie Bobby Brown (Enola Holmes) and writer/director Harry Bradbeer discuss their Netflix film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell. They discuss how Enola has evolved for the sequel, the insane details embedded in the set and script, and yes, we get a Superman question in there for Henry.
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00:00Millie, please make a dozen of these movies.
00:02They are wonderful, and I never want to stop watching them.
00:04Well, you fund to them.
00:05I'm just kidding.
00:06Yeah, hold on a second.
00:07I've got some money around here somewhere.
00:09At last, I would be a detective in my own right,
00:12worthy of the home's name.
00:18Dare I ask?
00:22There's a satisfying feeling in any detective story,
00:24but specifically in these, when all the clues snap together
00:27and it's a bit of a relief and you feel a little cathartic
00:30because we're starting to solve the puzzle, essentially.
00:34I'm curious if there's an acting equivalent of that feeling.
00:38Yeah.
00:39Last night, you know, I was at the premiere
00:42and watching the audience watch it,
00:46that is very cathartic in many ways.
00:49Gosh, just when younger kids come up to me
00:53and ask me to say lines or, you know,
00:56say that they love Enola, it makes me so happy and so proud,
01:00and that's the moment that I thought,
01:02oh, really, I've done something good here.
01:04I love your backdrop because I want to ask you about 221B,
01:07which is an iconic location,
01:09and the set design in particular in this movie is so wonderful.
01:13I'm wondering about how being on that set in particular
01:16might have influenced your performance.
01:18Oh, it was such a wonderful set and so rich in detail
01:23and things which, I mean, the audience may never see
01:27because the angles never covered it,
01:29but there was detail and character everywhere.
01:33It's an extraordinary place filled with all sorts of contraptions
01:36and devices and things you'd find in a museum,
01:40and I mean, just shooting on that set,
01:44I hardly ever left, even in between.
01:47We had half an hour, 45-minute, an hour setups.
01:50The chairs were so comfortable.
01:52I felt comfortable in that space that,
01:54as long as I wasn't in the way of the crew trying to do their job,
01:57I would just relax there and soak it all up,
01:59and I would find something new to toy around and play with every day.
02:04One of the things I love the most about these movies
02:06is how things that we are shown earlier
02:09end up becoming really important later.
02:11Can you talk about that process of making sure
02:13you get the coverage that you need
02:15so that those clues can land with the impact?
02:18No, no, that's absolutely right.
02:20I've always been slightly inspired by Antonioni's Blow Up.
02:24If you remember that killing idea that you could look at a picture
02:28and then you go back and a detail was there which you weren't aware of.
02:31It sent me a chill down my spine.
02:33I'd never forgotten that experience of that.
02:35There's a little bit of that inspiration for me.
02:39Yes, planting and paying off,
02:41whether it's something that you didn't think you saw
02:45but was always there,
02:47or a very specific plant like, yes,
02:50the man on the gantry as she walks up to the backstage
02:53and then we needed to see him
02:56in order to the point that when we get to the gantry at the end,
02:58it doesn't feel like a contrivance.
03:00Everything seems like it feels a natural journey.
03:05What was something specifically that you wanted to advance
03:08or evolve in Enola this time out?
03:11I wanted to indulge a bit more in her career, her path.
03:16I really wanted to focus on her being a detective this time
03:19and we could actually get into the nitty-gritty of the case,
03:23which I think is really important as well.
03:25So we got to do it this time.
03:27I started a detective agency.
03:29How old you're a girl?
03:32Tell me.
03:33Yes.
03:34Might your brother be free?
03:36I think that's one of the joys of going on a journey
03:40with a budding detective
03:42because they're not always ahead of it.
03:44They're like us, picking up information
03:46and we don't quite know what's going to be significant.
03:49Yeah, the red matches in the foreman's office.
03:52Yeah, there's so many.
03:55Enola Holmes.
03:56She's a detective.
03:57Looks like she'd blow over in the wind.
03:59And to that end, do you find yourself observing people
04:03and trying to make deductions now that you've played the part?
04:06I think it's a good idea.
04:07I can calculate someone really quickly,
04:09which, I mean, could also come across as judgmental,
04:12but, you know, I like to read people's body language
04:16and I'm quite observant.
04:18And I think it's just I grew up around adults my whole life.
04:21So for me, I'm just really observant on all the details.
04:25What was your approach to playing drunk?
04:28Oh, I mean, I hadn't,
04:29I don't think I've done it on screen before then.
04:31And if I have, it was many, many moons ago.
04:33But it was, I mean, I sometimes do,
04:39I sometimes pretend I do like a drunk voice
04:43when I'm making a joke, if I'm telling a story or something.
04:46But it was really just about throwing it out there
04:50and seeing what happens and trying to gauge the audience,
04:54which is immediately the crew and the director and Millie.
04:58And it seemed to go well.
05:00People seemed to be laughing and enjoying it
05:02and not laughing at me rather than they were laughing with me.
05:05And so I just thought, okay, well, keep on,
05:07keep on rolling with this and see if the audience likes it.
05:10I guess, I guess time will tell.
05:12I liked it very much. It was very funny.
05:15When you are breaking the fourth wall,
05:17is there someone specific that you think you are talking to?
05:20My mum.
05:21Your mum?
05:25Perhaps I should explain.
05:27Yes, and actually it's funny,
05:28no one ever has asked me that question.
05:30So you are a first.
05:32Yeah, I always think about my mum.
05:33I always think about talking to my mum
05:34and then kind of the way I said, you know,
05:36and that is a job well done.
05:38I do talk to my mum like I'm lecturing her half the time
05:40and usually she's lecturing me as well.
05:42So I usually, I think of my mummy.
05:45Mother believed privacy was the highest virtue
05:48and the one most frequently violated.
05:52The biggest challenge of the film
05:53actually was creating the structure of the story.
05:56It took us a long time.
05:58It was quite a piece of Jenga, really.
06:00I can imagine because you had Sherlock's bit
06:02to build up so it could overlap as well too.
06:05Yeah, you had a more complex and mysterious
06:09emotional plot with Enola
06:11and then you've got a missing girl,
06:13which is simple and emotional and you can get it.
06:16My sister, she disappeared a week ago.
06:20And then there's Sherlock's puzzle
06:22that's completely impenetrable,
06:24which then has to somehow link up
06:29Yeah, that was sort of mental.
06:33Why are you here?
06:34Is it my case or your own?
06:35Both.
06:36It seems our cases are connected.
06:38I have to slip in one quick Superman question.
06:40I need to know what it meant to you
06:42to have John Williams' theme song
06:44playing behind you or accompanying you
06:46in the Black Adam cameo.
06:48John Williams' theme song is
06:50obviously incredibly important to the character.
06:54It's something which resonates with the character
06:57and every time I think anyone in the world hears that,
07:01anyone in the world,
07:03I think a large portion of the world who hears that
07:05will recognise it immediately as Superman
07:09and feel a certain way about it.
07:11And I do think it's wonderful.
07:13But at the same time, equally so,
07:16I think Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel score
07:19was just as wonderful.
07:20I have incredibly powerful feelings about that
07:24because I remember watching the trailer.
07:27The first teaser's come out
07:29and I was sitting down with my friend
07:30and we were both so excited about it.
07:32And the way the score plays,
07:35both are incredibly powerful in their own way
07:38and both are just as iconic for the character.
07:41And it was just such a pleasure to be back in the suit,
07:45whether it be John Williams or whether it be Hans Zimmer.
07:48They're both extraordinary, extraordinary artists.
07:51There's also a unique energy to these films.
07:53Is it something that comes together in the edit?
07:56No, no, no, it is alive.
07:57I mean, on the day, it's very much,
07:59it's a very alive set.
08:00There's lots of talking,
08:02there's lots of English people,
08:03there's lots of banter.
08:05All together, I mean, it contributes to the levity
08:09and the life of the film.
08:11Terrific rug pull. I really enjoyed it.
08:14Did you see it coming?
08:15No, no, not even a little bit.
08:18Wow. That's very satisfying
08:20because you must be quite hard to do.
08:22You're a man of your awareness.
08:25So I'm very pleased to hear that.