[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Sandman.]

After more than three decades and many failed attempts, the beloved award-winning DC comic series The Sandman has finally been brought to life as a 10-episode drama for Netflix, developed and executive produced by author Neil Gaiman, showrunner Allan Heinberg, and David. S. Goyer. Set in a world where the Master of Dreams, aka The Sandman (Tom Sturridge), must travel across different worlds and timelines to restore the order that devolved while he was held prisoner for over a century, he's required to visit old friends, foes and family from his vast existence, in order to re-balance the dreaming and waking worlds.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Vanesu Samunyai (who plays Rose Walker, a young woman searching for her missing brother while trying to understand her unexpected connection to Dream) and Stephen Fry (who plays Gilbert, Rose’s self-appointed protector) talked about the responsibility of being part of such a significant project, finding a sense of ownership of the characters, the real-life man that the character of Gilbert is inspired by, how Samunyai might react if she found herself in Rose’s situation, and which character spinoff they’d be interested in seeing.

COLLIDER: I love your characters and I love everybody in this — It’s such a great ensemble. Vanesu, what was your audition process like? Did you have any idea what you were getting yourself into? Did you know what a big responsibility this was?

VANESU SAMUNYAI: Oh, gosh. I will say, it doesn’t feel like it’s a big responsibility, but that’s because I’m very good at regulating my body and my mind, and just staying calm about things. When I got the audition for this and I saw the name, I didn’t know what it was about. I was just like, “The Sandman? What is this?” And then, I looked into it, of course. I was actually not going to Google it. Thankfully, something just told me to look it up, and I saw how big it was, as a graphic novel, and I could feel straight away that this was something major. And then, I did the audition and I tried not to think too much about it. I didn’t get too caught up in it because that would throw me off. But there was always that feeling of, this is something really good and this is something really big. It was big, in terms of its significance and how good of a thing it is, rather than the scale of it. I don’t know what the reaction is going to be. There are so many ways that it could go, and I hope it goes well, but as a property, it’s just a really great thing. There always was that knowledge and the feeling of that.

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Image via Netflix

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How did you get a sense of ownership of the character? What helped you work your way into her?

SAMUNYAI: I didn’t have too much time to prepare. I had about maybe two or three months before we started filming. I got the scripts, and then I got more news about the show and my character, a few weeks before we started, so I wasn’t able to do much preparation. All I had was the comics, really. From the get-go, Rose is different. In the show, she’s different from the way she is in the comics. From the first audition, I already felt like I knew how to play her. The script was really well-written. It was one of those things that an actor dreams of, where it’s like, “Oh, yes, this is so easy to play.” The words just come straight out of my mouth and it feels so natural. So, when it came to Rose, I just leaned into the energy that I had in the first audition, which was just to do what comes naturally. I worked with a coach, and we bounced ideas back and forth. I was constantly creating things in Rose’s past, expanding her as a human being outside of the comic, and that really helped get a sense of ownership of her.

All of these characters are so mysterious. They all have a way they present themselves, and then a myriad of other things that are really going on within them. Stephen, what did you like about your character, and how did you connect with him?

STEPHEN FRY: There’s a rather personal thing behind that, which is that Neil Gaiman and I, when we were early teenagers, were both absolutely devoted to the writings of a man called G.K. Chesterton, or Gilbert Keith Chesterton, who’s best known – if he’s known at all in America – as an essayist, but probably as the detective fiction writer who created Father Brown, a little dumpy priest. There is a BBC version of that, at the moment, and I suspect it’s also on PBS. He was a master of paradoxes, and an extremely popular and big man, in every sense. So, when Neil got in touch, because I’ve known Neil for some time, he said that he wanted me to play Gilbert, and I remembered, from having read The Sandman, that the character of Gilbert was clearly GK Chesterton.

I have an advantage, in a sense, over Vanesu, because I could always plead an excuse if I’m not convincing in my character. My real character is underneath that one, and he’s not very good at being a human being. That’s my excuse. But I think it was nice to play someone, for once, who is genuinely sweet-natured, positive, and kind, because I’m often asked to play snide or villainous characters. Especially in the occasionally exceptionally dark world of The Sandman, where nothing is out of court, as far as child murder and all kinds of horrific things are concerned, like eating eyeballs.

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Image via Netflix

I’m sure it’s a delicacy somewhere.

FRY: Yes. It was a thrilling thing. It’s a huge project. Not just because it’s got a big budget and it’s a heck of a commitment from Warner Bros. And mostly Netflix, but also because there’s only one chance to get it right. There are series, like The Good Place, where you could have a first season and be like, “Oh, that’s really getting good. Have you seen the second season? It’s fantastic. And the third season is wonderful.” If this doesn’t work, straight off, then there’s never going to be a second season. There’s a lot at stake, but it wasn’t a tense set.

SAMUNYAI: No, it wasn’t.

FRY: It wasn’t full of people in suits, folding their arms, shaking their hands, looking at their watches, and going to the director. There was a genuine sense of everything being done for its best look.

When you are playing a character that’s essentially a human presentation of an idea, do you think about that, when you’re playing him? Do you just focus on the human side, or were there things you wanted to draw in that were not human?

FRY: Almost all my appearances were really trying to connect with Rose. In other words, hoping that what I said to her was encouraging and friendly and that we were going to be fine. All the effort, as is often the case when you’re acting, is in what you’re trying to say to the other person and what you want them to do, as a result. Sometimes it’s manipulative and vicious. Sometimes it’s seductive. Sometimes it’s just simply that you’re trying to put someone at ease. Most of the time, I’m trying to put Rose at ease and I’m slightly surprised by how independent she is and how little she needs me. It’s a nice role to have because not too much depends on me, whereas the whole of humanity depends on Rose.

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Image via Netflix

There’s something so interesting in watching Rose as a character because she really takes everything in stride. Somebody is trying to communicate with her in her dreams, her friend is suddenly pregnant, and there’s a guy with mouths for eyes, along with all these crazy things that are happening. Vanesu, do you think you would react in any way like Rose if you found yourself in this crazy world?

SAMUNYAI: Oh, gosh, I’ve never thought of myself being in this world. I’d be torn between trying to actually make a plan and do something about what’s happening, or just full-on running away because I feel that’s always an option. You can always just get in the car and leave. I don’t know why anyone would just stay and deal with everything. I wonder if I would make the same choices as she does. I don’t think so. I would definitely be much more weirded out by what happens to Lyta, and just that sudden presence of another being, being in her.

FRY: I was thinking about the very first episode when Charles Dance’s character, Roderick Burgess, tells the guards that they can’t fall asleep. He gives them drugs to keep them awake, and they drink coffee and read the newspaper because, if they fell asleep, then the trapped Morpheus would have power over them. When I was watching, I was thinking, if I was in your position, that the one problem you have, and that everyone has, is that you have to sleep. When you say, “I’d get in the car and run away,” the night would come and you would sleep, and then you are out in that world. That’s part of the genius of it. There are moments where you see a character just trying to stay awake because the dreams will get you. I suppose A Nightmare on Elm Street deals with the same thing.

There are so many colorful characters in this that it feels like any of them could have their own spinoff. If there were a show that you would want to watch about one of these characters, what would it be?

SAMUNYAI: I think Chantal and Zelda would be very nice. I would love to see them. There are so many people that I feel would deserve spinoffs. Even if my character was to get a spinoff, I wouldn’t want to just see her become a writer. That’s boring. If she were to get a spinoff, I would want her to be somewhat magical and do something similar to what Johanna Constantine does, just going out and doing things with spirits and stuff.

FRY: There’s something quite magical about The Corinthian. Boyd Holbrook is fantastic in the role. It’s a shame that Dexter has already happened because that would be the spinoff, in which your hero is a serial killer, sucking up eyeballs. We know how it ends, so maybe he comes back in a slightly different form, in which he’s forced to be good.

SAMUNYAI: It would be nice if we had a spinoff of Gilbert, and then it would be just like watching the nature channel.

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Image via Netflix

Did it feel like you guys had your own ensemble within the larger ensemble of this series? What was it like to play with that whole group?

SAMUNYAI: Oh, it was lovely. For me, I got to meet everyone.

FRY: It was quite interesting because it was the first project any of us had worked on, since the arrival of COVID in our lives. It was our discovery of whether or not you could actually make film in the age of lockdown and the pandemic.

Along with whether everyone remembered how to act.

FRY: Exactly, yeah. That’s a very good point. And getting out of the car and seeing other human beings and not knowing how to interact anymore. This was shot in London, and I knew a lot of the crew and the cast. I’d worked with them before. The First AD was someone I’d worked with 40 years ago, so it was weird not being able to embrace them, in order to keep to the rules. But it was a friendly and happy set.

FRY: It was a different director each time, which was interesting.

SAMUNYAI: We did establish a little community because that’s really the only people we knew. We couldn’t see anyone else.

FRY: We were in our bubbles.

SAMUNYAI: Yes, exactly. We actually have a group chat. I don’t know if it’s been active for a while, but we had a group chat. We established this little sense of community with the scenes that we had together. It was nice.

FRY: The daring of the storytelling is that you can have an episode that just begins with a whole new set of characters. In the first episode, Dream is imprisoned by this dark magician, and then the next episode begins in a totally different world. And then, the next one is in a diner. I’d like to see that diner again.

Just maybe without all the murder.

FRY: Yes, without all the murder.

The Sandman is available to stream on Netflix.