'The Night Manager' Episode 2 Postmortem: Everyone Book a Trip to Majorca
Episode 2 of The Night Manager finds Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) building the criminal history he’ll need to convince international arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) he’s a fit for the “family” and shows how Pine gets his foot in the door — by saving Roper’s son, Daniel, from a staged kidnapping that leaves Pine badly beaten (no, not the face!). Below, Yahoo TV continues our weekly postmortems with executive producer Stephen Garrett.
Related: ‘The Night Manager’ Postmortem: Inside the Premiere of the Tom Hiddleston-Hugh Laurie Spy Thriller
Roper’s compound in Majorca (filmed at La Fortaleza, which is said to be Spain’s most expensive property) is arguably the most gorgeous location ever on TV. How did you decide on it?
In [John le Carré’s] book, Roper doesn’t really have a villa. He has a base on a Caribbean island. Most of the action that takes place in the villa actually takes place on his luxury oligarch-style yacht. But for logistical reasons, it wasn’t practical to have a yacht. So we thought he needed a portrait villa, which would be appropriate. We were talking to our location scout and were very unspecific. We just said that we need to be somewhere in southern Europe — so saying, “It could be France, Italy, Spain, Greece, anywhere. Just find us a villa.” And someone had done a bit of searching, just to show the guy the kind of thing we were looking for. One of the pictures that he was shown was that villa. We said we want something like that and he got us exactly that. As you could imagine, you take one look at that photo and say, “If we can afford that, that’s the baby!”
What was it like to film there? Was everyone aware of just how stunning this was?
You know, sometimes you have experiences that you can call corrupting. When you experience something that you’re probably not going to experience again and you think, “Oh my god! How do I go back from this? I’ve seen this. It’s like being shown the kingdom of heaven and then having it taken away from you.” Which is also part of the seduction of the Roper world. However horrible he his, and whatever horrible things he’s done to accumulate his wealth, you think, “I’d like to live here.”
That was essentially our location for two weeks. We couldn’t actually physically live in the rooms, but our working lives for two solid weeks were there. It was like the most extraordinary studio set.
I loved the shots of the two boats traveling to the restaurant. I imagine that was an expensive sequence, but it set a certain tone.
I’m so glad you raised it because that feels… I don’t know how to describe it… it’s almost pornographic that shot, as the boats emerge from the bottom of the screen. It’s so gorgeous and powerful. I was in a much less powerful and much less beautiful crew boat tagging along behind, out of the helicopter shot. It was every bit as thrilling as it looks. Hugh was driving his own launch. He said it was one of the most intoxicating experiences of his life. Again, another experience where you think, “Why can’t I do this every day?”
We had this amazing Spanish composer, Victor Reyes, and the combination of what he scored for that sequence and what those boats are doing and the way it’s filmed — every time I see it, my spine tingles.
That’s a real restaurant (Ca’s Patró March in Cala Deià) where you filmed Pine’s fight with “the kidnappers”?
Yes. Unfortunately, we’ve probably destroyed the island forever. I just read an article before talking to you in a British paper where bookings to Majorca have increased ten-fold since the show went out. That [fight] was very grueling. It was filmed very late at night after a very, very long day. That’s tough to get right. We’ve all seen fights that feel like film fights; they don’t feel real. It was so important that the audience believed in the violence, particularly given it was following another of my favorite scenes, the kidnapping scene.
When the kidnappers say they’re going to take the kid, the way both Hugh Laurie and Elizabeth Debicki [who plays Roper’s love, Jed] convey their terror at that possibility draws the audience completely in. You feel like that child’s parents. To have a fight immediately following that, that feels real, was a huge challenge. It’s a great tribute to filmmaking, so many talents coming together — terrific cinematography, great editing.
Jed’s reaction in that moment is so crucial. She’s the kind of beautiful woman that viewers could easily be skeptical of: is she genuine? Are we supposed to like her? Do we get invested in her? Her suggesting the kidnappers take her instead of Daniel answers those questions.
That was really key. Actually, in the book, she doesn’t have that backstory about her own child. She’s actually British in the book, a kind of what we call a lone ranger. We wanted her to be a much richer, more complex character. A huge amount of work went into building her up. For me, this is a star-making role for Elizabeth Debicki. For me, she’s the next Cate Blanchett. That scene of the kidnapping just shows what she’s capable of. She’s extraordinary.
Another great scene in this episode is Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) telling Pine what’s in store for him when he infiltrates Roper’s inner circle, that Pine has half a psychopath lurking inside him that he needs to find. What did you want to capture in that moment?
Personally, I’ve never seen Olivia do anything like that before. There’s a kind of savagery and intensity that comes through in that speech. You realize then for the first time how much [Burr] has emotionally invested in this quest for Roper. She and Pine are just different sides of the same coin. And as you discover in the [later] episode where she gives the speech about why she’s motivated to be on the tail of Roper, that moment retrofits to this scene. You can see why she’s as energized as she is. I think it’s an amazing moment.
Roper’s right hand, Corky (Tom Hollander), is suspicious of Pine. That’s going to be a huge part of the story moving forward. What was key when casting that role?
Tom Hollander is one of those actors who, as soon as we thought of him, we couldn’t really think of anybody else. He completely made the part his own. What le Carré wrote, the way he created Corky, the language was very similar. Tom Hollander’s so deep and so funny. This may sound a bit overblown, but in the middle of filming, it was clear that he was the fool to Roper’s King Lear. We the audience know he’s the only one who can see the truth. That’s why every time he comes on screen, he’s like a time bomb.
The Night Manager airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on AMC. Come back to Yahoo TV after each episode for a postmortem with executive producer Stephen Garrett.
Relive Tom Hiddleston’s amazing pensive facial performance in the premiere:
