Egyptian-American artist Sam Esmail tells Al-Mawed: I directed the episodes of my new series with the encouragement of Julia Roberts
My new series is about the mental illnesses that warriors return from war with.
Julia Roberts and I are fans of Alfred Hitchcock.
I love being behind the camera.
He was not known before, although he acted and wrote some novels, but suddenly he appeared in the artistic world with a very successful series about the secrets of computers and the tricks of those who work with them, I mean the series “Mr. Robot” which won several international awards “Golden Globe” As for the new series, it is about victims of wars and the return of warriors with apparent and hidden psychological illnesses and what goes on behind the scenes to treat them or benefit from their psychological illness - and the name of the new series is “Home Coming” or “Return from War”. He is Sam Esmail, born in America, but of Egyptian origin as his family immigrated to America, and he was born in the state of “New York”, but of course he moved to Hollywood, the center of cinema, after obtaining a university degree from New York University and then a master’s degree.
In Hollywood, he started writing short stories, but they were not published and did not appear on screen. What suddenly made him a huge success was the series Mr. Robot, in which his Egyptian friend Rami Malek played the lead role. They won several awards. Then, Sam recently presented a distinctive series on a topic that concerns American and even global society, as it revolves around the story of a warrior who returns from war suffering from severe psychological illnesses that need treatment. But is this treatment the solution? This is the core of the novel. I asked Sam about this global problem and why it interested him. He said:
“First, wars are a global thing, not just an American thing, and the damages are inflicted on everyone who fought and suffered the horrors of combat, and then after that comes the treatment, and here comes the story of the series, as not all those who treat this psychological illness have the experience, or some of them may try to benefit from this situation and the story becomes complicated,” he continued, saying: “I do not want to explain more than that so that the mystery remains, which is the essence of the audience’s enjoyment.”
I asked him about the new series Home Coming and how he was able to get the famous actress Julia Roberts to participate in the series and even have the lead role, he said that “Julia Roberts” and he have the same taste in novels as they are readers and viewers of Alfred Hitchcock and his way of presenting stories, he used to captivate the reader until the end and this is what “Sam” tries to do in his series and the actress Julia Roberts completely agrees with him as she plays the lead role in this new series. I said to him but how were you able to get Julia Roberts to participate in the series, he said that of course he knows about her and her acting in films and her ability to play different characters, and he asked her to watch the first episodes of the series as she was completely impressed by it before she knew how it would end as he had not written it yet or even thought about how he would end the story, and what made the matter easier is that they have the same movie agent.
Then I asked him how he could have Sissy Spacek in the series and he said that she was also the first candidate for the role she played, but we were sure that she would refuse it and we went to look for other actresses to play the role of Julia Roberts' mother in the series, but we were surprised that she accepted to play the role and she liked the novel as well.
I told him that in the series Mr. Robot, each episode was one hour long, but in this new series Home Coming, each episode is only half an hour, so why this difference? He said: "The two stories are completely different from each other in terms of story and subject matter. With Mr. Robot, the story's events are fast, as I was able to keep the viewer engaged all the time for a full hour. As for Home Coming, it deals with a psychological state and events that make the viewer want to watch it for half an hour. If it goes beyond that, his attention may be drawn to something else."
I asked him: Did you direct all the episodes of the new series? And why? He said: "Yes, I directed all the episodes of the series because I am "crazy" (that is exactly what he said, yes "crazy" and he said it of course with a sense of humor) and he continued saying: "I started working on the first two episodes of the series with Julia Roberts and she liked it and asked me to work and direct all the subsequent episodes, which was not what I expected to do, but I found that based on her request and the good and high quality of the story's performance, I decided to direct all the episodes of the series."
I asked him that in most of his works he was behind the camera as a director or writer, so would he like to be in front of the camera as an actor? He said: “I acted in plays a while ago and my role in them was very short and I did not like that, so I want to be behind the camera and I do not intend to act in any film or television.”
Hollywood - George Doss
Julia Roberts and I are fans of Alfred Hitchcock.
I love being behind the camera.
He was not known before, although he acted and wrote some novels, but suddenly he appeared in the artistic world with a very successful series about the secrets of computers and the tricks of those who work with them, I mean the series “Mr. Robot” which won several international awards “Golden Globe” As for the new series, it is about victims of wars and the return of warriors with apparent and hidden psychological illnesses and what goes on behind the scenes to treat them or benefit from their psychological illness - and the name of the new series is “Home Coming” or “Return from War”. He is Sam Esmail, born in America, but of Egyptian origin as his family immigrated to America, and he was born in the state of “New York”, but of course he moved to Hollywood, the center of cinema, after obtaining a university degree from New York University and then a master’s degree.
In Hollywood, he started writing short stories, but they were not published and did not appear on screen. What suddenly made him a huge success was the series Mr. Robot, in which his Egyptian friend Rami Malek played the lead role. They won several awards. Then, Sam recently presented a distinctive series on a topic that concerns American and even global society, as it revolves around the story of a warrior who returns from war suffering from severe psychological illnesses that need treatment. But is this treatment the solution? This is the core of the novel. I asked Sam about this global problem and why it interested him. He said:
“First, wars are a global thing, not just an American thing, and the damages are inflicted on everyone who fought and suffered the horrors of combat, and then after that comes the treatment, and here comes the story of the series, as not all those who treat this psychological illness have the experience, or some of them may try to benefit from this situation and the story becomes complicated,” he continued, saying: “I do not want to explain more than that so that the mystery remains, which is the essence of the audience’s enjoyment.”
I asked him about the new series Home Coming and how he was able to get the famous actress Julia Roberts to participate in the series and even have the lead role, he said that “Julia Roberts” and he have the same taste in novels as they are readers and viewers of Alfred Hitchcock and his way of presenting stories, he used to captivate the reader until the end and this is what “Sam” tries to do in his series and the actress Julia Roberts completely agrees with him as she plays the lead role in this new series. I said to him but how were you able to get Julia Roberts to participate in the series, he said that of course he knows about her and her acting in films and her ability to play different characters, and he asked her to watch the first episodes of the series as she was completely impressed by it before she knew how it would end as he had not written it yet or even thought about how he would end the story, and what made the matter easier is that they have the same movie agent.
Then I asked him how he could have Sissy Spacek in the series and he said that she was also the first candidate for the role she played, but we were sure that she would refuse it and we went to look for other actresses to play the role of Julia Roberts' mother in the series, but we were surprised that she accepted to play the role and she liked the novel as well.
I told him that in the series Mr. Robot, each episode was one hour long, but in this new series Home Coming, each episode is only half an hour, so why this difference? He said: "The two stories are completely different from each other in terms of story and subject matter. With Mr. Robot, the story's events are fast, as I was able to keep the viewer engaged all the time for a full hour. As for Home Coming, it deals with a psychological state and events that make the viewer want to watch it for half an hour. If it goes beyond that, his attention may be drawn to something else."
I asked him: Did you direct all the episodes of the new series? And why? He said: "Yes, I directed all the episodes of the series because I am "crazy" (that is exactly what he said, yes "crazy" and he said it of course with a sense of humor) and he continued saying: "I started working on the first two episodes of the series with Julia Roberts and she liked it and asked me to work and direct all the subsequent episodes, which was not what I expected to do, but I found that based on her request and the good and high quality of the story's performance, I decided to direct all the episodes of the series."
I asked him that in most of his works he was behind the camera as a director or writer, so would he like to be in front of the camera as an actor? He said: “I acted in plays a while ago and my role in them was very short and I did not like that, so I want to be behind the camera and I do not intend to act in any film or television.”
Hollywood - George Doss