Readers of Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth comic series may recall that the Tommy Jepperd seen in the books was kind of modeled after another popular character, Marvel's Frank Castle aka The Punisher. For Netflix's TV adaptation some changes have been made, British-Nigerian Actor actor Nonso Anozie takes on the part and even though he doesn't have the grizzled old white guy look at all, he's just as dangerous and intimidating on screen as Jepperd is on the page. Considering the major changes, we asked Anozie if he read the comics to prep or just waited for the scripts, and like so many of us he said himself that he's "a comic book boy."
"Obviously, as a classically trained actor, I'm always going to look at the source material, as well as the script as well," Anozie said. "But I have great respect for all the people that read the comic book originally, and have a love for it. In the comic book, Jepperd is a hockey player. He's not an American football player. He's Caucasian, he's not African American, but this is the thing that was impressed upon me, by the costume director, by the director, by Jeff Lemire himself, is that it was really just they were looking for the person that was going to embody the essence of Jepperd the most. And I came in, and gave them what I felt was my best take, and they were buying what I was selling, and here I am playing Jepperd today."
He continued, "I feel like he has this kind of modern cowboy feel about him. Kind of a loner, traveling from town to town in a place that, in a time where you have to lie, cheat, steal, and kill, kill to get what you need. And I'm a comic book boy. I grew up reading 2000 AD, I've still got my silver foil edition of Superman Lives from 1990. So, yeah, I definitely have respect for that, and I definitely feel like I've brought some of those elements into playing Jepperd in the TV show."
All these alterations in mind, we asked Anozie what he spoke to Jeff Lemire about what the core of the character is and how he could embody that in his performance.
"I felt like it was just important for me that a note from Jeff and from the director, Jim (Mickle), was to almost never show any sign that you are warming to Gus, so it kind of makes it his job to make me warm to him," the actor said. "He's this stoic kind of wall, I'm not good for you, you need to leave me alone, guy. I've got nothing to do with you because I know there's people at every corner we go around, there's going to be someone there waiting to kill him, and I'm going to have to be... I'm going to be the one that's going to have to protect him, and I don't want any parts of that. But there's something amazing, and positive, and innocent about the way that Christian plays Gus, and about the character of Gus that seeps into the heart of Jepperd, and somehow makes him remember a world where hope existed before."
Sweet Tooth also stars Christian Convery as Gus, Adeel Akhtar as Dr. Aditya Singh, Aliza Vellani as Rani Singh, Stefania LaVie Owen as Bear, Dania Ramirez as Aimee Eden, Neil Sandilands as General Abbot, Will Forte as Father, and James Brolin as Narrator.
The first season of Sweet Tooth will be released on Netflix on June 4th.
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