Toby Kebbell And Rupert Grint Speak With Us About Upcoming Apple TV+ Series ‘Servant’

We recently had a chance to catch up with actors Toby Kebbell and Rupert Grint to discuss their highly-anticipated new series “Servant” executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan and coming to Apple TV+ on November 28th.

Kebbell plays Sean an upscale chef who creates recipes to sell to very high-end restaurants. and Grint plays his brother-in-law Julian a hilarious, yet brash financial playboy of sorts!

The chemistry between this pair is just amazing. It is not very often that you get to witness in-laws who are actually friends, but Julian is without a doubt one of Sean’s biggest allies throughout the course of “Servant” season one.  The chemistry takes not only on-screen but off-screen as well, as these two are an absolute joy to catch up as we discuss their roles in the series, plans for the future of “Servant”, backstories and more.

We have also just learned that Apple has already renewed “Servant” for season two, just ahead of its upcoming premiere, so we are absolutely thrilled to be getting more of this series!

As we know, Kebbell’s character is a chef, so he had to do some quite interesting things with food over the course of the season, so we were curious to know which recipe gave him the most difficulty. He tells us, “The use of caramel spun sugar was quite easy” and then jokes, “Working with Rupert was the most difficult! No, seriously, we have the best time. He is my favorite person to work with! Lauren [Ambrose] is terrific as well and she’s a phenomenal actress, so I was like, I have to compete all the time! She’s so good! But, with Rupert …., he adds with a laugh!

Speaking about the amount of tension within the series and how Julian’s character steps in to break it up a bit, Grint tells us, “He is a different energy that comes into the house. He’s very brash. He comes from the financial district and he thinks that money can solve all problems. He has developed all these methods to kind of manipulate people. He’s one of those guys who is always two steps ahead and knows what to do … he always has a plan. He is Sean’s confidante in all of this.”

Kebbell adds, “He is and he understands the situation that I’m going through but is a real person if you know what I mean and that’s how ludacris that it is that this financial type, brash dude is the real person in the whole thing. Everything else is depicted as like the ‘crazy people’. Imagine having that as your brother-in-law for real, it would be so good and he plays it fantastically.

There is a lot of comedy between these two actors when talking about their favorite scene together, Kebbell says, “I enjoy Rupert’s company so much that I’m just laughing all the time just as a human being and just hanging out. Scene wise, it’s overthrown by how much joy we had …”

Grint comments, “We had a lot of clandestine conversations in the basement.” They both agree that the “Stuff in the basement was the best stuff!” Kebbell says, “It was all one shot as well! We had to run it through and it was a lot of single shots. It was a lot like doing a play. It allowed us to play it out and be greedy with our time.”

Grint says, “There would also be scenes where I’m on FaceTime and we actually did that during filming like from the green room. Kebbell reveals, “He was off! And he ended up calling in any way!”

We had to know if they really ate the lobster ice cream that is featured as one of Sean’s culinary efforts in the series, which Kebbell revealed, “Yes, they really made it.” He went on to tell us that the dish that Julian refuses to eat was actually vegan strawberry ice cream, however, the actual lobster ice cream tasted like “eating a dead guy … it is truly horrific! There is no purpose to it, so don’t make it at home!”

Kebbell’s character is faced with some truly gross scenes throughout the series not just in the kitchen with food, so we had to know what grossed him out the most. He tells us with a laugh, “All of it! The part with the vomit … it was freezing cold in Philly and for some reason, I had to be wearing espadrilles and short and I was like, why am I in these summer clothes? That’s acting I guess, I have to pretend it’s hot when it’s cold! My life is so hard! But it was an egg, with some yolk and stuff in it to make it look authentic, but it doesn’t matter what it was made of it, it’s the mammalian reaction of reaching into a gooey mess, so yeah, it was pretty gross!”

Speaking about whether his character set out to be funny, Grint tells us, “It is definitely the script. The character has such a clear voice, it was really easy to jump into his skin. There are definitely some really good lines!”

Talking about where the future of the series would go should we get a season two and if we are going to get any more family backstory for Julian and Dorothy or how Dorothy and Sean met, Kebbell says, “It’s something that we have talked about, even looking at Sean’s family. Where are his parents? Are they alive or dead? Are there any siblings? So, there is a lot of scope and what’s so incredible about that house is actually love being there. When you watch it, it starts to feel claustrophobic, I mean I know Lauren [Ambrose] would always say she wanted to get out of the house, but I think that’s how tremendous of an actor she is, that you realize as you watch the series, why she would want to get out of the house and hope you realize why Sean wants to stay in the house.”

You can view our full interview below (please keep in mind the last question had to be cut out due to a series spoiler)!

 

About Kristyn Clarke

I am a journalist and interviewer who is completely obsessed with music, TV, film and all other aspects of pop culture! I am currently the Director of Operations for PopCultureMadness.com and my work can also be found on MusicMayhemMagazine.com, TheRockRevival.com, and TryItToday.com! Have my B.S. in Television/Video Production from Wilmington University and have been working in online media for the past ten years and loving every moment of it!

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