Premiering on Apple TV+ beginning January 13th is the fourth and final season of the popular series ‘Servant,’ which is executive produced by acclaimed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan (‘The Sixth Sense,’ ‘Glass’).
The series centers on Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean Turner (Toby Kebbell), a wealthy Philadelphia couple who recently lost their young son, Jericho. After Dorothy suffers a psychotic break the couple undergoes transitory object therapy and use a lifelike “reborn doll,” which Dorothy comes to believe is her “real child.”
The couple eventually hires a young nanny named Leanne Grayson (Nell Tiger Free) to take care of the “baby” and it is soon revealed that she has supernatural abilities. Dorothy’s alcoholic brother Julian (Rupert Grint), also becomes aware of Leanne’s powers.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Nell Tiger Free and Toby Kebbell about their work on ‘Servant’ Season 4, ending the series, what the show has meant to them, and working with M. Night Shyamalan.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Nell Tiger Free and Toby Kebbell about season 4 of ‘Servant.’
Moviefone: To begin with, now that the series is ending, what has been the defining moment for both of you working on this show?
Toby Kebbell: I think I don’t get my defining moment really until this finale. I thought I’d had a bunch with the cooking and all the elaborate cookery we did with all the different bizarre creatures, and my wife’s placenta in a croquembouche. But no, I think in season four I’m chasing the truth now. This final season I’m believing in Nell’s hocus-pocus, as Sean sees it.
With Leanne’s spinning and then that terrible accident happens at the end, so I’m right back to the Sean I used to be. So now, I’m chasing this goal of telling my wife the truth and making sure she listens. It’s actually a really awesome scene. Nell kind of chats to us in a car, and then it’s just me and Lauren and Rupert. It was fantastic. I think that will be it, that will be the defining moment.
Nell Tiger Free: I think Toby is right. I think that all of us get our big defining moments as we draw this thing to a close. I’ve been lucky that in each season I’ve had kind of a pivot and a turning point, I’ve had an episode that has led me from one thought process to another. I think that the most pivotal moment for me over the four seasons is going to be right up to episode 10, and that’s where my big moment lies. I think that’s the answer.
MF: Finally, what has it been like for both of you to have an opportunity to work with M. Night Shyamalan on this series?
NTF: It’s been an experience. He was there at the birth of this and he’s there right at the end. Having his voice, his ideas and his thoughts echo through every choice, everything that we make and everything that we create has been a privilege. He’s a great, respected, well accoladed director for a reason. Because he is a master of the genre and he knows what needs to be done to get the best results. It’s been quite the experience.
TK: I’ll mirror that. It’s been very intriguing just the way he directs. There was a scene between me and Lauren at dinner, it was just a couple’s dinner. It was a one shot and it was very precise the way he wanted to do it. We did it over and over. I mean, almost to the level of (David) Fincher, the number of takes.
He really got to the point where he was like, “I guess it’s just, I don’t want a single stutter. I don’t want an uh or an um, I just want this to flow through. Can we try it that way?” It was amazing how it turned out. It was so difficult to get through it without an uh. It was four and a half pages of dialogue at the end of the day. So, it was challenging, but he’s the kind of person that you’d raise to that kind of a challenge for.
