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Neither found the answers they were looking for, only pushing them deeper into traps of uncertainty and futility.
Check out his in-depth breakdown below.
Credit: Ben King/HBO
(When you reach the last season, the spigot closes just a little bit, Sackheim cracks.)
The initial plan was to shoot on-location, on the 17th floor of an actual hotel in Australia.
Yet this quickly proved untenable.
HBO
First, there was the issue of lighting.
If youre up high in a skyscraper, what do you do when the sun starts to set?
You have to have light coming through the windows, Sackheim explains.
Ben King/HBO
We were debating, What could we do?
Put lights under the building?
Because of that, he was able to more effectively trace the thematic and character arcs of the episode.
Then it came to him.
They only did a few takes, if only because they couldnt heat the water in the constructed rooms.
For one person, at least, it was a relief that getting the scene didnt take any longer.
Then he said, I wouldnt even let her have it.
I would just rip it out of her hands.
So that wasnt scripted.
Taunt him with it.
A lot of the ways that I direct is Ill find a verb that really hits home.
She had the book in her hands, and I said, No, hold it.Taunthim.
Thats very specific and that gives her a lot of ideas and a lot of places you go.
And boom, then it develops into something like that.
This was pretty much my favorite directing experience of all the shows Ive done, he says.
From Damon on down, theres just an incredibly collaborative experience, Sackheim explains.
Damon encouraged me to bring a vision to it.
You are oftentimes asked to paint or draw within very specific lines.
I was never given that mandate on this show.
The entirety ofThe Leftoversis available to stream on HBOGo.
