Created by Vantage Point’s Barry L. Levy, new young adult sci-fi series Me follows a 12-year-old named Ben (played by Lucian-River Chauhan) who is in the throes of middle school (complete with bullies, crushes and school dances!), and is adjusting to a newly blended family with his new dad and sister, Max (played by Abigail Pniowsky). Oh and he’s also just realised he has the power to shapeshift.
We spoke to Levy about how the protagonist is based on his own son – also called Ben! – and whether he’s planning any more seasons for the show.
How did everything start with you for Me?
I have identical twin daughters and a son, who’s a few years younger. [My daughters] were growing up and they were shorter for their age. He was taller, and he looked like a triplet. His name was Ben, and for him, it was a struggle trying to find his identity with them. Who was he supposed to be? Because the minute he opened his mouth, he didn’t sound like he was their peer, but until he did, everyone took him for one, so trying to figure out who he was is where the inspiration came from.
My son and I kept talking, and we turned his experience into a sort of metaphor – if you could be anyone, who would you be? And that became the central question of the first season. The answer being: I want to be me.
This is very much a story of a young boy growing up – why add the sci-fi element?
Honestly, it was my kids. On some level, we joke in our house that this is a sort of love letter among us. But my son was so into superheroes that for him, with this idea of who he could be, it was pretty clear to him who he wanted to be. I wrote what I knew and where we were taking the story in our discussions at bedtime. So it made sense. It just intuitively came that way.
What were your sci-fi influences for the series?
For me, the central and biggest touchstone throughout was E.T.
E.T. was when I was young, was so influential, and when my kids were young, it was influential. That duality of watching it again… I didn’t know that Elliot’s father had run off with a flight attendant to Mexico [in the movie]. The details and the layers that were there for all generations were so profound. You can tell it was a really interpersonal, grounded science fiction story, but you could also tell it was one that had something for the whole family.
Is that why Ben wears a red hoody for a lot of the show?
*Nods* – I think that what we’re able to do with science fiction is [use it as a] metaphor. Finding one’s power, finding your superpower are two obvious parallels [to E.T]. I’m certainly not the first to step into that fray, but what it does is it allows you this platform to look at things in that way. And when we talked about if we were to build a universe out of this universe, and all of the people in it, there’s traumas, and there’s real-world life that also turns into a metaphoric power.
The series has plenty of twists and turns – did you already have them all planned out when you started writing the show?
I did know where I was going because that arc of the theme was always there. That this was going to be his journey of self-discovery. So I knew a lot of the signposts ahead of time, and I had written the first three episodes, so I knew minute-by-minute where I was going.
The young cast is great! How difficult was it to cast a series with such young characters at the centre?
It is a credit to Josh Einsohn, our casting director. He scoured high and low. We were on at least three different continents, searching for over six months. River, when we saw him, we knew he was it, and everything fell along the way within that. And Josh saw Amanda Reid, who plays Carter, months before we ever did – he was convinced, and it showed, I mean, she really took over the screen, which is really compelling.
Did you work closely with the young cast on their characters while shooting the series?
I definitely had conversations with each of them ahead of time, one on one, and then a couple of times during production, one on one.
To me, one of the things that was most important here was the authenticity of performance, but also the authenticity of leadership. We needed them to lead by example, and they came every day with their lines, with their focus, and they set a standard that you can’t really argue with.
Abby [Pniowsky, who plays Max] was so incredibly prepared. It’s hard to argue with the professionalism and the extraordinary performance that she pulls off.
Do you have plans to expand the world of Me into more seasons or spin-offs?
I have a plan for not just three seasons, but I have plans for an entire universe, the centre of which you see in the fifth episode – there’s ideas about where I want to take that.
There are places that have all been thought out and there’s even a few Easter Eggs, if you look closely, where some of it’s sort of set up and tipped off.
What do you want for audiences to take away from the series once they’ve finished it?
I want them to be touched emotionally and connect with it. I want them to feel something, but also really embrace the ride.
There are jokes here and there, there are thrills and a few jolts and scares. There’s a lot of everything for all audiences.
To me, the greatest compliment is what people find in it for themselves. That really is what would be the most meaningful and gratifying for me.
Me is out now on Apple TV+
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