Sense8 is going big for Season 2. The Netflix show’s list of filming locations was pretty impressive for Season 1, which took us to Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico City, Iceland, Nairobi, Berlin, Mumbai, Seoul and London. This time, however, it’s also going to Malta, Italy, the Netherlands and Brazil, among others. In total, the Season 2 shoot took the cast and crew to 18 different cities all over the world.
“It’s fun to share this with our cool family, but at the same time it challenging to see what you’ve got and enjoy as much as possible because we’re still on a job,” explains Max Riemelt, who plays Wolfgang on the show.
“We have to focus as much as possible. We have to be there and flexible, and we have to be on set… Lana [Wachowski, the show’s director, writer and co-creator] gets inspired by all these places and all these people we meet, so it’s a whole lot different than the first season. That season there was one script and these eight places. We basically knew what we were going to do, and now it’s more kind of a guerrilla shoot, which is awesome… Lana is more of a collector as a director. She adds whatever she wants to it when she’s in the moment.
“It also makes us more authentic,” he continues. “Being an actor all over the world also means seeing a place, being in a place, being with the people there, and it gives you a whole new understanding, a whole different perspective of the world itself.”
While the cast and crew were in São Paulo, Brazil, they took part in the city’s LGBT pride parade for a scene, which made the shoot extremely public.
“There was no getting away from it!” says Tuppence Middleton, who plays Icelandic sensate Riley. “It was interesting because we were there on the float in the story, but there were also loads of Sense8 fans there. And it was the parade so it could almost be like we were just there for Netflix on a float. Some people could have thought we were dressing in character but we were actually filming there! It was an interesting mix.”
Middleton confesses that she may not have stayed completely in character for the scene. “The crowd was so great and had so much energy so you sort of forget you’re there and [that you have to] be in character. As the cameras were rolling, you’d be dancing around as yourself, and then think, no, no, no, wait! I need to be in character! I need to be Riley! I remember Doona [Bae, who plays Sun] saying to me, ‘I wasn’t Sun then at all! I was just Doona!’ It was amazing.”
Sense8 Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix from 5 May. Get all the latest sci-fi news with every issue of SciFiNow.
