What We Learned From Speaking to the Cast of Netflix’s The Sandman

Rejoice! It’s official! We’re getting a Season 2 of The Sandman. And while it may be quite a ways yet to go before we actually see it, this seems like the perfect time to go back and rewatch some of the conversations we had with the cast of the series. Here now, is a list of all the interesting things we learned from speaking them.

• First of all, Tom Sturridge is a bit of a technophobe and doesn’t believe in smartphones. Instead, he has whatever it is that is.

• Tom Sturridge, Vivienne Acheampong, and Vanesu Samunyai only started reading The Sandman comics because they got called in to audition for the series.
• Tom Sturridge’s first audition had him reading the scene where Dream first returns to the Gates of Hall and Ivory and sees the destroyed palace for the first time.
• Vanesu Samunyai’s first audition tape was shot while she was with her family in Zimbabwe!

• Vivienne Acheampong’s last name is pronounced achem-pong and is Ghanaian in origin.
• Kirby Howell-Baptiste has not listened to the Audible audiobook version of The Sandman.
• Mason Alexander Park has, but the shoot for the Netflix series was so much later that they “had plenty of time to forget about it” and not have it affect their performance for the series.

• According to Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Neil Gaiman was very heavily involved in the production. “There were so little assumptions and speculations as to what Neil would want or think because Neil was there if we had any questions.”
• Here is what Tom Sturridge had to say about finding the voice of Dream.

• Tom Sturridge also considers The Sandman as “one of the most important pieces of art over the last 30 years.”
• Vanesu Samunyai lurks on Twitter and Reddit subforums to get an idea of how audiences and fans are responding to the show. So watch what you say, you could be speaking to the actual Rose online!

• Vanesu Samunyai is also a big fan of manga and webtoons!
• According to Hisko Hulsing, the director of A Dream of a Thousand Cats, no real cats were used in the process.

• Real (naked!) actors, however, were used to shoot the prehistoric giant cat sequences from the episode.

To watch all our conversations with the cast and the crew of The Sandman, Season 1, click here. We also have two reviews of The Sandman, one from a fan of the comics, and another from a newcomer to the series.