Take Two! - Sheldon Shepherd and Storm Saulter on filming, friendship
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Director Storm Saulter (right) and lead actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw participate in a press junket in the United Kingdom for ‘Possession’ last Monday.
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Between filming scenes for a Jonkonnu parade in downtown Kingston for ‘Possession’ – which debuts this Thursday on Sky TV in the United Kingdom – costumed actor Sheldon Shepherd and the limited series’ director, Storm Saulter, pause for a portrait.
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Director Storm Saulter (left) prepares for a scene with actor Sheldon Shepherd during filming of the upcoming Sky Atlantic miniseries ‘Possession’, which was shot at multiple locations across Kingston and St Ann last year.
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Shepherd (right) and actress Bel Powley, who portrays his half-sister in ‘Possession’, were paired for a London press junket to promote the five-part miniseries. “It went from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and was an exciting, fun experience,” Shepherd told ‘The Sunday Gleaner’. “It was my first time reasoning with so many different media platforms in one sitting.”
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The gang’s all here! The cast and crew of ‘Possession’ hit the red carpet for the show’s premiere at London’s Brixton Ritzy cinema last Monday. Pictured (from left) are: costume designer Suzanne Cave, Ruth Kenley-Letts of Snowed In Productions, writer Karla Crome, actress Bel Powley, actor Olunike Adeliyi, actor Sheldon Shepherd, director Storm Saulter, actresses Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nadean Rawlins and Safina Simpson, and Priscilla Parish and Ellen Marsh, both of Sky TV.
For Sheldon Shepherd and Storm Saulter, an implicit trust guides their working dynamic as actor and director. Theirs is a decades-long artistic partnership that began with the filming of the latter’s political period drama debut, Better Mus’ Come in 2008 on The Rock, and resumed last year during the filming of Sky Atlantic’s British supernatural thriller miniseries, Possession, which is set to drop later this week.
From twentysomethings finding their footing nearly 20 years ago to assured gentlemen operating at full blast today, Saulter and Shepherd see tremendous growth in their craft in the film and television ventures they have undertaken together.
“ Better Mus’ Come was a gruelling, scrappy production that taught us both so much about filmmaking and how to bring the best out of each other. We have also been good friends since that time, so we have developed a shorthand when it comes to creative collaboration,” Saulter shared with Sunday Entertainment in a check-in from London, where he and Shepherd jetted off for the premiere of the upcoming five-part series.
Six hours ahead across the pond, the pair had slept little when they accommodated a joint interview with familiar home media, this one day after participating in a press junket with British Vogue, The Guardian, Deadline, Metro, Drama Quarterly, and a slate of film, horror and cultural influencers and blogs.
“I know how to direct Sheldon to get what I want and how to give him the freedom to take his characters in unexpected and interesting directions,” Saulter reflected. His muse concurred with the evolution of their relationship in front of and behind the lens over the intervening years. “How we related on the set of Better Mus’ Come is different from Possession in specific ways. In Better, Storm wore many hats. He was the director of photography, simultaneously giving directions as the director, and he also wrote the script. In Possession, Storm had a different focus, solely as the director; his comfort and confidence on set was vivid,” Shepherd assessed. The thespian said the helmer’s maturity transferred throughout the production and “was palpable for me as an actor”.
Penned by Karla Crome, Possession weaves the story of a biracial lawyer, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who journeys from the United Kingdom to a haunted Jamaican plantation home to fight an inheritance claim. Over the course of the five-episode limited series, she unearths dark historical secrets intertwined with modern injustices. Shepherd is tasked with a dual role performance as Cudjoe East and Matthew Desfrienes in the series. He told Sunday Entertainment he committed to the visceral and physical demands that he felt leapt off the page in Crome’s centuries-spanning saga. “From script to set, for me, Possession was more energising and exciting than challenging,” informed the actor, whose last major big-screen role was as the late Neville Garrick in the 2024 biopic, Bob Marley: One Love. “Regarding challenging scenes, I had a moment or two where the climate presented a bit of a hurdle,” he recalled. “I was submerged in the cold river mouth on set in St Ann for hours filming a scene in which I am to be warm, composed and comfortable. We handled that obstacle, and Storm got the shots he needed.”
The Saulter-directed series, bankrolled by the European-based Sky Studios, was shot between Bristol in the United Kingdom and The Rock. Locally, Kingston, St Andrew and St Ann served as the primary backdrops. Cross Roads Market, the Water Lane arts district in downtown Kingston, the ROK Hotel Kingston on King Street, Hope Botanical Gardens, Port Royal and the 18th-century Annandale Great House in the Garden Parish were among the locations on the call sheet for the cast, which also includes Jamaican actress Nadean Rawlins and English actor Jonny Lee Miller.
Whenever the cameras rolled and Shepherd was the focus of Saulter’s lens, the director said he could rest easy. “He’s a lead actor, no questions about it. When he enters a room, the vibes change. That is not something that every actor has. Shepherd’s charisma and emotional intelligence [are] undeniable while also being a strong representation of classic Jamaican ‘masculinity’. And he is willing to ‘go there’ dramatically and emotionally if the work requires it,” he lauded.
It’s a mutual admiration society. Shepherd said the director is a creative sounding board in whom he has complete faith. “I love that I can call Storm at some weird late hour of the night or morning to chat about an idea I am feeling for a scene. I sometimes show up at his door with ideas burning, and he is always in a position to hear me out and add his creative perspective to whatever. I don’t know, maybe it’s because we are both Virgos and bear the S.S. initials,” said Shepherd between a light-hearted chuckle.
Offering his deep dive on how their creative partnership has evolved, Saulter ruminated for a minute. “With age comes wisdom, and we have both grown in confidence and creative ability since then,” he began. “We’ve both travelled and lived a bit of life since, which feeds back into our ideas. It feels like the potential of our creative partnership is limitless. It’s all about ideas and execution.”
And what to make of this high-profile television series helmed by a Jamaican, and the possibility of luring even bigger investments to follow suit locally? Shepherd has thoughts on the matter. “It is a constant work in progress as a member of the island’s creative community where we constantly champion the precedence of our voices, images and likeness on international productions and not just as a backdrop. Possession is a solid step in advancing this sentiment,” shared the actor, whose side pursuits as a musician will see his debut album, Give Thanks, released in September.
Meanwhile, Saulter feels a sense of vindication in his efforts on the project, which he awaits television audiences seeing in its entirety on August 6. “This is everything I’ve been working towards my entire life, and it has been a blessing to work with so many of the same Jamaican crew members I’ve been collaborating with for my entire career. There was a spiritual wind in all our sails. Karla Crome’s scripts are amazing, and to be able to tell as important a story as this one, with all its nuances, through a Jamaican lens, was essential, and you can see that on screen,” he summarised.
entertainment@gleanerjm.com