Sense8: The Series Finale will release June 8, 2018

[sense8ional]

Ooooh, ok, that makes sense to use that icon for him. However, then, I don't think the icon is well designed.

[Jan]

Ooooh, ok, that makes sense to use that icon for him. However, then, I don't think the icon is well designed.

Agreed. A small safe would have been more easily identified.

[sense8ional]

1 year anniversary was yesterday: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/new...ne-year-later/


Mentioned tributes/interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f96PuiFWnj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyWERmjgUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyqbaSzgVUw <- with Sommers and Fish

[sense8ional]

Might as well just post it here.
Lilly on writing for Nomi: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ra...arance-1228603

"Sense8 was written at a time in my life, at this moment of tipping point for me, right before I transitioned. From my perspective, the creation of Nomi as a character was about hopefulness for me because I hadn't quite let go of where I was. I feel like a lot of the writing I did for that character was below the surface," she explained. "In the film business, as a trans person, I was always looking content and wanting something else, wanting something different. In all of our films, we always strove to take oddball films in the way that we cast our shows. That was subtextually my trans brain working itself, working itself out of the closet in a lot of ways. So, Nomi is definitely the culmination of that."

[sense8ional]

Again, might as well just post it in this thread now that the show has ended. According to Lana, the friendship of Nomi and Bug was inspired by her friendship with storyboarder/artist Steve Skroce.

I was also very nervous when I came out to Steve. We've been close friends ever since Ectokid and I value his friendship immensely. His reaction was so sweet and funny (some jokes hilariously inappropriate) that when I hung up, I cried. Bug's relationship with Nomi in Sense8 is a secret Thank You to Steve for one of the best friendship I've known.

From her intro to Doc Frankenstein: https://www.amazon.com/Doc-Frankenst...dp/1932700560/

[sense8ional]

Clayton: https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/...age-interview/

"It continues to amaze me, the reach that the show has. It's so interesting with the self-isolation that we've been doing all over the world because the show has picked up a whole new fan base," Clayton said. "I can't tell you how many messages I've gotten over the past month from people that have said, 'I just watched for the first time now that I've been locked up in my house, and I can't tell you what a fan I am of the show and the message.'"

I tweeted early on in the self-isolation, 'Now's a great time to rewatch,' because the core theme of the show is empathy," she continued. "And I think that the one thing that I've noticed with the pandemic that is sweeping the world right now, I've just been noticing a lot of selfishness in America. All of the statements of people who don't want to stay at home, they all start with 'I'. 'I want this' or, 'I want that.' It's selfishness. And with Sense8, there's a lot of empathy and there's a lot of understanding and I think that that's what people are resonating with. And so, people are going back to the show for some feel good feelies, and then people are finding the show for the first time because they've got the time."

[Jan]

Thanks for this, Sense8ional!

[sense8ional]

From last month, cast reminiscence about the big Pride/coming out moment for Lito in Season 2: https://ew.com/tv/sense-8-cast-look-...os-coming-out/

We caught up with stars Brian J. Smith, Jamie Clayton, and Alfonso Herrera to discuss the powerful, fun, and memorable scene.

Sense8 is a complicated show, but the passionate audience surrounding the float understood the rules. Their role in the scene was to hear Lito's speech, and they played their part perfectly, responding as a scene partner should. "The crowd cheered at all the right places and responded, they knew that the other seven of us sensates were not visible to them even. They knew all of the rules," Smith shares.

Lana Wachowski wanted to showcase the speech in a specific way, one that created an iconic moment. The scene was shot twice: first with a smaller group the day before the parade, and again at the parade. In a controlled environment, Lana was able to get close-ups of Miguel's speech and then improvise on the day, channeling the unique energy of a Pride Parade. "Being able to improvise is when Lana really, really shines," Smith shares, "She loves not to have a plan, and she got these incredible shots with the crowd in the background, the way the sun hit the float, and be able to frame [Alfonso] and Miguel kissing with all the confetti coming down."

Confetti flew everywhere as Lito ended his Grand Marshall speech with a kiss, and then the party began! The crowd’s cheering, the cluster’s dancing, an energy that could be felt through the screen. The cast had an absolute blast partying on the float with one another. Surprisingly the complicated party scene was not choreographed; everyone was just having a great time. "We didn't really know what we were going to do, we didn't even do a rehearsal ahead of time," Smith shares, "We knew Lana loved these group moments that happened totally spontaneously, so we were able to let go and let the moment take us."

For Smith, who came out after the show ended, the scene holds special meaning. "It was odd standing there on the float knowing I was gay, and everyone on that float knowing that I was gay as well, and not having come out yet," he shares. Watching himself in the scene, he tries to remember what he was thinking at the moment, watching Lito do something he wanted to do in his real life. Lito's moment on the Pride float in São Paulo is also the one fans ask him most about.

"I have thought about that scene a lot in the past year since I've come out, and it was definitely inspiring. It made me feel like I could do it," he adds.

[sense8ional]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe86B_9TF2g

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a...ayton-netflix/
https://www.theyoungfolks.com/televi...ture-lgbtq-tv/

During an LGBTQ Representation panel at [email protected] on Thursday (July 23), the star said: "[It's revolutionary] in the sense that I'm a woman of trans experience and I was playing a woman of trans experience, written by a woman of trans experience [Lana Wachowski], and also being directed by her and her sibling [Lilly Wachowski], who at the time wasn't out yet, but who is now also a woman of trans experience.

"So it was like the most beautiful, layered cake of all these amazing flavours."

She continued: "While I was doing it, I don't know that I necessarily knew [how big the show was going to be].

"As an actor, you know, it's like I do the audition and get a job and I hope that people like it and they like me and then it's like, 'Is anybody even gonna watch this?' And then people liked it and there's these Senses all over the world and I still get messages."

Asked if she hoped the show would educate viewers on LGBTQ+ issues, she said: "I was hoping that people wouldn't be turned off by the show because I was on it and my character was trans, and a lesbian, and had a girlfriend of a woman of colour.

"The world is a largely conservative kind of place. I was hoping that people would watch and learn the difference between gender identity and sexuality and just simple things that so many people still don't understand. I hope that they learned some stuff."

And some more Sense8 stuff from the last couple of years which I haven't posted:

https://culturess.com/2019/09/05/lasting-legacy-sense8/

Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who, New Amsterdam), who played the role of Amanita Caplan on Sense8, which ran for two seasons, appeared at Dragon Con in Atlanta over the weekend in a one-woman panel about the series. Despite citing that the show lacked enough viewers to justify it’s production costs (it was filmed on location all over the world) as the reason for canceling the celebrated series, the ballroom at the Hilton was packed full of fans.

Agyeman spoke so richly and eloquently about the experience of filming such a show and seeing the impact it had on people. She said that the series gave her hope at a time in her life when she was ready to give up on working in the television and film industry; the pilot script for Sense8 changed her mind. She stated that she was “really excited and really scared” to audition for the role of Amanita, but won the role thanks to her talent and her obvious chemistry with Jamie Clayton, who played Amanita’s love interest, Nomi. “I love her,” Agyeman said about her onscreen girlfriend turned wife.

Agyeman talked about what she hoped the legacy of the show would be: to be open to new people and experiences and to never stop being what makes you different from everybody else. The show united a group of actors who became a family on- and off-screen, and she was extremely touched to see that the show had done the same for the viewers.

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...nse8-clexacon/

Clayton is referring to the pivotal scene where her character on the show, Nomi, who also identifies as trans, opens up to Lito (Miguel Silvestre). Nomi recalls being forced to go to the swim club by her father before transitioning and how she was physically abused by a group of boys while there.

Clayton told her fans in London that the traumatic scene was changed last minute.

‘When we were filming that, it actually wasn’t written that Nomi was in the flashback, that was something that was decided in the moment. We were supposed to be telling the story and then Lito and Nomi were supposed to be in the shower observing that situation, but in the moment we switched,’ she said.

Nomi ended up reliving the scene rather than just watching it.

‘I put on the shirt and then Lana had a full breakdown and I was like “What’s going on?” and someone came to me and told me “This happened”’.

She said she was suddenly invested with the responsibility of telling Lana’s story right.

‘I was like “Wait, this is for real? I had no idea”. So [Lana] left, they cut and we stopped filming. She and I had a moment and I was like ‘Fuck, this really happened’. I was like “Okay, let me do it, let’s do it”’.

https://www.soompi.com/article/12409...-chaos-sense-8

https://film.avclub.com/joe-pantolia...ard-1842912026

Some news articles covering the mural that was eventually cancelled:

https://netflixlife.com/2018/07/02/s...erview-murals/
https://netflixlife.com/2018/07/07/s...n-fundraising/
https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/new...-sense8-mural/

[Looney]

That is a lot of material. I wish I had road tripped down to that Dragon Con with Freema there.

[sense8ional]

https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/stat...70322545635328

"I was participating in writing a character who I had aspirations to become."

DISCLOSURE's Lilly Wachowski looks back on writing Nomi and coming out to Jamie Clayton on the set of SENSE8

https://www.thethings.com/lilly-wach...on-sense8-set/

"For me and Lana was important to have someone who was trans on the show," Wachowski said.

She said they were hungry for some kind of trans representation they weren't seeing on screen and this hunger was infused in Nomi, a layered, complex character whose storyline wasn't exclusively focused on her trans identity.

Wachowski also opened up on her coming out to Clayton, an emotional moment occurred as they were filming in Berlin. Dealing with Nomi's coming out and transition, the series felt intense for Lilly, who was still struggling with her identity at the time. She then gave a public announcement in 2016.

"I was sitting behind the monitors, and I was really, really emotionally overwhelmed," Wachowski said.

"I would have to take walks away from set because I was going through this churning turmoil of rebirth," she continued.

"It was a long birth," she joked.

Wachowski expressed her gratitude to Clayton, who was one of the first people she came out to.

"I remember the end of our conversation in Berlin and you were so happy for me, and I was just..." Wachowski said as she sighs in relief.

[Jan]

Wow, nice! Thanks for sharing.