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Enola Holmes 2 director on Millie’s wit, Henry’s heart, and mysteries to come

After the 2020 Netflix film Enola Holmes became a surprise hit, introducing Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock Holmes’ brilliant sister, the only mystery left unsolved was when we’d get a sequel. That question was answered with the November 4 premiere of Enola Holmes 2, which delivers another exciting, fascinating, and funny chapter in Enola’s saga, complete with plenty of clever twists.

Along with Brown returning as the title character, Enola Holmes 2 also brings back Henry Cavill (The Witcher) as Sherlock, as well as director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag) behind the camera, among others. Digital Trends spoke to Bradbeer about his work on Enola Holmes 2 and whether a third installment of the franchise could be in the works.

Enola Holmes 2 director Harry Bradbeer talks to stars Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill on the set of the film.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Digital Trends: The first film focused on Enola learning to be independent and getting things done on her own, without help from her famous brothers. This one pivots from there quite a bit thematically. How would you describe the film’s themes this time around?

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Harry Bradbeer: Well, you put your finger on it. In a sentence, it’s going from “I” to “we” — from learning to be able to stand on your own two feet to learning the power of working with others and of cooperation. [It’s about] learning you have to unite to be able to find your full strength as a human being.

We developed that idea into her relationship with Sherlock, into enlisting Tewkesbury’s (Louis Partridge) help, and of course, the major story that runs through it all: Her joining together with a group of working-class girls to fight corruption and further the cause of union and sisterhood.

How did Millie Bobby Brown’s portrayal of Enola evolve over time? Was there a point where the role leaned heavier into comedy or drama or such and it took some refining to get to what we see in the films? She embodies the character so well.

Having worked in TV, you know from your first series what you’ve learned and what you want to take forward. And so we saw what we had in the first film: this incredible actor that could teeter between the comedy and the drama and the tragedy. That balance is my stock-in-trade. It’s what I love to do, because I think that’s what life is. Billy Wilder said comedy and tragedy is life, and that’s exactly it.

So we were working with that, but we were listening to the way she worked and what she was bringing forward, and we realized very early on that this was a girl who was growing up in a hurry. We wanted to bring a bit of that in and grow up with her over that film, which was shot two years [after the first film] when she’s almost at her 18th birthday.

So we worked with what Millie had and what she was excited to do more of. We knew we wanted to do more with Sherlock. We knew the audience was desperate to see her and him solving a crime together. And of course, they wanted to see Enola and Tewkesbury develop their romance. So that was the progression.

Millie Bobby Brown peeks through a door while being filmed in a behind-the-scenes photo from Enola Holmes 2.
Netflix

Both films have a wonderful way of working with the audience to add a bit more emotion to moments when Enola gives the camera a look for just a second that conveys how she’s feeling. How did you get the tone right for those moments when she breaks the fourth wall?

That’s very kind of you to say. We experiment with it. Often, I would give a free take at the end of a scene, and in that case, [Brown] may throw a look in or not. We ration it, too. There are times when there is no time for levity. It’s too serious for her to give a look to the camera, or she’s doing things she’s slightly embarrassed about — like when she’s dancing with Tewkesbury.

He’s teaching her to dance and she’s falling in love with him, and she catches us there and she’s like, “No. Go away.” At that point, she’s saying, “Don’t look at me. Leave me alone. This is awkward.”

So it can be expressing awkwardness. It can be expressing complicity. It can be a wink. Or when she says, “Perhaps I should write that down,” after Sherlock gives her a piece of rather shocking advice, what else is there to say?

Henry Cavill’s Sherlock gets quite a bit more development in the sequel. What is it that Henry brings to the role that helps make it unique and special to this franchise?

I think he’s got a real emotional connection to the character. He understands Sherlock’s loneliness, which is not just because Sherlock lives alone and his family is dysfunctional, but also because his brain works at such a rate that it’s hard for him to relate and do small talk and get on with people. That’s why sometimes he has to release his tensions and his worries by going to the bar and having a drink and getting into a fight. That’s the way he can relax.

His emotional difficulties are something Henry related to, connected with, and felt he could bring forward. And as a member of a very close family, [Cavill] also understands how brotherhood works. I felt right from the first time we met that he would bring something warm and interesting to the relationship with Enola.

Henry Cavill reclines as Sherlock Holmes in a scene from Enola Holmes 2.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Without revealing any spoilers, is there an element of the film you’re particularly proud of?

The thing I really loved was the message of the film: The importance of listening to and working with others, [and] the idea of cooperation, which is something very close to my heart as a collaborative person in art and in life. I think we can be too caught up in our own egos and lost in our own smartphones, and we need to connect. It’s that element of the film — the idea of union, of setting aside our ego for the moment and our pride and being open to connection with others — that ultimately leads in the films to its actual triumph.

The final climax requires that cooperation [and] the setting aside of ego for the common good. That message, inside a piece of entertainment, was always my ambition. I’m proud that I think it works. I think we managed to pull that off.

The film sets up another installment really well. Has there been discussion of where things will go in future films or how many films it would ideally take to complete Enola’s story?

Well, we only go one film at a time, like we did with the first. But of course, we’ve talked about the future possibilities and the directions they could go in. I’m glad you can see that possibility on the horizon.

Directed by Harry Bradbeer, Enola Holmes 2 is available now on Netflix.

Enola Holmes 2 (2022)

Enola Holmes 2
58%
6.9/10
129m
Genre
Mystery, Adventure, Crime
Stars
Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Louis Partridge
Directed by
Harry Bradbeer
Watch on Netflix
Movie images and data from:
Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
40 years later, there’s no forgetting about The Breakfast Club
The cast of The Breakfast Club sits in a line of chairs in a still from the 1985 movie.

Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club Universal Pictures
The late John Hughes once mulled a sequel to his 1985 ode to adolescence, The Breakfast Club. The idea was that he’d pick up years later with the same characters, five suburban teenagers from different cliques who look past their differences and forge some common ground over a long Saturday in detention. Simple minds race with the questions Hughes could answer by reconvening his party of five. Would neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie Brian become a meathead, just like the actor who played him, Anthony Michael Hall? Would the glam-up makeover that outsider Allison (Ally Sheedy) receives at the end of the film take? Would burnout Bender (Judd Nelson) escape the lifetime in Loserville so many assume awaits him?
It was an intriguing pitch, at least for anyone who’s ever wondered who these fictional Illinois kids might grow up to be. At the same time, maybe it’s a relief that Hughes never got around to pursuing the idea. After all, the enduring appeal of The Breakfast Club rests largely on the narrow parameters it sets for itself: It’s just five kids in one room over a single day. To look beyond this mere snapshot of youth would be to betray its eternal present tense. The movie exists, irresistibly, in the moment, just like the teenagers who flocked to it in initial release and the many who have continued to discover it over the four decades since.
Arguably no filmmaker capitalized more on the teen experience than Hughes, the writer and sometimes director of youth-courting sensations like Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and of course Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But if all those movies could be called quintessential ’80s hits, The Breakfast Club is more timeless, even as it unfolds entirely within a kind of hourglass. The almost theatrical minimalism of Hughes’ scenario transcends trends. He shaved off all the extraneous conventions of high-school movies. There’s no big game, no prom, no graduation, no classroom even. It’s a teen movie that says that the teens alone are enough.
The Breakfast Club Trailer
The Breakfast Club, which turns 40 today (they grow up so fast!), made stars out of its stars – the core members of the so-called Brat Pack that took Hollywood by storm for a few whirlwind years. It’s primarily an acting showcase. When not trading sharp insults, the five deliver tearful monologues — sometimes in a literal circle, à la a drama club. Like their characters, they had their whole lives ahead of them, and it’s interesting to consider the careers that followed: Molly Ringwald becoming America’s sweetheart before decamping for Paris, Emilio Estevez headlining multiple hit franchises, Sheedy reinventing herself as an indie darling. And who could have guessed that Nelson, who arguably delivers the film’s most charismatic performance (all bad-boy bravado, until we get glimpses of the scared kid underneath), would land a comfy network sitcom gig a mere decade later?
The film is an optimistic fantasy of unexpected teenage solidarity. It takes a little suspension of disbelief to imagine that eight hours together could turn “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal” into fast friends. Of course, Hughes’ script is smart enough to acknowledge the ephemerality of their kumbaya: None of them harbor too many delusions about their connection lasting once the five are back in their respective social circles. That’s the bittersweet power of the Billboard-climbing Simple Minds anthem that both opens and closes the movie: “Don’t you forget about me” is a touching plea to immortalize this fleeting day of communion, even once it fades with the ring of the school bell.
The hierarchies of high school don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, The Breakfast Club says. It’d be easier to take that message seriously if Hughes didn’t end up kind of reinforcing them. Allison’s miniature Pygmalion arc — emerging from the bathroom like a homecoming queen, dolled up by Ringwald’s Claire — betrays both the character’s countercultural kookiness and the film’s be-yourself ethos. She only wins the jock prince by fundamentally changing who she is; it’s a preview of the makeover plots of future teen comedies like She’s All That and Drive Me Crazy. And Hughes really does Brian dirty. However much empathy the dork garners with the cooler kids, he’s still doing their homework as they pair off and make out.
The Breakfast Club | Detention Dance
It’s a little ironic that a movie all about looking past stereotypes would codify them so much through its advertising campaign. That famous Annie Leibovitz poster, with the cast huddled together, treats each label the characters reject and rebel against as a marketable brand. The Breakfast Club might be the most influential teen movie of them all, and part of its influence was turning the genre into one big game of opposites attracting. How many major teen movies and TV shows derive their tension from the clash of cliques, and the supposedly revelatory revelation that jocks, freaks, and geeks aren’t so different after all?
You can see a little of The Breakfast Club in nearly every quick-witted teen entertainment that came after it. While films like Heathers explicitly positioned themselves as sardonic rebuttals to the Hughes school of kids-are-all-right sentimentality, plenty of descendants of the big and small screen simply updated the writer-director’s model for younger generations, swapping the music and fashion and slang, but not the essential spirit. The Breakfast Club’s single day of bickering and bonding bled into everything from Scream to My-So Called Life to the collegiate Community (a sitcom that references the film in its first episode, and arranged a guest spot for Hall a few weeks later). 
The Breakfast Club (6/8) Movie CLIP - Lunchtime (1985) HD
It’s also what you could call an essential Gen X text: Before Reality Bites or Singles or the comparably gabby work of Richard Linklater, there was this portrait of five teens divided by social status but united by their shared disaffection and desire not to become their parents. Not that the Latchkey Generation has a monopoly on such feelings. One reason The Breakfast Club endures where some of its ’80s contemporaries don’t is that it gets at the essential identity crisis of growing up: The whole world seems invested in defining you (and your future) at a time when you’re still very much on the cusp of figuring that out for yourself.
You could say that the kids of The Breakfast Club aren’t just rebelling against the boxes everyone wants to put them. They’re rebelling against the pressure to be anything before they’re ready to decide who they are. That’s the real reason a sequel was a bad idea, however appealing it may have sounded. In plucking a single significant day out of the lives of these characters — the kind any kid might mythically inflate in their mind, at a time when every emotion and experience feels massive — Hughes remained true to the embryonic beauty of late childhood, when the possibilities still seem endless because they essentially are. The movie is a freeze frame, just like the one on which it triumphantly, iconically ends.
The Breakfast Club is available to rent or purchase through the major digital services. For more of A.A. Dowd’s writing, visit his Authory page.

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