In The Country and Town November 2022

Photo:Alex Bailey/Netflix ©2022.

of Enola was “really easy” because, she says, “we are both very similar – quite dry and brutally honest … Enola feels like I’m coming back to a place of normality and consistency”. I think we also both learn a lot from each other,” the 18-year-old Stranger Things star adds. “It becomes a fun part of my job because I can implement flaws that I think are flaws in my personality and put that into her. I can also put things that I think are good about me. I really like making Enola quite emotional, but headstrong as well, and can detach when she needs to, which is a strength that I have.

“So I love mixing the both of us together. I think we’re both very similar and it makes it very easy.”

Henry Cavill, who has just announced his return as Superman, reprises the role of Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 2. Audiences are once again treated to a more emotional portrayal of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character, as the sequel digs deeper underneath the skin of the detective and his budding professional relationship with his younger sister.“For me, it was a joy to come back,” says Cavill, 39. “I’ve always approached Sherlock as a support character for Enola’s story and for Millie’s performance. In the first movie, we definitely have Sherlock being the wiser of the two and more of the guide, and in this second movie the roles are reversed. And I like the way that’s shown, it’s not shown in an unrealistic way.Very often the younger siblings can be the wiser of a pair.” The biggest thing the fiercely independent Sherlock learns in the sequel, Cavill says, is “that he doesn’t have to do everything all by himself … as much as he may be capable of it”. Enola Holmes 2 sees the blossoming of Enola’s romance with theViscount Tewkesbury, played by Louis Partridge, who was pivotal in passing the Reform Act in the first film. Refreshingly, the romance remains a subplot, never detracting from Enola’s work as a detective or her heroism in the story.“It’s easy for her to say, well, I don’t need a man, and leave it; the fact is that whatever our strengths and ambitions, we are still prone to love,” says Bradbeer. “Most of us, we still want to make connections. And the toughest thing is to be able to have a relationship and still keep your own individual identity, power, self assurance. So that was the challenge. It was just a question of doing it without compromising our themes and our principles.”

“In many romance films, the man or the woman is searching for a partner, they find that partner and all of a sudden the character arcs and the romance is the real pivotal moment of the film,” adds Brown.

“But really, in this film, in the way that Harry directed and wrote it and made it happen, and the way Louis performed it, is that really Tewkesbury is an addition to Enola’s life, but doesn’t change the part of the story.

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