Apple TV+ 'Sharper': What makes this seductive, deceptive thriller movie stand out?

Seduction, greed, deception and jealousy are hot button topics for film and TV, but Sharper (on Apple TV+ Feb. 17), starring Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Briana Middleton and John Lithgow, uses different points of view to navigate the twists and turns in this thriller.

Sharper, written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, and directed by Benjamin Caron (Andor, The Crown), takes you to New York City. It starts off with a sort of meet-cute situation where bookstore owner Tom (Smith) meets PhD student Sandra (Middleton). Without giving too much away, a core component of this story is that no one, and nothing, are as they initially seem. Jumping between different points in time, telling the story from the perspective of different characters, Sharper wants to keep you on your toes as more characters are added into this con story.

“I think what this film does differently is it's a perspective-based film,” Smith told Yahoo Canada. “So we are highlighting the reasons a character does what they do and I think with that framing device, it allows the audience to decide for themselves who the protagonist and who the antagonist is.”

“We are just presenting objectively what someone's actions are and what their justification of those actions are, and allowing the audience to project however they feel on to these characters. I think that is … how life works. It's not cut and dry. People are complicated and good people are capable of terrible things, and terrible people are capable of good things. I think this film is a really good representation of humanity in that way.”

Money can't buy happiness

For Smith, when it came to playing Tom in Sharper, he had a personal perspective on the space the character inhabits in society.

“Tom is a melancholic type and that stems from his relationship to money, and to the echelon that he was born into,” Smith said. “I had noticed growing up that I was surrounded by some kids who were rich and who also felt a similar emptiness inside, specifically because of … their family, the money that their family comes from.”

“I was so interested in exploring that. Like why someone with so much would feel so little inside. We often associate money with happiness, even if we don't like to. But I think there is a real dark side to money and the way that it can affect our minds, and our relationships. Tom was kind of a representation of that.”

While the concept of the character of Tom may sound familiar, with many films and TV shows touching on the fact that money, wealth and class don't necessarily equate to happiness, it's the way Sharper looks at each character's quest for what they believe is happiness, or success, that adds an element of dimension to the narrative. It's that crafting of this story that also drew Smith to the role.

“As a young actor, it's really easy to get typecast into something and Tom is a role that … has similar aspects to roles I played before, a character desperate for love and connection,” Smith said. “I knew Tom was going to be my wheelhouse, … but specifically why I wanted to do Sharper was because I knew the story at large was something unlike I had [ever read].”

For Middleton to craft the character of Sandra, who also acts as a sort of connecting line between several of the characters in Sharper, the actor stressed that she was always reminding herself that "people can surprise you."

“I think the fact that we were already seeing such complexity from the character made it easier to relate to her, like look at myself and the ways that I kind of contradict myself within a day,” Middleton said.

“It's all about choices. The choice to deceive and then what choices you make after the deception. One of the things that I think is really lovely about [Sandra] and interesting about her is that she's making choices. These things aren't just happening to her.”

'I was intimidated with her at first'

Without spoiling how deep the deception in this story goes, we will say that in order for a significant part of this story to work, you have to buy into the relationship between Tom and Sandra, and feel invested in the development of that relationship. Smith highlighted that there were "sparks" that happened quite easily between him and Middleton, but he was also "intimidated" by his co-stars talent.

“[Benjamin Caron created] an environment where we had so much liberty to massage the language to fit our body, or to improvise, or to just exist and find what sparks came from me and Briana simply existing in a room together,” Smith said. “I think me and Briana, when we first met, had a semi-instant connection.”

“I was intimidated with her at first because she's such a professional and so talented. ... We hung out a lot outside of set and so I think we built a level of trust with one another. … Every great actor can take a tiny, short-lived bond between themselves and another actor, and amplify it into some sort of intimacy for the sake of the movie, and Briana was incredibly gifted at that.”

Middleton echoed Smith's comments, saying that the pair "really didn't have to work that hard" to establish a connection that worked for these characters.

"That doesn't happen all the time. … I feel really lucky that it was him," she said.

Julianne Moore is a 'nurturing, powerhouse, bad-ss presence'

Julianne Moore is not only part of this ensemble cast for Sharper but she is also an executive producer on the film, with her co-stars praising her talents.

“She's such a force, and such a warm, nurturing, powerhouse, bad-ss presence on set,” Middleton said.

“She crafts a character right in front of you, she's unafraid to try new things and explore options,” Smith added. “It's also incredibly validating, she would tell me that I was doing a good job when I felt like I was doing a good job, which you don't always hear.”

“When you are in a scene with Julie, you don't need to really do much preparation, all you have to do is just react to what you're getting, and that was such a godsend. Film can be rather technical and when there's a giant camera in your face, it's kind of hard to focus on the actual relationship between two characters. But acting with her felt like theatre. We both fully believed in what we were saying to one another.”

'People can surprise you'

For both Smith and Middleton, as the stakes are raised throughout the story (leading to a tense ending), navigating those twists and turns required tapping into the "sincerity" of the moment and the characters.

“This movie deals with duality a lot and to explore that duality, you have characters who don't necessarily believe what they're saying, but the audience has to believe what they're saying,” Smith explained.

“The key is to just play the sincerity of the moment, because you want the audience to go on this ride with you. So every day you're playing kind of like a different character, because you can't play the end in the beginning, you have to just be present in every moment.”

Middleton identified that the key to "playing the sincerity" was to not "overcomplicate" the moments.

“There are so many layers to these characters and there can be so many layers you're thinking about in a performance," Middleton said. "In any given moment … you can turn up one choice and turn it down a little bit, sprinkle something else."

“It was just trying to keep it as simple and sincere as possible. Let everyone else fill it in.”

When the film is released on Friday, Middleton highlighted that she hopes the public is reminded that "people can surprise you."

“The minute that you label someone as something, the minute you think that you know who they are, after 20 minutes of seeing them on screen, or 20 minutes talking to them, they can completely contradict that,” she said.

“That's just the way that we are and forgetting that, I think, denies each other our humanity.”