Now that the first teaser trailer for the upcoming HBO Max Harry Potter TV series is out in the world, everyone is talking about Paapa Essiedu taking on the role of Dark Arts professor, Severus Snape.
However, we're looking in the completely wrong direction. Sure, there were always going to be many contradicting opinions about the adaptation of the Harry Potter movies from the jump, but let's wait until it releases this Christmas before we make any judgments.
In the meantime, Essiedu has easily given the best performance of his career so far in new BBC drama, Babies. He plays Stephen, one half of a young couple who experience multiple miscarriages over the course of their relationship.
It's one of the most gut-wrenching and honest portrayals of baby loss that I've ever seen, charting every possible emotion any person is capable of handling throughout. The grief is unimaginable, but somehow, there is always light and love at the end of the tunnel.
In a nutshell, it's a world away from Snape and the wonderful wizarding world of Harry Potter — and it's a must-watch to fully understand just what Essiedu can do.
'We're watching people try and fail to communicate effectively with the people they love'
"A lot of what we're experiencing is watching people trying and failing to communicate effectively with people that they love and need," Essiedu tells me about the new series.
"It's hard not to be confronted by the moments that you have in your own life at the same time. In your romantic life, in your professional life, with your friends... it's like, when can you dare to be brave enough to be real and authentic and say what you actually feel?
He continues, "When do you ever do that and it doesn't make you feel better, or closer, or doesn't make relationships more intimate? That's definitely something that became very present for me when I was making the show."
As Essiedu suggests, it's a story that often feels too close to home, even if Babies doesn't directly represent your lived experience. Watching it is as intimate as a play, often feeling as though you're intruding on Stephen and his girlfriend Lisa's (Siobhán Cullen) most private moments.
"I know people say this all the time, but genuinely so excited to go to work every day," Cullen adds. "Of course, there were harder days for different reasons. Sometimes we're just shooting a very long, dialogue-heavy scene. Or this day we're shooting outdoors, and we're at the mercy of Watford High Street."
Shooting some of the medical stuff was more physically and emotionally challenging, so I suppose they're the ones that you look out for on the call sheet. But they were all different flavors of gorgeous. It was kind of like being back at school. I was just learning so much every day from everyone on set; I really got my bang for my buck. It was invaluable as an actor."
Do me the favor of watching all six episodes of Babies and tell me you don't feel profoundly changed by streaming it — and maybe, just maybe, it will change your opinion of Harry Potter for the better, too.
