Bert and Bertie talk about the importance of humanness in superhero stories (IANS Interview)

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Mumbai, Dec 12 (IANS) Marvel Studios' mini series 'Hawkeye' released last month and has been getting audience appreciation for the portrayal of its characters, the approach to storytelling and taking the narrative forward in the post-blip New York.

The show tells the story of its eponymous character 'Hawkeye' played by Jeremy Renner, who teams up with a 22-year-old skilled archer, Kate Bishop played by actor Hailee Steinfeld, to embark on a journey to unravel a criminal conspiracy.

Series director duo, Bert and Bertie, who have worked in tandem with the showrunner, Rhys Thomas, recently spoke with IANS about their experience of working with Marvel Studios, the production design of the series and the importance of keeping the human alive in superhero films.

Talking about what the past year has been like for her from the show's filming, its release to the subsequent response, Bert says, "It has been an incredible adventure working with Marvel Studios, who are beyond belief when it comes to supporting a filmmaker. It was also a pleasure to work with such amazing actors all the way to seeing the final edit, now seeing it live and experiencing how much the fans love getting to know Barton and introducing Kate. It's been a great learning curve."

Explaining the idea behind the show's production design, Bertie says, "We wanted to show New York with not just the skyscrapers of Manhattan or the business district but we also wanted to show the gritty underbelly of New York, the streets of Brooklyn and the strange little apartments. Also Christmas was going to be a character in the show."

"It was Christmas which was going to be all around and not just fancy Christmas but also what we call 'sad Christmas'. The holidays are always such a joyful time of the year and you see that with Clint. He wants it to be joyful, he wants to go home to his family but he's alone. Hence, there's kind of a Christmas void in his life. We decided to have a little pop of sad Christmas so Kate brings vibrance to his life," she adds.

Sharing her idea of keeping superheroes human, Bert says, "It's incredibly important to keep the humanness intact in super heroes and that was at the heart of this show and all our creative decisions were based on Clint being a human. For instance, there is a shot in a car, the idea behind putting the camera in the car was that we wanted to stay with that character because it's all about them."

Bertie adds to her creative partner, saying, "From the fraction comics series, Hawkeye and Kate Bishop's fallibility is one the threads that run through the comics and we really wanted to keep that. Clint has to patch himself up and he teaches the same to Kate."

"These characters engage in brutal fights with the villains, and it's gonna take its toll on them and we wanted to show that. There's a comedy in it but it also reminds us that these characters are in danger and the stakes are really high," she concludes.

--IANS

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