Off the cusp of his portrayal of Ethan Spiller on the latest season of White Lotus, Will Sharpe and his talents are brought to the forefront once again. His masterful grasp on awkwardness, anger, and fear has made people question and criticize Ethan but ultimately marvel over Sharpe’s convincing portrayal. Throughout the show’s second season, the entire ensemble cast had compelling stories backed by amazing actors and their charisma. Sharpe is no different. Ethan’s portrayal planted seeds that blossomed into billions of comments and conversations about marriage, class, gender, and how those three concepts affect a character who seems insecure about his newfound status as well as lingering issues with his marriage.
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Should anyone have expected otherwise? With a decorated career like Sharpe’s, acclaim is not a foreign concept to the triple threat. From acting, and writing, to directing, it would be an understatement to claim that Will Sharpe is just a star. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and rediscover some of Sharpe’s excellent productions.
Will Sharpe’s Masterful Approach to Mental Health
Endemol Shine UK
After co-directing the mysterious film Black Pond, Will Sharpe probably became best known for creating, directing, writing, and starring in the dark comedy series Flowers, an intriguing inspection of a family of four and their various mental health issues. The show has a gloriously dark lovely blend of quirky beaut and dramatic despairs, providing the funniest moments before leaving viewers distraught. The show stars comedy legend Julian Barratt as an author with suicidal ideation while he deals with his Japanese illustrator (Sharpe), his wife (played by Olivia Colman), and his children.
Flowers is baked with discomfort. From the multiple eruptions between the family members themselves and their neighbors as well as the characterization of Shun (Sharpe), the eccentric Japanese side character who is oddly stereotypical with a capital S. The British comedy series strives to make audiences think just as much as they may laugh or cry. Going into the show, some of the stylistic choices seemed bizarre at a glance. However, Sharpe uses this advantage, and the show feels truly ahead of the curve.
As stated before, uneasiness is one of the show’s sturdiest pillars, making audiences consider their family dynamics, their mental health, and the various individuals in their vicinity. A lot of the discomfort stems from a series of mental health issues that our cast deals with, except for Shun — or so it seems. To fully explain Sharpe’s masterful approach with all of his characters would be a slippery slope into spoiler territory. However, Flowers is just one of many remarkable, conversation-starting projects that Sharpe has created, with characters to laugh with, cry for, and ultimately cherish.
Bringing the Light of Flowers Into The Darkest Universe
Pindrop
Sharpe’s film The Darkest Universe is another excellent dark comedy that tackles everything from familial relationships, social media activism, and psychological self-exploration. The intriguing collaboration between Sharpe and multi-hyphenate Tiani Ghosh documents Zac (Will Sharpe) who tries any and every way possible to find his missing sister Alice and her boyfriend Toby (Joe Thomas).
Throughout The Darkest Universe, Zac struggles to convince people to care about his sister, running into challenges in real life and online, a feeling that feels all too accurate in today’s internet atmosphere. The additional coverage of Zac and Alice’s relatable relationship oscillates like many relationships the audience can identify with. Yet, it is exactly the authentic portrayal of sibling relationships that makes Zac’s efforts all the more realistic and thus opens his character to a large amount of empathy and support from viewers.
Sharpe and Ghosh sit viewers right in the foggy clouds of discomfort and suspense, creating bright moments amid such nerve-wracking conundrums of events. What comes out of that decision is a captivating film that touches many corners and allows audiences to sit in the myriad of emotions and conclusions that the film provokes.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
StudioCanal
The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain is a biographical comedy written by Simon Stephenson, directed by Sharpe, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, best known for roles like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Strange. The biographical nature of the film is not an obstacle but rather the most important decision made by the filmmakers. While Sharpe’s film tackles real emotions, issues, and relationships and, bringing his writing from fictional characters to real-life historical figures highlights a fluidity within the reality-to-fiction spectrum.
Whether it be documenting Wain’s interest in the feline world, the many moments of despair Wain wallows in, or the sense of fulfillment Wain feels when creating cat-inspired art, Sharpe and Stephenson manage to prove why mental health and the multifaceted layers of humanity are important to explore, just like Sharpe did in Flowers and The Darkest Universe.
Both fictional and biographical media have the power to elicit great change out of their viewers, and therefore real-life, in the present. Examining the past with a conscious and considerate lens leads audiences to gravitate towards a figure like Louis Wain in the same way it would with the Flowers family or Zac. Amazing art can be birthed when creatives sit and play with the imaginary border being real and fiction, if executed with compassion, ambition, and veracity in mind. Sometimes, the best fiction projects are the ones that conform to reality head-on, capturing the good, the bad, and the “ugly” in their rawest forms.
Throughout his illustrious career, Sharpe has relied on dark comedies, with an intriguing amalgamation of both extremes of the comedic spectrum, to create thought-provoking television that leaves audiences enamored with the entirety of his projects: his comedic moments, his gut-wrenching climaxes, and every little aspect that falls in between.
