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Apple TV+ thriller 'Surface' explores control and conservatorships

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Agence France-Presse

LOS ANGELES, United States - &quot;Surface,&quot; Apple TV+&#x27;s latest glossy thriller starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an amnesia sufferer, tackles &quot;zeitgeist&quot; issues of conservatorships and female autonomy, its creator and cast told AFP.Mbatha-Raw, best known for &quot;Belle,&quot; &quot;Loki&quot; and &quot;The Morning Show,&quot; plays Sophie, a woman with severe memory loss from a purported suicide attempt, trying to piece her life back together.She is placed under the conservatorship of her husband -- soon suspecting he may be hiding details about her former life, and questioning if he truly has her best interests at heart.Conservatorships -- a form of legal guardianship, in which a court hands control of finances and even personal decisions to a guardian -- surged into the public eye last year as pop star Britney Spears fought to have hers terminated.&quot;The idea of a conservatorship was very much in the zeitgeist at the time, but that was almost coincidental,&quot; said Mbatha-Raw.While &quot;Sophie&#x27;s trajectory is very specific to our show... the idea of control and the idea of women having their own autonomy I think is such a topical and ever-present theme in the world today.&quot;By chance, the cast shot a scene in which Sophie confronts her husband, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, the same day Spears succeeded in ending her father&#x27;s control of her finances.&quot;Those power dynamics between people are always rife for drama,&quot; said Veronica West, the series&#x27; creator and director, previously known for &quot;High Fidelity&quot; and &quot;Ugly Betty.&quot;&quot;This show really started out with this central question of &#x27;what would you do if you woke up one day and didn&#x27;t know your own secrets?&#x27;&quot; she explained.Sophie &quot;wakes up and she only knows her life from what other people tell her,&quot; West said.&quot;Even the people closest to her -- her husband, her friends -- everybody has an agenda.&quot;So they&#x27;re all painting this narrative with their own agenda in mind and molding her to be the Sophie that they want her to be.&quot;Produced by Reese Witherspoon&#x27;s Hello Sunshine company, &quot;Surface&quot; -- streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday -- explores the dramatic potential of amnesia, following the likes of &quot;Memento,&quot; &quot;Mulholland Drive,&quot; &quot;The Bourne Identity,&quot; and &quot;Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.&quot;But, West said, its San Francisco setting and psychological twists were inspired more by noir classics, such as the works of Alfred Hitchcock.&quot;I would never dare to compare it to &#x27;Vertigo,&#x27; but we did try to put a few little winks and nods in there to it,&quot; she said.

'Surface,' Apple TV+'s latest glossy thriller starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an amnesia sufferer, tackles 'zeitgeist' issues of conservatorships and female autonomy, its creator and cast told AFP.