Note: The following contains spoilers for “From Scratch”.
The new Netflix series “From Scratch” tells a fictionalized account of author Tembie Locke’s real-life story — the fight for love, loss, family, food and all those things in multiple cultures, races, and geographic locations, such as Los Angeles, California and one of. Sicily, Italy.
Locke’s memoir, published in April of 2019 and selected as Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick of that month, recounts her reality as it was revealed on the series adaptation by her sister and executive producer, Attica Locke. Healing is described as a three act drama”. Locke’s late husband Cerro, short for Rosario, died of cancer after their scheduled visit in Italy, while Tembi studied abroad there. Between the news of Saro’s first diagnosis, a recurrent incurable illness, and his death, he and Temby, portrayed on the show as “a love story for the ages”, set out to make their lives in Los Angeles. Working hard, pursuing the career of his dreams. And even adopting a baby girl.
Zoe Saldana stars as Amy, short for Amhle, Wheeler, who is based on Temby.
“Zoe is such a gift to our series. Her performance is absolutely incredible,” Temby told TheWrap about watching the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actress witness real events from her life. “I’m so grateful for her beautiful work on the series. I think she handled it so carefully, and she’s funny. She was able to make Amy her own and didn’t need to play Tembie at all, so I Looks like she borrowed things from me that she wanted. She checked in with me when she wanted, but her Emmy is a beautiful tribute to our lives and I’m so grateful for that.”
Saldana’s association with the role of Amy based on Tembi can be felt in three ways, and Temby recognized these links before Saldana was officially cast in the role. She brought all the necessary ingredients to reflect Tembi in her onscreen avatar Amy.
“Three things that were really synergistic is that one, she’s married to an Italian who’s also an artist. Second, she produces with her sisters, so I knew she had a close brother— There was a sister and sister relationship, which obviously we have. And then thirdly, she has a childhood background of the experience of loss,” Temby said. “And so that part of the story is also very important to her. was, and she speaks Italian. So I was like ‘There’s no one else, like if I look at the book of potential people, it always falls on Zoe Saldana every time, right? And then she gives this gorgeous, beautiful performance. ,
Just as Tembie is supported by her sister Attika Locke, who serves as co-creator and showrunner of the series adaptation, Amy’s onscreen sister is Zora (played by Daniel Deadweiler). Attica is credited as a writer on “Empire,” “When They See Us” and “Little Fires Everywhere.”
“Daniel, what can I say? I mean, Danielle Deadweiler. When I saw his tape, it was me, Tembi and the Ninzing [Stewart], our producer director, we all called and I think ‘That’s Zora!’ We were all terrified to say that. After watching like three tapes,” Attika told TheWrap. “And we all said to each other ‘It’s his right? It’s his right?’ We were like ‘Yeah, it must be him.’ He’s unbelievable.”
ATTICA Zora is related in some ways, such as the sister dynamics between Zora and Amy, but not in others, especially when it comes to their age difference.
“I don’t think about Zora — I don’t think she’s like me. I mean, I think I have some zingers and I might be a straight shooter, but she doesn’t know, I don’t know — anyone. It’s weird to think of her being her own,” she said. “But Danielle is such a sweet, smart, nimble, supportive of her sister as a unit in this world as Zora and Zora when her needs are not met. have been. There’s just so much color. And when she’s in the scenes, she’s playing so many different levels that turn a dime. She is just attractive to look at. And it is the honor of my life that he is the one who is playing me. ,
Attica and Tembi both praised Saldana and Deadweiler’s chemistry as sisters on set. The two sisters have had their fair share of conflicts (and on screen), which is uniquely formed by the layers of their lives and identities.
“What we wanted to do was, first of all, we wanted every single character to have an arc, not to be the same in every single episode, so it fell through to reason that at some point Jorah and Amy’s relationship was tested. have to go.” Attika said. “It’s like this [Episode 4], when she brings Ken to the restaurant and asks ‘Why did you do that?’ And for most of that argument, they’re both kind of making a point like Zora shouldn’t have done it, but at the same time, Amy seems kind of tone deaf, as if just had to pass out.
After Amy and Lino, Saro’s onscreen counterpart, get married and Lino starts her own restaurant in Los Angeles, Zora enlists her new serious boyfriend, Ken, to introduce her and Amy’s parents. The boyfriend decides to bring in Ken, who got divorced when they had girls. Small
“It was just pure good conflict that just had to be that they’re not talking when Amy really needs someone to talk to,” Attica said. “So it was kind of a fabricated fight, although Temby would give me money for my lunch so that it would reverse. Temby actually made sure that I ate as a child.”
Even though Zora and Amy’s ages are reversed on the show, Attica still has to take care of Temby when she loses Saro, and one of the most powerful mourning scenes sprouted from that dynamic. Zora confronts Amy, who is lying in bed sad after Lino’s death, and asks her to take a bath, as a “horrible smell of sadness” hangs near her.
“It’s a scene in Episode 8 that never happened, and I was thinking about it a lot. Josh Allen wrote that scene, but I think that’s what we were doing in that scene — and we We’re talking about in the writers’ room – we were taking an experience that Amy was reflective of things that Temby felt, which people are trying to do to hurry up my grieving timeline, and any of you I don’t even understand what I’m doing,” Attica said. “And then we took something that Zora was experiencing, which I experienced, which was guilt. ‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to reach him,’ and there was a time when Temby was not bathing regularly, and there was a note of pranks in the grief. So that was also an invented scene, but it is an invented visualization of two real realities together in one scene.”
Together, Temby, Attica, Saldana and Deadweiler weave a story of brotherhood, sadness, and the healing process to overcome and cope with such devastating loss.
“Ultimately what we tried to do in adaptation was basically always staying true to the emotional truth of my personal life experience, and so whether someone felt it or not was actually trying to vent my grief. ‘I’m feeling as an unhappy person’ must come out,’ said Tembee. Wrote that scene, we keep it all there because it was the emotional truth of the moment.”
“From Scratch” is now streaming on Netflix.
