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The femme fatale—an archetype often associated with classic noir films of a bygone era—is very much alive and well in Season 2 of Apple TV’s Sugar. But the trope arrives with a modern-day twist, a fitting move for a series that is itself an otherworldly take on the detective genre. Our femme fatale character here is the mysterious Charlotte, a new face met by John Sugar in a hotel lobby.
She is played by none other than Laura Donnelly, who impressed audiences with her dual role in The Hill of California during the 2024 Broadway season. In fact, that performance played a part in her casting in the new season of the series.
“I think the showrunner and our casting director had seen ‘Hills’,” the actress told BroadwayWorld. “That is the glory of doing a play on Broadway: there are always lots of different people [who] have seen you and you never know who’s in the audience…. I’ve done Broadway three times now and it’s something that I have learned over time. I think that each of the jobs that I have got after the plays that I’ve done there have been a result of somebody being in the audience.”
Little is known about Donnelly’s character when we are introduced to her at the top of the season. Even as the show progresses, Charlotte’s origins—who she is, what she does, where she comes from—all of this is kept mostly close to the chest. For John Sugar, whose outlook on life is filtered through the world of classic cinema, the character certainly does seem to come straight out of one of his favorite movies. Naturally, he is interested. But this was also part of the appeal for Donnelly, who was eager to pull from this Hollywood tradition, while also keeping her performance grounded in reality.
“It was all kind of there in terms of just how actresses in those days moved— very much how they inhabited their bodies, how they pronounced words,” explained Donnelly. “It was definitely at the back of my mind, but at the same time, I very much wanted Charlotte to be rooted in the real world and rooted in today as well… It was more an attitude that I was just trying to keep alive in her.”
Viewers will have to be patient to see how this storyline plays out across Season 2’s eight episodes, which drop on Apple TV each Friday. The season picks up with John Sugar, once again played by Colin Farrell, back in the City of Angels as he takes on a new missing persons case: tracking down Ji Moon, the troubled brother of local boxer Danny. Meanwhile, he continues to search for his sister, while also slowly getting to know Charlotte.
In addition to Donnelly and Farrell, the second season of Sugar introduces a brand new cast, including Broadway’s Jin Ha, Raymond Lee, Tony Dalton, Sasha Calle, and special guest star Shea Whigham. The first two episodes of the new season are now streaming on Apple.
Photo Credit: Apple
