Good Omens S2: Michael Sheen & David Tennant Are Free Agents - Exclusive Interview
This interview was conducted prior to the beginning of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
After successfully locating the correct anti-Christ (Sam Taylor Buck) and preventing their respective bosses from duking it out during Armageddon, angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and his demon bestie Crowley (David Tennant) are excited to resume their cushy lives in London amongst the mortals. However, their tumultuous adventures in "Good Omens" Season 1 are just the beginning of their worries.
Despite being free agents, they're still dealing with the watchful eyes of heaven and hell, and they must solve a fresh mystery before they can finally enjoy some peace (and a nice glass of wine with dinner).
In an exclusive interview with Looper, Sheen and Tennant share details on Prime Video's "Good Omens" Season 2, which goes beyond Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's bestselling novel that inspired the series. The actors discuss the dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley as they enter a fresh chapter, what it was like filming this season's increased number of mini-sodes that show their friendship during millennia past, and how their real-life bond (and readiness to stop the end of the world) compares to their onscreen personas.
Aziraphale and Crowley in an anti-Christ-free world
First off, I love the new season and I've had the theme song stuck in my head all weekend.
David Tennant: It's catchy, isn't it?
With Season 2, there's no more anti-Christ to find. Armageddon is pretty much postponed for now. When we enter Season 2, what is the dynamic like between your characters, especially now that you don't really have heaven and hell breathing down your necks?
Michael Sheen: Well, they're supposedly free agents now. They've managed to cut their ties to their head offices, so in some ways, they've got everything they wanted. Aziraphale is loving it. He gets to be in his bookshop. He gets to have lovely meals, and go out to see shows, and hang out with his friend. He is a little bit disturbed by not being part of the company anymore. He was someone who enjoyed that structure, whereas Crowley seemed to be a bit more comfortable with being out on his own.
Tennant: Yes, although interestingly, when we first meet Crowley, he's on a park bench catching up with the person who's taken his job. He obviously can't quite let go. He still wants the updates, and he still wants to know what's going on. But yes, liberated, although at the same time, Crowley's circumstances have rather shrunk, because the nice apartment that he had that came with the job has been taken by Shax [Miranda Richardson], who's now hell's representative on Earth.
Sheen: The car is not a company car, then?
Tennant: I guess it's not a company car. Yeah, it's interesting. We haven't established that, have we? Not a company car, but clearly a company apartment. So he's living in his car.
Sheen: Then this unexpected visitor arrives and throws everything into disarray. Suddenly, the stakes are high again. There's a mystery to be solved. The clock is ticking, and they have to rely on each other and no one else to try and solve it.
Tennant: And again, against all their instincts and best intentions, they find themselves on the run from heaven and hell, even more so than they were before.
Traveling back in time
Through all of this, I feel like there are more mini-sodes, where we go back and really explore your friendship. What was it like filming those and learning more about your charcters?
Sheen: They're the most fun bits to do probably, to dress up and to see what David's going to look like when he walks out of his trailer.
Tennant: I like to keep you surprised.
Sheen: Yes.
Tennant: Yeah, it's great that, obviously, that was introduced in Series 1, catching glimpses of their life down the millennia and how that relationship has developed. There are specific looks back in time in this series, which explains something about where their relationship is now and how the story is unfolding. It's a very clever way of interweaving that. It's really fun to get to visit those different moments in time.
Sheen: Some of the mini-sodes — particularly, the biblical one has its own world to explore and its own lessons to learn aside from the main story, as well. Neil [Gaiman] and the other writers involved got to get into some quite difficult questions and issues in a really interesting way. There's some really extraordinary things going on in those stories.
Onscreen vs real-life friendship
I understand that you guys have a real life friendship and came out with "Staged" during the pandemic. How would you say your real-life friendship correlates to Crowley and Aziraphale? Are there any similarities? Differences?
Sheen: I like to think we're very different to the characters. We don't bicker at all. That's part of why I think things have gone so smoothly, because we don't argue about anything, do we?
Tennant: Not so far.
Sheen: Not so far.
Tennant: There's always a first time.
Sheen: Aziraphale and Crowley are very much, on paper, opposites, but we're quite similar. We have a similar sense of humor.
Tennant: Yes, that's probably true. Aziraphale and Crowley are much more similar than they would ever care to admit...
Sheen: That's true.
Tennant: ...and they're both two sides of very much the same coin.
Sheen: Yes.
Tennant: I suppose, as it's us playing them, there will be bits of us in those characters, inevitably.
Sheen: We like a nice meal and a glass of wine.
Tennant: That's certainly true, yes.
Sheen: So there's that.
Tennant: There's definitely that. Yes, we certainly bicker less.
Sheen: Definitely, yeah. I like to think that we would be able to avert an apocalypse, if the need arose.
Tennant: In a heartbeat! Yeah. Very well-placed to do that.
Sheen: (laughing) We'd be so rubbish. We'd be so inept. If Aziraphale and Crowley are inept, we would be even worse.
Tennant: I'd call [my wife] Georgia.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Watch "Good Omens" Season 2 exclusively on Prime Video beginning July 28.