The Sandman’s Vanessa Benton on Writing About Death and Dreams

“It’s scary as shit. I’m working on Sandman as my first staff writing job?” Vanessa Benton shook their head as they stated this, leaning again a bit of; we’re speaking within the morning over video chat. “It was an incredible learning experience, diving headfirst into that.”

Benton has been working in Hollywood for some time: after graduating they have been a showrunner’s assistant for In Contempt, after which for Peter Nowalk whereas he was engaged on How to Get Away With Murder. Benton was later promoted to writers’ assistant on the crime/thriller present, and penned and produced an episode in the course of the ultimate season. All of this ready them for the leap into employees writing, however it’s laborious to think about the strain of being on a present with as a lot anticipation as The Sandman.

Industry expertise might need helped Benton get within the room, however they introduced a plethora of inspiration to the desk for his or her work on The Sandman. One of these touchstones was fanfiction. “I’m coming on to this property that has millions of fans. I’m used to writing fanfic—and taken slant, we’re writing a fanfic version of the comics,” Benton defined. Allan Heinberg, the showrunner, was very clear on the form of present that he wished to make. Benton stated that Heinberg’s huge edict was that “we can’t disrespect the fans… you can’t destroy Sandman with your changes. We just have to make sure the original fans won’t ask, ‘Why is everything torn apart?’”

The Sandman was an unimaginable balancing act between remaining trustworthy to the supply materials whereas additionally giving new followers one thing stable to face on. Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) typically goes out and in of the narrative. “A big part of the adaptation was making sure there’s a through line for Dream so people who aren’t familiar with the comics don’t ask, ‘wait, why is Dream only in like two episodes and has like three lines,’ you know what I mean?” Benton stated.

In addition to pulling the threads of the unique comedian with the intention to tie narratives extra cohesively to a narrative, transforming The Sandman additionally helped expose subtext that may not have been meant within the authentic collection. One of these moments of discovery—the place the supply materials simply appears to lend itself completely to an interpretation—occurs throughout episode six of the collection, which follows two plots: one the place Dream accompanies his sister Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) as she makes her rounds in London, the opposite the place Dream frequently checks in with a person named Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley), whom Death has made immortal. The Dream/Hob ship sailed virtually instantly, inspiring fiction, artwork, and memes throughout the web.

“The Dreamling romance wasn’t baked in,” Benton stated, “However you have a ton of queer people in the writer’s room, you have a gay man as as a showrunner, and you have actors who have chemistry.” It simply labored.

Benton additionally identified that Dreamling (a portmanteau of Dream and Gadling, a typical ship naming conference in fandom areas) has “the tropes that fandom loves: the broody, distant, mysterious man and the ray of sunshine puppy dog of a man who’s just constantly asking to be friends.” There’s additionally the much-beloved exploration of a love story unfold over time, and the hope and optimism within the face of disappointment—“and it just kind of all exploded to become this new, fan-favorite couple.”

While it might need been a contented accident that Benton didn’t anticipate, in addition they say that the subtext was capable of come to the entrance partially due to who was within the writing room. “In another room with different writers, different creators, there might be a pull away from that story. I just feel very happy that this is the room, this is the show, and these are the people that it landed with. They were kind enough to allow this new side-of-romance story.” Benton is effusive. They’re excited to verify that (to them no less than,) “It is real. It is definitely real.”

Benton talked about that in one other property they’re writing for, there’s a palpable sexual rigidity between the principle character and the antagonist. “I’m going to just try to slip [subtext] in because I’m like… they’re going to be fucking, right?” Benton described the state of affairs; they meet up, they mess with one another, they hate one another. “But…” Benton shrugged, “there was no other way for me to interpret this dynamic than through a queer lens. And it’s the most fun thing. Now that I’m coming into who I am, I realize that I’ve been trying to do this for years. I kept it on AO3 [the Archive of Our Own, a popular fanfiction site] for a while, and now it’s like, ‘No, fuck it!’ I’m glad that I can bring more queer subtext to my work and to TV, because I love writing it.”

It’s straightforward to see the maintain that fandom and fan interplay has had on Benton. They are nearly to launch their authentic challenge, God Bless the Promised Land, an immersive, interactive story the place the viewers takes on the position of unwilling voyeurs who’ve discovered a cellphone and accessed its reminiscence. “The project is about earning your space in the world during a series of escalating climate disasters,” Benton stated. They weren’t essentially considering of doxxing or swatting after they wrote the piece, however with the viewers because the antagonist, it’s not laborious to attract prescient parallels.

Benton is open about the truth that they’re exploring a wide range of paths. From TV writing to an ARG, they’re unafraid to take possibilities with their artwork. And The Sandman left an unimaginable mark on their life. “We were working on episode six [‘The Sound of her Wings’] and one of the writers in our room mentioned death doulas.” Benton stated that one dialog modified the trajectory of their life.

“I was already very interested in how Death was portrayed [in The Sandman], and how she was written as being very pragmatic—when your time is up, your time is up.” An finish of life doula—also referred to as a loss of life doula—is a caregiver who assists those that are dying and their households via the final stage of their life. Much just like the extra well-known birthing doulas, loss of life doulas are a solution to help and affirm adjustments in a method that’s supportive and affirming. Benton, after engaged on Sandman, and with Death particularly, is now learning to change into a loss of life doula.

“Working with this character and studying in this field, it’s helped me appreciate and understand life more,” Benton stated. “Working with death—” it’s not clear in the course of the interview in the event that they imply Death the character or loss of life itself—“has changed the way I carry myself and the way I deal with my depression. Even in my darkest days I have hope.”

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