Tom Sturridge and Evan Jonigkeit Discuss Their Roles on ‘Sweetbitter’ [Video]

STARZ is serving up a new thirty-minute drama Sweetbitter. The show follows 22-year-old Tess as she moves to New York City to start a new life.

Tess gets a job in one of New York City’s best restaurants and while she sees it as a steady paycheck and a place to wait, she is quickly enthralled in the behind-the-scenes action and chaos.

Tom Sturridge plays Jake, the bartender at the restaurant where Tess is hired. Evan Jonigkeit plays Will, a waiter who shepherds Tess through her first week at the restaurant.

We recently sat down with both actors to discuss the series and asked each of them to make a case for who the audience should root for.

“Will is very generous in who he is towards Tess. He has an affinity for her,” Jonigkeit said. “He gets disappointed by the fact that she does not reciprocate the same feelings for Will, but he does support her nonetheless.”

“I don’t think it’s important necessarily to root for a character, I think it’s important to be interested in them,” said Sturridge regarding Jake.

“I think he’s someone who has a lot of pain for reasons that we don’t yet understand. So I think you might want to learn about him as the time passes.”

The Sweetbitter cast had the unique opportunity of working with writer Stephanie Danler who originated these characters in her best-selling 2016 novel by the same name. The pilot script was developed by Danler and Stu Zicherman.

“Because we were working with the writer Stephanie Danler, we had a lot of insight into what had happened in these characters lives before and what’s going to happen,” Sturridge explained.

“It’s amazing to have the author of the book on set, all the time, to be able to ask those questions of, as to who this character is based on, and what the backstories are. Steph and Stu were fantastic in giving us the ability to come in and ask questions at any point,” Jonigkeit added.

You can watch the full interview with Evan Jonigkeit and Tom Sturridge here:

For more interviews where we talk with leading cast members, check out the rest of our coverage of Sweetbitter right here.

Additional reporting by Caralynn Lippo. 

Sweetbitter premieres Sunday, May 6th at 8/7 c on STARZ.

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