[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Episode 6 of Sugar.]

The Big Picture

• In the Apple TV+ series 'Sugar,' private investigator John Sugar unravels the mystery of a missing granddaughter with deep family secrets hidden.
• Farrell drew inspiration from the noir detective genre to immerse in his character and the world, creating a unique blend.
• Uncertain if 'Sugar' will return for a second season, there is still more that could be explored.

On its surface, the eight-episode Apple TV+ series Sugar is a private detective story wrapped in film noir with an air of mystery surrounding it. John Sugar (Colin Farrell) takes a case for legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to find his missing granddaughter, but as he attempts to uncover what happened, it also brings previously buried secrets to light. And as you follow the investigation, it becomes clear that there are things going on with Sugar that have a deeper explanation and that are slowly starting to reveal themselves.

Episode 6 of Sugar, entitled “Go Home,” finally provided some specific clarity as to what the private investigator’s true purpose is. Having already watched the entire season, Collider got the opportunity to chat with Farrell about the series, his character, and the reveal. During the interview, he talked about what a collaborative process the season was, how he approached figuring out John Sugar, the inspiration he took from the noir detective genre, getting to drive around Los Angeles in that incredible car, figuring out how to portray Sugar’s flashback episodes, fine tuning the best time to make that big character reveal, the connection between Sugar and Melanie (Amy Ryan), and that there is more to explore with this character, even though they haven’t been picked up for a Season 2 yet.

Collider: As an executive producer on this, along with playing the title character, how involved did you get? What did you want to ensure you had a say in?

COLIN FARRELL: When I signed up to do the project, there was two episodes that were done, and then there was a structure for everything else. As we were shooting the show, we were filling in the structure and I was invited in to be collaborative through that process in a way that is fairly uncommon for me. The majority of things I’ve done are films, and you come on board and there’s a full script and it’s done. You might have an idea for a line here or there, or you question this, that or the other, but this was being built as we were telling it. It was just really interesting and it kept it really organic. It was a little bit stressful. I was somewhat involved in that, but the primary focus, of course, was just trying to figure out John Sugar and do that.

Colin Farrell Imbued His 'Sugar' Detective With All the Noir He Immersed Himself In

The series has a blend of noir detective with a bit of Hollywood movie business flair. Who did you model this character after? Did you go somewhere for inspiration?

FARRELL: Anything I’ve ever seen from the noir genre. I watched a good few movies, just for tone and to spoil myself, really. It was just a good opportunity to go, “Oh, I get to, with a certain amount of focus, just immerse myself in the world of film noir for a while.” It’s a tasty world to immerse yourself in. It’s so filled with wonderful characters and gorgeous duplicity and greed and wickedness, and also a struggle for some kind of foothold on a decent moral compass. So, I went and watched old films that I hadn’t seen in years, like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep and L.A. Confidential, even, and then things that I’d never seen before, like Murder, My Sweet and Farewell, My Lovely. I had a blast, but I didn’t pick one performance or one moment. It was just to swim in the waters of that tone and that world because I knew that that’s what we were gonna be inhabiting. I knew that John Sugar felt that he built his persona, however he was aware of it or not, around these characters. There was a certain old-world way in which he moved through things.

Is this a role that you would like to keep playing, especially if you get to keep driving around in that incredible blue Corvette?

FARRELL: That was fun. That was not a bad day at the office. There were days where I spent six, eight, 10 hours, just driving that car around the street in Los Angeles. It was such a blast. I would, yeah. If people liked it and I got to do a second season and be here in L.A., God, I’d love that, yeah. We’ll see what happens. It’s almost as democratic as the business gets, I suppose. People get to decide. If they watch and like it, they’ll do another season. And if not, we’ll be on our way, bags packed.

With that executive producer title, did you have conversations about a possible second season, at any point? Were you clued in on what that could be?

FARRELL: We were too busy trying to figure this out. Seriously, we didn’t want to. Not that we didn’t want to, but we said, “Let’s not because we don’t want to tempt fate.” It would have been putting the cart before the horse because we were just trying to be active in the assembly of this season. But now that it’s coming out, there’s people talking about it and wondering, “Is there a second season?” I have no clue. We have to see how it’s received, I suppose. I would imagine there’s a world where there’s tons more to explore with the characters.

There’s the interesting added layer of Sugar’s anxiety attacks and his flashback episodes that often happen at these inopportune times. What was it like to figure out how to portray that and how to show the way that would manifest physically?

FARRELL: There were creative conversations had about it. As is often the case, there was a certain amount of uncertainty while we were shooting the show, about certain things and about which avenues to go down, and we’d reverse from there and try to course correct. That was both fun and nerve-wracking as an experience, but it felt organic. There was a reason why certain things were manifesting in certain ways. It’s never really clearly, concretely defined, but you hope it exists in an earned way within the pool of experiences and behaviors that the character demonstrates, and wherever you feel that he’s fundamentally coming from.

The Big 'Sugar' Reveal Was Originally Going to Happen Earlier in the Season

To get into spoilers, we start to realize that something is different about your character pretty early on, but it takes time to understand how and why. Was it always that slow of a reveal? Were there things in the original scripts that got scaled back? Were there places that eventually became more defined? How did you find that balance?

FARRELL: There is a reveal at a certain point, but the versions I read, initially, the reveal was earlier, and then we decided to push it. We decided the story was strong enough and the character should be strong enough that we [could wait]. There was no right or wrong. It could have worked just as well, or better, or could have been worse. Who knows? The way that it was initially designed, we took a punt on the way it is and just felt that it was better to have the mysterious aspects of the character not be fully revealed, and then earn the reveal when it happens.

It’s a really clever, interesting way to handle it because it could have been great to just go on as this detective noir, but the blend of the two things is just so interesting.

FARRELL: And the explanation of his previous life doesn’t really cut into and doesn’t diminish the story that was established. If anything, it should add to it, I suppose, ideally.

At what point in the production did you see what your character really looked like for that moment in the mirror? Did you get a mockup of that? Were they able to show you that, at all, or did you have to wait to see that once it was finalized?

FARRELL: That’s probably a bit of a spoiler now.

Yeah, I’m gonna hold this until after that airs.

FARRELL: Cool. There were designs, as we were doing it. As we were shooting the story, there were designs that were coming in and there were thoughts. Even before the first design came in, there were conversations about how otherworldly, how different or how same he would be, how far removed or how alike in fundamental physical form. So, I saw various iterations, and then we landed on what’s there. It was one of those things you see way after the fact.

'Sugar' Private Detective John Sugar Finds Friendship But Not Romance With Melanie

What is it about Melanie that you think Sugar connects with so deeply? He talks about wanting to share with her in a way that he hadn’t previously. Does he grasp that connection from the beginning, or do you feel like that’s something that continued to evolve?

FARRELL: It’s something that continued to evolve. But I think there is an internal response to her as a character and her as a person. I think the two of them finding each other, what they didn’t even realize they were looking for was just companionship, just friendship. Not romance, just friendship, and this commonality of decency, and this ability to live through things in life, and hardships and struggles, and not put them out into the world to deal with them, by oneself, and pay whatever the price of loneliness or isolation or whatever psychological, emotional discomfort, or whatever it may be. There was just a kinship between the two of them that was lovely to inhabit when I was working with Amy [Ryan], playing Melanie. She’s just such a joy to work with. As I said about the show being built while we were shooting it, there was conversation and I think a desire from some quarters to have it be a romantic relationship, and myself and Amy just felt like if we could just lean into the friendship that was building between the two of them, it would be a lot purer, a lot more powerful, and in fairness, uncommon in this genre, particularly, where there’s usually a romance and a femme fatale, and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, “No, let them just be friends and equals, and let’s work on that. That’s hard enough to achieve.”

I loved how much all of this surprised me. With as much television as I watch, that’s rare to do.

FARRELL: How much TV do you watch?

It’s not even worth trying to guess. I should get therapy for how much TV I watch because it’s just endless. That’s why I love when something surprises me, on every level.

FARRELL: Thank you so much, by the way, for saying that. Would you say you watch 25 hours of TV a week?

I don’t even know because I’ll go a day or two without watching anything, and then I’ll spend a day watching a bunch of stuff that I have to catch up on because of work.

FARRELL: It’s amazing, it’s your work, but it’s also what you love. The line must become blurred and sometimes you try to push against it.

That’s why I love when I have no idea where something is going.

FARRELL: Thank you so much.

Sugar is available to stream on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer:

Watch on AppleTV+