Hulu’s highly engaging new series The Artful Dodger is off to a great start, generating stellar reviews. The fiery period drama explores the adult double life of Jack Dawkins aka The Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Dodger’s swift pickpocketing fingers have morphed into the skilled hands of a surgeon. But his troubled past, a potential romance, and a flurry of debts divides Dodger’s attention, making the outing a thoroughly fun romp in 19th-century Australia.

As Dodger, Thomas Brodie-Sangster is a commanding presence in the series. You’ve never seen the actor in a role quite like this. Between complicated heists and life-and-death surgeries to the gritty realities of the criminal world, The Maze Runner actor fuels this winning tale of reinvention, betrayal, and redemption. Yet several things during the production took the actor by surprise. He shares more in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

Why Thomas Brodie-Sangster Was Squeamish in The Artful Dodger
The Artful Dodger Release Date November 29, 2023 Cast Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Maia Mitchell, David Thewlis, Damon Herriman, Damien Garvey Genres Drama, Comedy, Adventure Seasons 1

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is best known for his role in Love Actually and for starring as Newt in The Maze Runner films. He delivered a fine turn as Benny Watts opposite Anna Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit, an inventive miniseries that generated plenty of buzz and demand for even more stories in the chess-verse.

The Artful Dodger is set in the bristling colony of Port Victory. The series finds Dodger confronting his past with the arrival of Fagin (David Thewlis of Harry Potter), who lures him back into the criminal underground. Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell), the Governor’s daughter, is determined to become the colony’s first female surgeon. But will she also be the person Dodger opens his heart to? Their common bond with medicine may unite them, something Brodie-Sangster appreciated in the script. But he admits he had to face a learning curve when it came to all the fake body parts — severed limbs and such — and blood featured during the series’ more intense and realistic medical procedures.

“I’m a very squeamish person myself. I’d be a terrible surgeon. But I’m quite good at the fine detail in things and the mechanics of how things work, [and] in working with my hands and my fingers. I enjoy that. I like mechanics, motorbikes, and engines and things. So, I used that analogy in terms of how things work and trying to make them work better [in the show].”

In addition to Brodie-Sangster, Thewlis, and Mitchell, the all-star Australian lineup includes Damon Herriman (of Justified), Tim Minchin, Miranda Tapsell, Susie Porter, and more.

RELATED: David Thewlis and Damon Herriman Unpack the Adventurous Spectacle of The Artful Dodger

Finding the Balance Between Realism and Entertainment

From the get-go, The Artful Dodger takes off and operates at a feverish pace, creating an embraceable, often playful period drama featuring characters viewers can easily care about.

“Dodger takes place in a slightly heightened version of reality,” Brodie-Sangster told MovieWeb, “but all of our medical procedures were run by surgeons, and we try to have communication with our special effects department, makeup department, and modern-day historical medical procedures, then combine them all with the script and the time frame we have.”

He went on to say the ultimate goal was to make something visually interesting to watch, somewhat historically accurate, and anatomically accurate as well:

I asked the props department, and we played around with different saws, different scalpels, and different knives. I needed to be able to kind of flick them around a little bit and twirl them. And stitching [body parts] up. I wanted to make it quite dramatic looking.

“I don’t think you can actually do it that quickly and effectively, but it looked great,” he added. “We would practice on bits of prosthetics that the special effects department didn’t need anymore, and we’d practice with real needles, threading and tying knots, cinching, all sorts. It was pretty fun.”

The Best Part of the Australian Production

The series finds Dodger on the go — a lot. He’s fending off criminals, dealing with Fagin, and ever so curious about Lady Belle. He’s also ambitious and wants to be the best surgeon in the region. All of this gave Thomas Brodie-Sangster plenty to work with — and kept him on the go.

“There’s lots of running around and physical activity at the beginning, and it creates this vibrant energy for the show but it’s also [the character of] Jack,” the actor shared. “I like bringing out that fun, cocky, and talented person. The thing I enjoyed the most was mixing that with the little boy we all know really [from Oliver Twist]. We know Dodger as a little boy, and he’s become a man that still has boyish characteristics.”

Related: Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s 13 Best Performances

That’s certainly evident when Fagin turns up. “He’s exposed to basically his father figure,” he added, “and it pulls him way back to when he was a little boy and how he was hurt, and how he’s dealing with that hurt and trying to move on and forget his past. You know, our past is what defines us. It’s a huge part of it [in the series], you can’t run away from your past. You have to accept it, whether there’s trauma or not, and learn to kind of move on and grow with it.”

Playing around with the heightened fun that is inherent in the show was also a highlight for the star. “And finding a nice balance,” he said, “and mixing it with something that’s good drama and a character that isn’t just a boring lead who takes you through a really fun world. It’s actually someone that you relate to and feel sorry for and are willing to follow through his mad adventures. That was a fun task.”

Beach Road Pictures, Curio Pictures, and Sony Pictures Television, The Artful Dodger was released in Australia on streaming service Disney+, via its Star hub, and premiered on Hulu in the United States and Star+ in Latin America. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the series will premiere on Disney+ on 17 January 2024. You can watch it through the link below:

Watch on Hulu