Director X is best known for his visually distinctive music videos for big names including Drake, Jay Z and Kanye West.
But he’s also the creator of the new Stan series Robyn Hood.
The Toronto-born filmmaker is the mind behind the epic new series, a contemporary female retelling of the similarly-titled classic tale. He’s put a modern Canadian twist on the English legend.
Stream Robyn Hood now, with new episodes on Thursdays, only on Stan.
The science-fiction drama series follows Robyn Loxley (played by Jessye Romeo) and her anti-authoritarian masked hip-hop band, The Hood.
When Robyn finds herself fighting for her home and her family against local property developer John Prince and The Sheriff of New Nottingham, The Hood decide to fight back, righting the wrongs of the corrupt elite to give back to the people.
For the series’ lead, London-born Romeo, perfecting the Canadian accent became even more important after she was introduced to rapper Drake at a dinner.
“A few days before dialect coaching started, Director X took me out to dinner and Drake was there,” Romeo exclusively told 9Entertainment.
“We chatted for a bit and then he [Drake] said, ‘You’re gonna do the accent?’ I said, ‘Yes’ so then after that I felt this extra pressure from the king of Toronto to nail it!”
Whether it was the extra pressure from Drake or just her own acting method, Romeo proved her commitment to the role by staying in the Canadian accent for six weeks straight.
She explained that after the initial six weeks, she spoke in the accent every waking hour of the day from Monday to Friday and only had occasional weekends off.
Romeo’s rigorous preparation didn’t stop there, with the role proving to be physically demanding too.
“I trained in quite a lot of different disciples in the lead up to filming. It was a bit of MMA [mixed martial arts], a bit of self defense, a lot of stunt training and a lot of physical training to push myself to be as fit as I could be,” Romeo revealed.
READ MORE: A closer look at every show and movie that’s coming to Stan in October 2023
In the classic tale Robin Hood is a skilled archer, and Robyn is no different.
Romeo said she trained her best to “convincingly use the bow and arrow”.
“It looks really easy when the professionals do it but t’s not as easy as it looks,” she added.
Stream Robyn Hood now, with new episodes on Thursdays, only on Stan.
Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.
