Britain and France are separated by little more than 28 miles, but if you asked Jack Davenport, he'd say the countries are worlds apart.
So when he and Lydia Leonard were cast in 10 Percent, Sundance and AMC+'s remake of the French series Call My Agent!, it wasn't all that difficult to put their own twist on the show. As Davenport told E! News, the Brits are "a strange, emotionally-constipated island of people and a lot of what we don't say is the important part or we mean the opposite of what we say, which is not really the French way of doing things."
These differences become painfully obvious as viewers meet the agents of Nightingale Hart, a talent agency located in the heart of London. The group represents a myriad of famous English actors, including the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Phoebe Dynevor and Dominic West. But they face a major setback when founder Richard Nightingale (Jim Broadbent) suddenly dies, leaving his son, Jonathan (Davenport), and the rest of the agents to pick up the pieces.
While the French version of the show sees the characters move on from their founder's death as if there's nothing else they can do, Richard's passing truly shakes up the Nightingale Hart staff, especially Jonathan, who feels that he's his father's rightful replacement. 10 Percent writer John Morton felt compelled to add this familial element, explaining to E! News in a separate interview, "I wanted to find a way of really making the loss of the founder of the of the company matter."
Morton added that the death adds another layer to every scene Jonathan shares with the esteemed agent Stella (Maggie Steed), noting, "Whatever they're actually talking about, underneath the surface it becomes about who is now the heir apparent because Jonathan is the son, but Stella was there when Jonathan was wearing short dresses and was nobody."
The Nightingale Hart family continues to grow with the addition of another nobody: Misha (Hiftu Quasem), Jonathan's secret love child who is hired as an assistant to Rebecca (Leonard).
Fans of Call My Agent! will notice this is a story picked straight from the French series, but Davenport said that the British would have a whole different perspective on the situation. As he sees it, the French have this "normalization" of extramarital affairs, whereas "we're embarrassed by everything in Britain."
As a result, Jonathan goes through emotional torture when Misha arrives, with Davenport remarking, "It was fun to explore this man clambering out of the mortification and also the destructive power to his declared family that results from that."
In the backdrop of this family drama is Nightingale Hart's introduction to the world of Hollywood, a hilarious storyline that Leonard described to E! as "totally real and authentic and very much a part of being an agent in London." She noted that Americans may be used to the "hardcore" nature of the film industry, but for the Brits, it's all about finding the "passion of the clients."
Davenport, who's starred in blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean, agrees that the two cultures cannot be compared, adding, "I remember being asked if I ever thought there'd be an American version of this show and I was like, 'There's already been a definitive show about American agencies and it's called Entourage."
The first two episodes of 10 Percent are streaming now on Sundance Now and AMC+, with one new episode following weekly on Fridays.