The Sandman on Netflix needed a sexy Corinthian — even with those eyes

Though it’s at best his Second Most defining feature, The Sandman’s Corinthian has an undeniable style. Dressed in creamy whites, sporting pale hair and a pair of ever-present sunglasses, the Nightmare cuts a fine figure, whether in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic or as played by Boyd Holbrook in Netflix’s adaptation. It’s a look so together that you may miss his mostYou should have his mouth where you want your eyes to be.

As a rogue nightmare, AWOL from the Dreaming in Dream’s absence and serial killing his way through the waking world, the Corinthian is a mess of menace and charm. Holbrook had to perform the role in an unusual way that he’d never done before.

“I think there was a sexuality to the Corinthian that I… had never wanted to do, nor asked to do,” Holbrook tells Polygon. “So that was definitely something that was uncomfortable in the beginning that I had to work my way into.”

Image by Netflix

Holbrook noted that Holbrook and his fellow cast members were told to be themselves and not conform to the role of their characters. Instead, the most important thing was that they “play a rooted real person.” Of course, with the Corinthian’s eyes being the stuff of nightmares, he also had to work his way into it without the aid of the windows of the soul.

“I really thought that I would have to do, or I [would feel] some obligation to bring something else to the role that wasn’t on the page,” Holbrook says. “But Neil Gaiman and Allan Heinberg, our showrunner, really just put me at ease with that. Because rather than a hindrance, it’s more of a weapon.”

It’s an easy magnetism that oozes out of Holbrook’s performance, a natural relaxedness that still manages to imbue every moment he’s on screen with threat. His side-paneled sunglasses hide his true eyes, so every gesture of kindness appears to be tinged in malice. Perhaps he’s calm and collected because he realizes he can never be touched in any way.

“I think it would basically paralyze anybody,” Holbrook says. “Once the glasses come off and you see the teeth for eyes, I think it would just kind of shell-shock people.”

Tasha Robinson reports on additional stories.