Zoe Saldana stars in the Netflix miniseries as a young American who falls for a Sicilian chef.
From Scratchis a love letter.
It’s a love letter to food.
Eugenio Mastrandrea and Zoe Saldana in ‘From Scratch’.Stefano Montesi/Netflix
It’s a love letter to Italy.
And it’s a love letter to love itself and the many forms it can take.
The upcoming Netflix miniseries starsZoe Saldanaas Amy, a young American who travels to Italy to study art.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you start talking about adapting this story for television?
ATTICA LOCKE:I knew my sister had written an amazing book.
It was not published yet.
But I had happened to work on a show calledLittle Fires Everywhere,which was a Hello Sunshine show.
I’ve got some books you might like to read.
Let’s do something else together."
And I went, “Well, I’ve got a story about that.”
All of a sudden, I told her how my sister wrote a book.
[Laughs] Lauren was like, “What is happening?”
I hope you’re okay with that."
TEMBI LOCKE:I was floored and completely unprepared for that phone call.
[Laughs] I was like, you have just taken us off a cliff.
Let’s see what’s going to happen.
But I said, “You know what?
We will grow wings and we will fly.”
Tell me about the process of adaptation.
The show changes certain names and biographical details, but this is basically your real-life story, Tembi.
How did you want to approach adapting that for the screen?
I was always asking myself, “What role am I bringing to the adaptation?”
Together, we talked about how to do that.
Without those pillars, you don’t have the show.
ATTICA LOCKE:We gave ourselves a mantra.
We wanted our show to go from “eros to agape.”
We wanted our show to be about all kinds of love.
Amy is a visual artist, as opposed to an actor [like Tembi].
It allowed us to do stuff like that.
We also turned up the drama.
What made Zoe Saldana the right person to be the heart of this story?
Reese had this overwhelming sense of, “Wait a minute.
I think this could be Amy.”
So, they called us, and we were like, “Oh my God.
This could be Amy.”
She has an Italian husband!
This is Amy’s story, but it’s also a story of family.
Specifically, it’s the story ofyourfamily.
For you two as sisters, what was that like to bring your own family relationship to the screen?
ATTICA LOCKE:Fun and nerve-wracking.
I mean, I’m still scared to show everybody the series.
Lynn is bats—, but hilarious and also vulnerable, but our mom is not that crazy.
It was nice to feel like we’re seeing our lens on the world.
But it had its challenges.
We wanted to do that lovingly and with levity.
ATTICA LOCKE:We wanted Amy and Lino to, in some ways, learn that.
They [have] this kind of arc, where they’re like, “Forget those other people.
It’s just us, and that’s what matters.”
But when things get really tough, you need help.
You need your family.
One of the things I love about this show is how it depicts food.
How did you want to approach the use of food in the show?
ATTICA LOCKE:I’m going to give this to Tembi.
Literally all food went by her eyes for a final check.
That was another place where we were like, “We’re not half-stepping here with the food!”
Be it as simple as a corn dog or the smoked turkey.
Everyone is using food as a love language.
You reveal your deepest vulnerabilities.
And it’s all playing out over food and over a meal.
It’s changing depending on who’s at the table or who’s not at the table.
There’s that saying: Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are.
I believe that, and it doesn’t necessarily just mean what cuisine you eat.
It also means how you eat.
Do you eat standing up?
Are you eating on the run?
Do you sit down with friends?
Food defines relationships, so we wanted to communicate that.
And also, we wanted to make it pretty and beautifully photographed and lush.
They were like, “I’m gonna take some of that home with me.”
I was like, “I’ve done my job.
Lucia just asked to take the eggplant parmigiana home.”
They had apple pie for the first time, and that was so fascinating!
TEMBI LOCKE:We did have a corn dog truck on set one day!
That was an homage to Lino and my late husband who loved corn dogs.
So, we tried to keep it light and have fun with the food.
I also have to ask about Eugenio Mastrandrea who plays Lino.
He’s so extraordinary in this, and he’s someone American audiences may not be familiar with.
Tell me about bringing him into this story.
ATTICA LOCKE:We had a wonderful Italian casting director, Armando Pizzuti.
He scoured every part of Italy, and in the very first batch of tapes was Eugenio.
I took one look, and I kind of jumped out of my chair.
I had to go into the other room, and I started crying because I saw my brother-in-law.
I saw some essence of him.
I called Tembi, and I said, “You’re going to watch some tapes later.
There’s something about his essence that feels familiar and feels like Saro.”
TEMBI LOCKE:When I did watch that tape, I knew almost instantly.
We wanted everyone to bring their take on everything because this is not a biopic approach to storytelling.
But we wanted every person to have an essence of the person they were playing.
For Eugenio to play Lino, he had to have an essence of Saro.
All of that leapt through, and physically, there was this physical resemblance.
I watched it, and I kind of lost my breath.
I almost had to close my computer because it was so intense.
I thought, well, let me just sit with this.
I was like, yep, it’s him.
ATTICA LOCKE:He was also so humble and game.
But he was a find that felt fated.
Tembi, what was it like for you to watch this series, knowing that you lived it?
TEMBI LOCKE:It was incredibly emotional, no doubt.
I went through all those emotions, but I felt as though I were doing it in community.
This was all an act of love.
I imagine that would be so rewarding, having this whole community helping you to tell this story.
I’ve experienced this moment."
What was one woman’s singular story is now everybody’s story.
That’s a part of the universality of these big life experiences that we hope viewers will take away.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
