Netflix documentary ‘Tell Me Who I Am’ shot at Mount Pleasant

Called by The Daily Beast “The Most Jaw-Dropping Documentary of the Year”, the Netflix film “Tell Me Who I Am” tells the extraordinary and moving story of identical twins Alex and Marcus Lewis and was filmed over seven days at Mount Pleasant Studio’s central London soundproofed stage.

Director Ed Perkins told Salon.com about the process of interviewing the brothers: “It felt imperative to give them space and agency for them to tell their story in the way that they wanted. We set up a studio and filmed interviews over seven days. So, for four hours in the morning I’d be with Alex. Then we’d all have lunch together and talk about everything under the sun other than the story. We’d laugh and joke downstairs, and then we’d walk back up and all get serious again and go back in the studio. For four hours in the afternoon, I’d be with Marcus. Neither of them knew what I was talking about with the other. We stripped the crew back to the absolute minimum, so it was me, the cameraman, someone running sound and that was it.” 

In another interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Perkins explained: “We built a studio space for the purpose of having these complex, painful, illuminating conversations… In my experience, for a film like this you might normally expect to have a day, perhaps two, to conduct interviews with each person. On this film it was radically different. We sat and spoke for seven days. And so we were able to explore ideas and emotions with a level of detail that is not often possible. We were able to give Alex and Marcus the time and space to feel relaxed in front of the camera, so that the experience for them became something more like a conversation with a friend rather than a formal interview. I think that shows onscreen. What the twins have done is astonishingly brave, and it has been a genuine privilege to be involved in bringing their testimony to the screen.”

After featuring at the Telluride and London Film Festival it is now streaming on Netflix in 170 countries and 60 languages.