Dirk Gently [from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency], needs a sidekick, as all good detectives do, and he gets this message from the universe that this guy, Todd Brotzman, played by Elijah Wood, is the guy to help him through this mystery. But of course, that doesn't really explain the breadth of it.
Samuel Barnett[Elijah Wood] is a really fully-rounded, amazing human being, and I feel incredibly lucky, especially given how closely we have to work together.
Samuel BarnettOne of the joys of this show [Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency] is that each of those characters could be starring in their own show. It's only as the show goes on that you realize how they interconnect. They're all moving towards one another inexorably, to meet at a certain point.
Samuel BarnettI'd seen Elijah [Wood], when I was a little boy, in The Good Son. And then, I was a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings. It took awhile to get over that whole, "That's Elijah Wood - Frodo, from The Lord of the Rings." I was a mega fan of that. I went to the all-day screenings of the director's cut, where you could see the really long versions of all three movies, in one day.
Samuel BarnettI'm a Brit and I just put myself on tape, back in London, for a very distant American project that I thought I didn't stand a chance of getting. And then, I got a call about a week after I had submitted my tape, just saying, "They really like you and want to screen test you." So, I flew to L.A. and did the screen test. And then, I met Elijah [Wood] and did a screen test with him. And then, I had a very nerve-wracking few days back home, waiting and waiting and thinking, "This cannot possibly go my way because that would just be too good to be true." And then, it did.
Samuel BarnettThe whole nature of the show [ Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency] is that everything is connected, and everything is interconnected. You have all of these strands with all of these characters, and you watch the characters interact and you wonder, "What do they have to do with each other? How does any of this link?"
Samuel Barnett