“LaKeith [Stanfield] came into The Changeling with such dedication,” said Jonathan Van Tulleken, an executive producer/director on The Changeling. “I think it’s very rare to see an actor who brings his level of commitment to the set, and who is always digging through sort of the personal resonance in himself as well with the story. It really just makes the performance incredibly, incredibly grounded.”Stanfield plays the lead role of Apollo Kagwa, and many who’ve seen the series complimented his performance. Van Tulleken and fellow episode director Michael Francis Williams had similar praise, with the latter calling out Stanfield for extending that professionalism to the rest of the cast. “[Lakeith] wasn’t in my episode so much,” explained Williams, who directed the seventh episode, “Stormy Weather.” Despite the actor’s limited screen time, Williams was surprised to see Stanfield on set during production. “He still came to support the other actors,” the director recalled. “We had a really big scene, I turned around, and he’s right there. That kind of level of care infuses the whole production. He’s phenomenal.”“It’s a really tough role,” Van Tulleken said, “There are really tough scenes. Apollo is is a character that is really wrestling with the darkness in himself and the light. And seeing him do that was really special because he got to do it from the inception, pretty much, from the very time the scripts were written through the whole process.”The first season of The Changeling is now available to stream on Apple TV+.This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the show being covered here wouldn’t exist.Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.