(Photo: AMC Networks)
Premiering today on Sundance Now and AMC+, Ten Percent is a new ensemble comedy series that's both very funny and unexpectedly touching. Written by W1A creator John Morton based on the cult French show Call My Agent!, it follows the chaotic goings-on at fictional London talent agency Nightingale Hart. Sometimes things get pretty messy in this office, but the agents always stay loyal to clients including Helena Bonham Carter, Dominic West and Kelly Macdonald, who all cameo as fictionalized versions of themselves. 
Nightingale Hart is led by Stella (Maggie Steed) and Jonathan (Jack Davenport) – son of Stella's co-founding partner Richard (Jim Broadbent) – and it's these two characters who really steer the team through each looming crisis. Here, Davenport and Steed discuss their characters' motivations and share their own views on what makes talent agents so fascinating.
What is it about the world of talent agents that offers so much comic potential?
Jack Davenport: Well, I think it's a proven fact that people are quite interested to see the curtain pulled back on aspects of showbusiness. By design, agents sort of operate in the shadows a bit, and yet they are incredibly vital to how the business is constructed. Without them, the whole structure would collapse in many ways, so it's quite a good angle to come at it from. Also, you know, there's this sort of lazy caricature that actors are kind of narcissistic bobbleheads who can't hold two thoughts in their head at the same time. But agents can't think that about their clients: they have to believe in them. And so this is a way of both exploring the reality of that world and also finding the comedy in it.
Maggie Steed: I think people probably think, as they do with a lot of London life, that everyone is very cool and knows how to operate and nothing ever goes wrong. But actually, in this world, there's often a panic going on: someone's gotten sick, all the money's gone, the job's not there anymore, a client is having a nervous breakdown. And agents are the ones who have to say: 'It's going to be fine, don't worry, let's have a cup of coffee.' They're the ones who have to at least look calm in the midst of all this chaos, and I think that's always funny.

Do Stella and Jonathan have different approaches to being an agent?
Jack Davenport: I mean, obviously, some of it is generational. I think one of the very smart decisions that our captain John Morton made – and this is different from the [French] original – is that the founding partner of the business is also Jonathan's father. He founded it with Maggie's character back in the day, and of course, showbusiness is always changing. I mean, we're in this period now where the streaming revolution has changed everything, and so the younger generation [of agents] probably think they know better. But I think one of the beautiful things in John's writing is that Maggie's character is sort of the moral conscience of the business because she's been there from the start. She has some standards that you might consider a bit old-fashioned, but in many ways, those things are very important to actors. Showbusiness will chew you up and spit you out as soon as look at you, so if you feel like you have someone who's really in your corner, that counts for a huge amount.
Maggie Steed: They became agents in a very different time. I mean, I remember when I left drama school, everyone wanted to do theater and television was something you did a couple of times a year to pay the rent. God forbid you should have a career in it! There was enormous snobbery about television at that time, which is when [Stella and Richard] would have been starting out. So they've had to adjust enormously as an agency. But at the same time, their notion of loyalty to their clients, and the fact that you carve out a career with somebody, and don't abandon them when things are going badly, is still very central to Stella's approach. And of course, she's always fighting against the encroaching lowering of standards and treating actors as fodder. You know, when my agency was taken over by a larger agency, [the new bosses] looked at the books and said: 'Well, this person hasn't done much in a while – get rid of them.'  And my agents actually picked up their computers and walked out the door, which was so marvelous. 
Finally, have your own agents seen the show?
Jack Davenport: They have and they love it. The funny thing is, part of being an agent is that you have to retain a kind of dispassion about potential projects for your clients. Because for every "yes," we get 99 "no"s. But with this project, my representatives were beside themselves [with excitement]. It was actually quite lovely to witness, because who doesn't like seeing their world represented? And actually, I think we've done them quite proud. I think this show is both accurate and affectionate.
Maggie Steed: It has a lot of heart and they're very grateful for that. And it truly represents the way they are: crazy, ruthless, loving, and full of heart. You know what I mean?
Sundance Now and AMC+ exclusively premiere the first two episodes of Ten Percent today (Friday, April 29) with one new episode following weekly on Fridays. An encore airing of the first episode will debut linearly on BBC America Sunday, May 1 at 10pm EST with one episode weekly thereafter.