Logan Lerman has been an actor for greater than 20 years, beginning at age 5, and he’s been despatched quite a few scripts concerning the Holocaust. They learn as exploitative to him.
“That’s all the time rubbed me the flawed approach,” he stated. “I’m like, ‘No, that doesn’t really feel proper.’”
However the story of the Shoah he now stars in, “We Had been the Fortunate Ones,” felt completely different to the performer finest identified for his work in movies like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012) and “Fury” (2014).
Primarily based on the novel of the identical title by Georgia Hunter, the eight-episode sequence premieres Thursday on Hulu. It tracks the members of the Kurc household as they’re dispersed all through Jap Europe, the place they dwell, and elsewhere when the Nazis invade. Lerman, 32, stars as Addy Kurc, a musician who has been dwelling in Paris and finds himself unable to get dwelling to Radom, Poland. His journey takes him to Casablanca and ultimately Rio de Janeiro, all whereas he’s unaware of the fates of his beloved siblings and oldsters. Because the title would suggest, that is much less a narrative of loss than it’s of survival.
Whereas Hunter’s e book is fictional, the Kurcs are named for and based mostly on her maternal grandfather’s household, and their sagas have been derived from her in depth analysis into their experiences. A co-executive producer of the sequence, she shared that background with Lerman as he got down to play Addy, who relies on her grandfather. However the actor reached into his personal private historical past as properly, channeling his personal grandfather, who was additionally a Jewish refugee throughout World Struggle II. The result’s a efficiency that mixes each household histories, paying tribute to Hunter and Lerman’s ancestry within the course of.
“I additionally wished to do it given that I used to be like, ‘Oh I wish to present my grandfather this,” Lerman stated in a video name.
Max Lerman, Lerman’s paternal grandfather, ended up in China after fleeing Germany. He died final yr, however his grandchild grew up listening to his tales.
“It was all the time a blur to me, as a result of I didn’t know what was actual or what was pretend and made up for the imaginative bedtime story I used to be instructed as a child,” Lerman stated.
He added: “Studying about it as I obtained older, it was difficult, emotionally understanding it, the emotional fact of it for my grandfather.”
Lerman stated he thought of his grandfather all through filming and included a few of his mannerisms into his efficiency. It’s the type of deeply felt tie to the fabric the creators of “We Had been the Fortunate Ones” appeared for once they forged the Kurcs, all performed by Jewish actors. (Different stars embrace Joey King, Robin Weigert, Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Lior Ashkenazi.)
“We weren’t prescriptive about what Jewishness meant,” the showrunner Erica Lipez stated. “It’s fascinating to have a mixture of people who find themselves spiritual, those that aren’t, those that don’t follow, those that have household connections however haven’t been raised in that approach.”
Lerman stated he usually doesn’t really feel strongly about whether or not Jewish components are performed by Jewish actors, however “I perceive that individuals will join with it otherwise figuring out that, although.”
Lerman has performed explicitly Jewish characters just a few instances earlier than, together with in a 2016 movie adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel “Indignation,” directed by James Schamus. Most lately he starred within the Amazon Prime Video sequence “Hunters,” a revenge fantasy a couple of group combating Nazis within the Nineteen Seventies. Whereas “Hunters,” which ran two seasons and ended final yr, covers a number of the identical thematic materials as “We Had been the Fortunate Ones” — together with the lingering scars of the Holocaust — Lerman noticed the 2 as worlds aside, given the campy tone of the Amazon sequence.
“I used to be trying to do one thing very completely different,” he stated. (He added that “Hunters,” with its silliness and over-the-top violence, was a lot much less grandfather-friendly.)
As a result of Addy was such a significant character for Hunter, who was current for a lot of the shoot, Lipez stated that they appeared for somebody who would “take nice care” with taking part in him. In addition they knew they wished to rent an actor with musical expertise, who might play Addy’s real-life compositions for the present. Whereas Lerman isn’t often known as a musician, he performs the piano and has “music in his DNA,” in keeping with the director and govt producer Thomas Kail, finest identified for steering “Hamilton” on Broadway.
Hunter knew her grandfather solely later in his life, after he had modified his identify to Eddy Courts, and by the point she was 10 or 11 years outdated, he was “fairly sick” with Parkinson’s, she stated. She didn’t study his wartime experiences till after he died. Nonetheless, she shared with Lerman particulars that wouldn’t make it onto the display in an express approach.
“The truth that he made the whole lot in his home by hand, that he solely spoke French on the dinner desk, his little mannerisms,” Hunter stated. “I feel it was actually vital to Logan to peel again the layers on his character and perceive who he was. It was so vital to me that Logan was open to that type of info, as a result of it simply meant he cared.”
Hunter stated he nailed the portrayal, including that there have been similarities between the actor and her grandfather. “They share a lot of that soulfulness, that charisma, that confidence,” she stated.
Lerman stated that Hunter’s presence on set yielded “a special degree of connection to the fabric” than he had beforehand skilled on a job. However he by no means felt constrained by having Hunter and her mom on set — each had cameos within the sequence — to look at him painting their ancestor.
As a substitute, he was reassured by them that he might carry his interpretation to the fabric, together with the sarcasm and humor of his personal grandfather. The efficiency stands as a homage to each males, and it was made extra poignant nonetheless when Lerman’s grandfather died, at 95, per week after the manufacturing ended.
“I talked to him about this rather a lot,” Lerman stated. “And I used to be actually excited for him to see it.”
