Jacob Elordi on Returning to Australia for Amazon Limited Series ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ And Working With His “Cinema Father” Justin Kurzel

The tv adaptation of Richard Flanagan‘s prize-winning e-book The Narrow Road to the Deep North brings with it various firsts. It’s acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel‘s first work for tv and in addition the first time Euphoria and Saltburn star Jacob Elordi has returned residence to lead a serious Australian manufacturing.

Produced by Sony Footage Tv’s Curio Footage and Amazon MGM Studios Australia, Narrow Road debuted on Amazon Prime Video on April 18, however the restricted collection, talking to its feature-like qualities, premiered its first two episodes at the Berlin Movie Pageant earlier this 12 months. In his evaluation, The Hollywood Reporter‘s movie critic David Rooney was gushing in his reward of these first two episodes, describing Narrow Road as “large, daring and strikingly cinematic.” “Based mostly on the first 90 minutes, The Narrow Road to the Deep North has potential to stand alongside movies like Peter Weir’s Gallipoli and Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant as a nuanced and compassionate research of Australians at battle,” Rooney wrote.

In addition to profitable the prestigious Booker Prize in 2014, Flanagan’s e-book has been feted round the world and grow to be a piece of nationwide significance in Australia, so, as Kurzel advised THR, there was an “inherent” strain to get the adaptation proper. Kurzel, who has directed a few of the most critically acclaimed Australian movies launched this century, together with Snowtown (2011), True Historical past of the Kelly Gang (2018) and Nitram (2021) and who can also be coming off one other vital success with 2024’s The Order, has been working on a Narrow Road adaptation since 2019 when the challenge was arrange at Fremantle, earlier than it moved to Curio and Amazon.

Set throughout and after WWII, the restricted collection follows Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans, who endures horrific situations as a prisoner of battle pressured to construct the Burma Railway beneath brutal Japanese command. Haunted by a misplaced love in addition to wartime atrocities, the story shifts between Dorrigo’s traumatic previous and postwar life, the place he grapples with guilt, reminiscence and the weight of heroism.

The five-part collection was written and co-created by Kurzel’s longtime collaborator Shaun Grant and encompasses a haunting rating by Jed Kurzel. In addition to Elordi, Narrow Road stars various up-and-coming Australian actors together with Odessa Younger, Olivia DeJonge, Thomas Weatherall and Charles An. The collection additionally stars veteran actors Ciarán Hinds, Heather Mitchell, Essie Davis and Simon Baker and Japanese actors Sho Kasamatsu, Taki Abe and Akira Fujii.

Forward of the Prime Video debut of Narrow Road, THR spoke with Kurzel and Elordi about the making of the restricted collection, the strain they felt in adapting Flanagan’s work, and the way the collection speaks to trendy Australia.

Justin, let’s begin with the e-book itself. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is sort of epic and deeply introspective at the identical time. How did you as a director stability the horrors confronted by POWs and the camps and in addition Dorrigo’s inside wrestle? And was it simpler to adapt the e-book through tv relatively than a movie?

JUSTIN KURZEL Positively the alternative of doing it on on TV was simply that size that it allowed, you already know, over 5 episodes it permits sufficient time and house for the type of tapestry of the older Dorrigo wanting again in reminiscence, at the identical time being current on this relationship with Ella, and understanding what that relationship means to him, after which clearly the prisoner of battle camp after which the summer time of affection.

Richard all the time stated to me the most vital factor to him — though he gave his permission for me to actually personal it indirectly as a chunk of cinema — was the tapestry of various time modifications. Being intentionally pressured into these totally different moments of reminiscence have been actually vital to him. That was the solely feeling I had going into it.

I all the time thought that the e-book was so distinctive in that it was taking a look at battle and the horrors of battle and the expertise that Dorrigo had via the prism of a love story. And that love story was fairly distinctive in that it solely type of occurred over a brief six week interval, this “summer time of affection,” after which grew and sustained itself for Dorrigo via the battle, and particularly via [his time in the] camp, and that relationship grew nearly as a ghost romance. Amy developed and grew subsequent to [Dorrigo’s] trauma via the terrible issues that he noticed, endured, skilled and [trying to] hold these males alive, there was all the time the reminiscence of her and what she was to these experiences. I discovered that terribly shifting. It might have been a relationship if it went one week, two weeks longer — it might have completed. He might have come again from the battle and began the relationship with Amy, and it could have been one thing totally different. However for [Dorrigo] it was what she was to him, via that terrible interval and time, and she or he then existed as that determine all the method till the finish. I’ve by no means actually seen that in a narrative about the trauma of battle and the legacy of these experiences advised via the prism of a relationship like the one between Dorrigo and Amy.

The construction of the piece is actually attention-grabbing since you flip between a number of totally different timelines. It’s initially complicated however you then get into the circulation of the story and all of it is sensible. Have been you fearful about protecting the viewers with you?

KURZEL There’s one thing about the e-book that does that as effectively, such as you begin studying it and at first you’re leaping round in a selected method after which all of it simply melds actually fantastically and seamlessly. I observed that as I used to be enhancing the first episode. OK, right here we go, our viewers goes to go along with these jumps and also you simply get right into a story and you then’re taking them out. What I discovered was that there was just a few DNA in the materials that actually performed like reminiscence. You actually felt as if every of those items have been terribly interconnected and that there was one thing very, sturdy and attention-grabbing in how they began to overlap relatively than lower. I acquired fairly excited by that. I used to be very cautious about it, however trusted that there was one thing that labored so fantastically in the e-book that might translate as a chunk of cinema by way of how these scenes all buttered up in opposition to one another, in the end sort of overlap and have been ready to stay with one another.

Your work is thought for coping with issues like trauma and masculinity, and there’s plenty of trauma and plenty of masculinity in Narrow Road, are these points one thing that you just wished to discover additional with characters like Dorrigo?

KURZEL I discovered it fairly totally different from stuff that I’ve performed earlier than. I imply, primarily at the coronary heart of it’s this love story between Dorrigo and Amy. I believe there may be trauma in the prisoner of battle camp, clearly, that’s skilled and that’s recalled in reminiscence and that does type of shift and alter Dorrigo. However I all the time noticed it via the prism of affection, not solely with Amy, but additionally with this type of lovely relationship he has with the males, not solely to hold them alive, however for all of them to be mild to one another and present care and actually take care of one another. I noticed it extra via that. I believe generally my work may be classed as masculine and there being violence to it, however lots plenty of my work too is about household, and it’s about folks desperately making an attempt to be with each other and talk and assist one another, and this, in some sense, this was a departure from my earlier work. However, at the identical time there are particular areas that I’ve all the time been occupied with.

This query is especially about episode 4, so the scenes involving the POWs in the camp and the excessive torture they went via, it’s fairly harrowing materials. How do you movie one thing like that as a director?

KURZEL It’s immersive and it’s confronting, and you already know that day is developing. It was an important a part of the e-book, what these males witnessed, and in addition what these males did to one another. I wished it to really feel as actual and immersive as potential. We did extraordinarily lengthy takes. [Thomas Weatherell] who performed Frank was unbelievably brave and it was extremely exhausting and confronting for him. It’s a tough factor, a part of it is usually it’s choreographed to a T, these scenes, there’s an artifice to all of it that’s about hitting marks and hitting specific factors and there are emotional beats that you really want to talk about and discuss. However at the identical time, I additionally wished it to type of really feel steady, so that they have been 5, 10-minute takes that we did with two cameras that have been constantly roving. Primary is in order that we don’t have to do it 20 occasions — there’s solely so many occasions that you are able to do [those kinds of scenes]. But in addition, there’s something about the steady takes that permit a actuality for the different boys to expertise it and be in it and irrespective of how a lot they’re seeing their actor buddy between lower and take, taking instructions from me, it nonetheless feels extremely visceral and actual.

So, it’s a stability, however I’ve all the time discovered with these kinds of scenes that I’ve performed in the previous which can be lengthy takes and which have a way of trauma about them like that, is simply how loving the set is and simply how supportive everyone seems to be. They’re very particular moments that you just’re filming, you already know that they’re in the script for a purpose. It’s plenty of love, plenty of hugs, plenty of cups of tea, plenty of speaking, “Are you OK?” And simply unbelievable braveness from all of them, not solely Tom, however these extraordinary Japanese actors that we had and in addition the boys who all misplaced a ridiculous quantity of weight, who have been all going via their very own type of bodily transformation, which was affecting their emotional moods as effectively by way of being very heightened, on set.

They’re laborious scenes to shoot, however they’re vital scenes, everybody takes them very significantly, and everybody actually takes care of one another.

Jacob, you play Dorrigo, he’s a battle hero, however he’s additionally a deeply flawed man. How did you discover — that is gonna sound a bit bit tacky — however how did you discover the humanity in his contradictions?

JACOB ELORDI I believe that the query sort of solutions itself. Essentially the most humanity you’ll discover in folks might be of their contradictions. That’s what makes folks human — the mild and the darkish — [Dorrigo] wouldn’t be an actual individual if he was. If he was simply this nice heroic man and he was saving all these folks, then he can be flawed as a result of there’s one thing fairly indulgent about that as effectively. I believe — now this sounds tacky — however the duality of Dorrigo is what makes him shockingly human. It’s the most trustworthy which you could be.

Have been there specific selections you made by way of how to method the Dorrigo character?

ELORDI I believe I in all probability got here in with plenty of selections! [Laughs] And Justin stated to go away the selections at the door, as a result of he created theater in cinema. Each second was alive. The takes have been 5 or 10 minutes lengthy, so once you got here in, for those who had an concept, and that concept can be gone after 30 seconds and also you’d nonetheless be watching [the character of Frank] get beat, after which the second is so alive on the set that Justin creates that issues simply seem and are available to you in the second, as a result of the camps themselves have been constructed spherical, like a stage. We have been in the jungle and there was one thing occurring on each nook of the set, so it was actually simply — once more it sounds tacky nevertheless it was — it was extra about responding in the second, I suppose.

I felt like the love scenes have been simply as brutal as the battle scenes, however for totally different causes, so that you had trauma squared. Did you discover that difficult to play as effectively?

ELORDI You understand the love scenes really ended up changing into fairly peaceable, we referred to as it the “summer time of affection,” and there have been moments with Odessa, who performs Amy, we had this pub and it was simply us on this pub simply exterior Canberra, and it was lovely. You verify in day by day and you then sort of stay on this time interval in the pub. As Justin stated earlier than, it wasn’t utterly harrowing and like trauma as a result of it was plenty of ‘hey, I really like you,’ ‘would you like a cup of tea?’ It was very collaborative and everybody was working towards the identical level. It was truthfully simply pleasing.

In taking part in Dorrigo, I suppose as compared to different characters you’ve performed, have been there any specific parts of his character which can be nonetheless dwelling with you?

ELORDI No, I imply there’s elements of your self which you could’t actually get away from once you play one thing, and the factor that struck me the most when Justin gave me the e-book was the similarities that we had, which can simply be from being Australian males, and the upbringing and issues like that, however no, nothing so alarming. I’m not nice at surgical procedure or something like that, no. [Laughs]

This query is to each of you. Narrow Road is a very vital e-book for Australians and it’s been extremely profitable globally, did you each really feel the added strain to get this adaptation proper?

KURZEL Yeah, I did. Richard Flanagan’s a very good buddy of mine and truly requested me whether or not I would really like to do that. There’s an inherent strain in accepting that. I used to be with Richard in London, we had dinner the night time after he gained the Booker Prize. So I used to be actually conscious of the status that was granted to this e-book, however I believe he’s one in every of the finest writers in the world. I’ve had that have earlier than with The True Historical past of the Kelly Gang and dealing with these unbelievable novelists.

As I stated earlier than, what Richard was excellent at doing was at the starting saying, ‘look, it’s going to be totally different, and I settle for that that is yours and Shaun’s to actually take on, discover your method as to what that cinematic perspective is with it.’ That didn’t imply that day by day I used to be considering, ‘I hope I don’t fuck this up for Richard.’ However it additionally allowed me to all the time take into consideration what an adaption is and that it inherently has to be totally different from the e-book, and there are issues that you just miss, and there are issues that you just add, and there’s a sure perspective you carry. And then all these nice actors declare these characters and have to discover their very own fact with them that’s totally different from the e-book. That fact that speaks to them on the day and in the scenes and with one another and what they sort of be taught from that to assist information them as to the place the characters ought to go. You have got to go into it considering, ‘OK, there’s a degree right here the place we have now to strive to embrace how the e-book’s talking to us.’

Given his earlier work involving options, did Richard Flanagan need to become involved in the adaptation?

KURZEL No, Richard got here to set and he was an unbelievable useful supply to the boys. Jacob went to Tasmania and truly noticed sure areas wherein it was made and Richard took Jacob and [Thomas Weatherell], up the mountain, Mount Wellington. They’d some superb, one on one time with him as a result of he’s an extremely attention-grabbing, loving, extraordinary man. [Richard] has this, large, large coronary heart, so even simply having a dialog with Richard, you possibly can really feel the DNA of what the work is.

ELORDI Yeah, he doesn’t mince phrases and he doesn’t waste phrases. He’s actually not someone I used to be eager to disappoint. So there’s a strain in that, however I imply he’s good.

Lots of people will not be completely accustomed to the significance of the e-book and in addition Australian battle historical past, however do you guys suppose Narrow Road speaks to a contemporary Australia?

ELORDI For me exterior of the battle and outdoors of the whole lot, it’s a deeply human e-book and it’ll stay perpetually like all nice literature does, since you strip away all the story parts, the historic parts, and there’s these character research that I believe are relatable and related to each sort of individual, and that’s why the e-book is so standard abroad as effectively. I believe it’s extremely related to trendy Australia, to wherever.

Justin, once you began working with Jacob, did his physicality and his method of being an actor, did that form the way you noticed Dorrigo, or was Dorrigo on the web page already?

KURZEL No, I’ve simply seen Jacob’s work and thought he was a beautiful actor and I desperately wished to work with him, and that’s normally the way it works with me and actors — having a deep admiration for somebody. I really like the concept on this thrilling time in his profession for him to come and do an Australian piece of labor that he actually admires. There’s one thing actually great about coming residence and having the ability to be concerned in such a rare Australian story. To give you the chance to work with somebody like Jacob at this level in his profession, I do know there’s an power to that and there’s one thing very thrilling about it. So at the start, I’d seen his work and I believe he’s incredible, so I used to be like let’s work collectively and take a look at to discover out what Dorrigo might be.

I’ve a final query for Jacob, so associated to what Justin stated, was it vital for you to do one thing Australia-set or Australia-related? You’re followers clearly know you’re Australian, however lots of people wouldn’t essentially know that you’re.

ELORDI I believe the most vital factor to me was working with Kurzel, as a result of he’s like my cinema father. While you’re Australian — and I believe it’s the identical for all the boys in the present — there’s one man that you really want to work with in Australia and it’s Kurzel, so I clearly wished to come residence and work [with him].