12 Things You Need To Know About 'Shadow And Bone' In The *Words* Of The Cast Themselves!
Shadow And Bone, a new series based on Leigh Bardugo's much-loved Grishaverse novels, dropped on Netflix yesterday, April 23. The author herself was hands-on in the process and took an executive producer role for the show adaptation. It is fantasy and feminism and magic all rolled into one, and with amazing costumes to boot!
A bit of background for the uninitiated: Jessie Mei Li plays Alina Starkov, an unassuming orphaned girl who later discovers she is destined for greatness. Archie Renaux plays Alina's childhood best friend, Malyen Oretsev, a fellow orphan and budding love interest. And then there is Ben Barnes—everyone's fantasy fave—who plays the mysterious General Kirigan (also known as The Darkling!), the third person in this inevitable love triangle.
In a roundtable interview with Netflix, Cosmopolitan Philippines got the chance to talk to all three about what it was like working on the show! Here's what they shared with us:
1. Ben was more involved in the development of the characters this time around!
Ben: "Eric [Heisserer, the showrunner], who is an incredibly collaborative, open, wonderful, genius writer, he would sit down with me and ask what I thought of different things, especially with the character, the scenes, and the language. My preoccupation and my passion is words. It always has been. It's important to me to have a say in how we tell a story."
2. Jessie powered through a fever while filming some scenes, and of course her own mother could tell.
Jessie: "It's a scene where Alina and Kirigan have just got off their horse and have a conversation on the hillside. Myself, Ben, and all the crew, we went to the middle of nowhere to this beautiful hillside. And I was really ill! In fact, if you listen very carefully throughout the series, there were many scenes where I'm unwell.
"There's a couple of times watching it with my mum where she was going 'I can see you've got a fever in this scene.' (laughs)"
3. Ben and Archie's characters' dynamic was kind of déjà vu.
Ben: "I was sort of seducing his mother in [2019 UK mini-series] Gold Digger. For us to be campaigning over this beautiful, wonderful young woman (Alina) in this story was an interesting escalation of the fight, really."
Archie: "We were fighting over the attention of a woman again, so it seems to be a recurring theme that we're always against each other. Hopefully one day, we'll get to do something where we're actually friends. That would be nice!"
4. Jessie loves how the show portrays female characters! #feministaf
Jessie: "The female characters are like real women that you know, who are strong and funny and brave and independent. So often, you might see a female character onscreen who's just, like, stupidly strong and stupidly brave without any flaws, but I think we get to see the nuances in these characters. We get to see what they really care about as well. And they have a voice, especially in scenes with male characters. We don't feel the difference there. And I think that's just really nice and really well done. Very feminist."
5. Similarly, having Alina as a mixed-race character felt more personal to Jessie, who was born to an English mother and a Chinese father.
Jessie: "I think the decision to make Alina mixed-race was such a smart choice. I think it adds to the world-building. I think it adds to her character. I was able to bring parts of my life that I haven't really ever been able to express to this character in her—her vulnerability, her wariness of new people, and then her eventual kind of strength that she built up to. And I really like the way that they've done it. I like that her race is spoken about, and we see the difficulties she has but also that it’s not everything. It's not the point of it. It's not all that she is. She is a person, first and foremost, and I think that the way that they've done that is really important to me."
6. Not unlike Mal and Alina, Archie and Jessie are super close!
Jessie: "A lot of us are the same sort of age. Lots of us were British. We all just made good friends, like, straight up!"
Archie: "Being out in a foreign country just put us all together. It was a really good time. It was a good six months. Everyone's fantastic in the show as well. We're all, like, jealous of each other's work and each other's biggest fans."
7. Archie thinks Mal is a braver, cooler version of him.
Archie: "I think [Mal] is a lot braver than I am. If I got asked to go through the Shadow Fold, I’d probably just be like, 'Nah. I don't want to be in the army anymore.' I wouldn't want to do that! But he's very selfless and courageous and probably a lot better at fighting than I am. He's just a bit cooler than me. Mal is really cool, actually."
8. Ben used a stolen kefta to make sure the showrunner stays inspired for future (unconfirmed) seasons!?
Ben: "I managed to pilfer one of those keftas. I put it on a giant black mannequin, and I put it in the showrunner's office where he's currently trying to come up with ideas for future seasons. So, I put it in the corner of his office to make him feel like I'm watching over him at all times."
9. Not that she needed much help, but Jessie had props to help visualize Alina's sun-summoning powers.
Jessie: "I had LED lights that were wired through my costume, so I had something to imagine when the lights actually worked. Sometimes it would be funny—I would have to do a movement, and then a lightbulb with a stick would come into my peripheral vision. But mostly, you get so immersed in this world. Everyone took it so seriously, and really, really, loved it, so it was easy just to completely throw yourself in."
10. Jessie got to keep those props and… secretly took home some small items as a souvenir.
Jessie: "The gaffers gave me my lighting LED palm lights at the end of our shoot. I quite often snuck onto set on my days off, so I went to visit the crows during their Crow Club scenes, and I did make off with a couple of poker chips and coins. You just have to!"
11. Ben wishes he had more help visualizing The Darkling's powers!
Ben: "I think everyone else got a better deal than me in terms of practical effects on the day. They would turn on these huge wind turbines for the Squallers, and people would be pulled on wires. The Inferni would flick their wrists and something would be set on fire. Even Jessie would have these little wires into her hands where she would make a movement and her hands would glow. For me, I would just do this (makes a hand movement) and they'd turn down the lights a bit. So, I had to rely on special effects and just turning down the lights. But I guess if you're afraid of the dark, then that's very scary!"
12. From the moment he first saw them, Ben knew which actor was cast as whom.
Ben: "I was one of the last people to arrive in Budapest. They were all sitting there, the other five protagonists—Freddie [Carter, who plays Kaz], Archie, Amita [Suman, who plays Inej], Kit [Young, who plays Jesper], and Jessie—and I walked in, and within 10 seconds of processing, I knew who was playing who. They leap off the pages and into my story, into my feverish Grisha dreams. Suddenly, they're there.
"I think I've imbued them all with the powers of their characters in real life and fallen deeply in love with all of them. I just love them to bits."
In case it wasn't already obvious, this entire show is made up of a group of talented actors with just so much love, respect, and admiration for each other. And that's the sort of natural, unspoken chemistry that you can feel when you're watching a show like this!
A second season remains unconfirmed at this time, but obviously, we're keeping all our fingers crossed for that. For now, we have all of Season 1 to look forward to.
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Source: Cosmo PH
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