Owner of a career as a director marked by success that includes blockbusters such as Free Guy, the Night at the Museum trilogy and the remake of The Pink Panther, Canadian Shawn Levy is also a respected producer who was nominated for an Oscar for Arrival. And although his career is mostly cinematic, he has played a very important role in the global phenomenon called Stranger Things. That is why it is not surprising that he was chosen by Anthony Doerr to adapt to the screen his Pulitzer-winning novel The Light You Can't See, which Netflix releases tomorrow. During the last Toronto Festival, Shawn talked about the four-episode miniseries starring newcomer Aria Mia Loberti accompanied by Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie and Lars Eidinger.
What made you want to adapt this novel as a miniseries?
I have four daughters. When I read the book I had less. But The Light You Can't See is a very powerful love story between father and daughter. Daniel is willing to do whatever it takes, not only to protect her daughter, but to prepare her so she can defend herself in front of the world. His blindness is only part of that. He wants her to feel powerful, which is exactly what I want for my daughters. And that's something that's in Anthony Doerr's book and Steven Knight's adaptation. The series is interested in ideas and emotions. It is not intended to be an essay on conceptual notions. It points to feelings, to the capacity for connection between a father and a daughter, between a German boy and his sister. The scene in which Jutta and Werner say goodbye for the last time moved me when I read it in the book and then the same thing happened to me when I read it in the script. Let's not even talk about the day we filmed it. This series allowed me the luxury of combining the intimate and the epic, the conceptual and the emotional. It was a true buffet of opportunities for a storyteller and a filmmaker.
How difficult was it to find your cast?
With Mark and Hugh it didn't take long. I had just finished a movie, The Adam Project, a time travel story in which Ruffalo played Ryan Reynolds' father. Mark exudes an innate and endearing fatherly warmth. That's why I knew I wanted him to play Daniel. And Hugh Laurie is so talented that he would include him in everything I do. I tried to convince Adam Driver to play Von Rumpel, but he was exhausted after four months of filming Background Noise with Noah Baumbach. And he was the one who recommended me to Lars Eidinger, a German actor famous in his country for his interpretation of Hamlet but who is little known here. We had a meeting over Zoom and he asked me to read three lines of speech to find out which actor was perfect for the role.
¿Y Aria Mia Lobarti?
The amazing thing about her is that this young girl had never acted before. She hadn't even auditioned. And every day of filming she had to learn as she performed in front of hundreds of people, something that would be chilling for anyone. That's how it was for Aria for several months, but she said it from the beginning, that we shouldn't worry about her feelings, because she wanted to try to do things very well and she was interested in receiving all the help we could give her. And that's what I did. Her interpretation is the result of that commitment and her intelligence.
But you also learned from her...
That's how it is. Every day we came across details in the character's behavior, where in the book she said one thing and in the script another, but it was she who guided us on how things should be done. Not only did I learn from her experiences as a legally blind person, but she even changed my way of directing, because she made me more aware of the words I say and how I have to use them on set.
In what sense?
I've already had three films in a row with Ryan Reynolds and with him it's enough for me to make a gesture so he knows what I need him to do. But that didn't work with Aria. I had to get up from my chair and go to where they were doing the scene instead of giving directions from the monitor. I had to stand 30 centimeters from where she was and speak in a low enough tone so that the entire technical team could not hear me. She basically said it in his ear. And she not only paid attention to my words, which she had to be very selective with, but she also paid attention to how she said them. And that's how we found a language to understand each other, not only with Aria but also with Nell, who plays Marie-Laure as a child. And that language was something new for me, in my life and in my profession. And that's why I have to say that filming “The Light You Can't See” was not simply a job for me, but a life experience.
