{"id":569590,"date":"2023-04-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/meet-lucas-englander-the-chameleon-of-transatlantic\/"},"modified":"2023-04-10T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T08:00:00","slug":"meet-lucas-englander-the-chameleon-of-transatlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/meet-lucas-englander-the-chameleon-of-transatlantic\/","title":{"rendered":"#Meet Lucas Englander, the \u201cChameleon\u201d of \u2018Transatlantic\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n In the first half hour of Netflix series Transatlantic<\/em>, we get a sense of the range of Lucas Englander.<\/p>\n

\n When we meet the Austrian actor, who plays Albert Hirschman in Netflix\u2019s new international series<\/a>, he\u2019s a bedraggled refugee, stumbling down the hill towards the beach at Marseilles, the \u201clast free port\u201d in Nazi-occupied France, circa 1940. Spotting the waters of the Mediterranean, he stops. Then breaks into a run. Hitting the beach, he strip<\/a>s off his grimy clothes and plunges into the water, letting out a whoop of pure joy, like a child on the first day of summer. A few scenes later, Englander plays Hirschman as the suave Lothario. In a bluff to get past a checkpoint, he pretends to be the lover of American heiress Mary Jayne Gold (Gillian Jacobs), who he met moments earlier, wrapp<\/a>ing his arm around her and giving her a brazen smooch. Later, Englander as Hirschman goes full Nazi: impersonating a Gestapo agent, he screams (in German) at a pair of French border guards about to arrest refugees trying to escape. The ploy works: the browbeaten \u201cflics\u201d scuttle away, tails between their legs. <\/p>\n

\n As the series progresses, we see the many faces of Hirschman, aka Englander: as negotiator and go-between for the American-led Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), helping fellow refugees escape Nazi terror in the 1940s. As a makeshift spy, helping to spring English soldiers from a German POW camp. As a would-be revolutionary, planting bombs and staging attacks on Nazi targets. <\/p>\n

\n Community<\/em> alum Jacobs and Cory Michael Smith (Gotham<\/em>, Carol<\/em>), who plays Varian Fry, the American journalist who led the ERC effort in Marseilles, are the \u201cstars\u201d of Transatlantic<\/em>, but Englander is the show\u2019s true revelation. The 30-year-old actor has had a handful of bit roles in big productions \u2014 on Sky\u2019s Catherine The Great<\/em>, Netflix\u2019s The Witcher<\/em> and in Warner Bros.\u2019 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore<\/em>. But Transatlantic<\/em> marks his first leading role in a major series.<\/p>\n

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\"Jacob<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

Jacob Englander and Gillian Jacobs in \u2018Transatlantic\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Anika Molnar\/Netflix<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n Even in Europe, Englander is largely unknown. His most prominent roles to date have come in France: in Parlament<\/em>, a satire on European Union politics \u2014 think Veep<\/em> for the EU \u2014 that streams on French VOD service france.tv, and in Marc Fitoussi\u2019s 2020 French thriller Appearances<\/em>. In the former, he plays the unctuous political assistant Torsten Muckenstrum. In Appearances<\/em>, in a performance that got him shortlisted for France\u2019s C\u00e9sar award for best newcomer, he plays a seemingly ordinary young man who romances Karin Viard, before revealing himself to be a stalking psychopath. <\/p>\n

\n Transatlantic<\/em> co-creator and showrunner Anna Winger says she cast Englander as Albert Hirschman after a single Zoom call, without having seen any of his previous performances. <\/p>\n

\n Watching Transatlantic<\/em>, it\u2019s not hard to see why. While the actor says he had \u201czero knowledge\u201d of Hirschman before reading the series\u2019 script, his and Hirschman\u2019s family histories are closely intertwined. <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy grandfather was a World War II refugee to the United States. He was a quarter Jewish, but that was too Jewish for the Nazis. He worked with the rescue committee to help Austrian immigrants escape,\u201d says Englander. \u201cThe stories from my family are very similar to Hirschman\u2019s. I can understand Albert\u2019s energy, that desire to help and try and do something good, but also that vengeance and anger, the burning to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Just how close Englander\u2019s performance is to the real Hirschman, and how close the series aligns with the historical record, is a bit beside the point. Transatlantic<\/em>, from the producers of the Emmy-winning Unorthodox<\/em>, takes inspiration from the incredible history of the ERC \u2014 the group helped more than 2,000 refugees emigrate \u2014 but the show, which premiered on Netflix April 7, is self-consciously fiction. Inspired by Julie Orringer\u2019s novel The Flight Portfolio<\/em>, the series borrows heavily from the romantic melodramas and screwball comedies of 1940s Hollywood (many of which were created by recent WWII emigres). We even get a scene with Englander, as Hirschman, donning a bellhop uniform to avoid detection by the Wehrmacht: more Jerry Lewis than docu-drama. <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s fiction, I attached myself to the experience of the script, and didn\u2019t try to create an imitation of the real man,\u201d says Englander. \u201cI watched a video of him from a court trial after the war, a trial of a Nazi general<\/a> where Hirschman was a translator, but that was just to get an idea of his voice, how does he roll his Rs, how good is his English, that sort of thing. But we changed things. The real Albert spoke fluent French, almost without an accent. Our Albert speaks very good English but not that great French. I see him, much like myself, as someone who, because they\u2019ve traveled around so much, are able to be a chameleon in language.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n Englander\u2019s English, like his fictionalized Hirschman, has a clear American tilt, a result of his time at the Stella Adler Studio in New York. \u201cI spent a half-hour every day just working on my accent, it was part of trying to assimilate and adapt to the culture,\u201d he notes. His French is similarly impressive. In Parlament<\/em>, Torsten\u2019s sarcastic barbs are equally sharp when delivered in English, French, or German. Over the course of Transatlantic<\/em>, Hirschman\u2019s accent subtly shifts, depending on what language he\u2019s speaking and who he\u2019s speaking to. <\/p>\n

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\"Lucas<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

Lucas Englander<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeanne Boulet<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cPeople might see that as a mistake, but it\u2019s something I did deliberately, because it is what happens, when you speak different languages and you are among people who speak differently,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have a good ear, you start to change your accent to match who you\u2019re talking to.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n But Englander doesn\u2019t view acting as a way to hide his true identity. In fact, he says, for him performing has always been a way of revealing inner truths. <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI started acting when I was about 19 years old. It happened by accident,\u201d he recalls. \u201cMy teacher chose me to do an improvisation in front of the whole class. It was about a subject very close to me and, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was being really truthful. Not trying to please society, or be strong, or an alpha male, or whatever. I felt my life up to then \u2014 I\u2019m 30 now but I was born in Vienna and I grew up in a very patriarchal society where I was taught that being strong meant don\u2019t show weakness, don\u2019t show pain \u2014 had been pretending. That improvisation was the first grain of deconstruction, of allowing myself out of the box I\u2019d been put into. I came right home and told my mum: I want to be an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n While he didn\u2019t take a method approach to recreating Albert Hirschman for Transatlantic<\/em>, Englander says the role has had a direct impact on his life. He\u2019s joined the International Rescue Committee \u2014 the successor group to the ERC \u2014 and become involved in Serve the City Paris, a group that helps asylum seekers, refugees, the homeless and underprivileged living in the French capital.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve become, in the words of Albert Hirschman, a \u2018possible-ist,\u2019 which is different from being an optimist,\u201d says Englander. \u201cI think we can be blinded by optimism. What I\u2019ve learned from Albert is that we need to look at reality, at the dirty notions that are inside of us and are in our society, and work on that together. It\u2019s a big thing to say but this series has changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n