Carnival Row stars: “Episodic TV tells deeper story”
August 29, 2019
By Nik Roseveare
Amazon rolled out the red carpet for the London premiere of its latest big budget fantasy-drama Carnival Row on August 28th, and lead stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne took to the stage to discuss their roles in the production.
Speaking to Edith Bowman, Bloom explained why he was drawn to the project, and how it differs from his usual occupational space of a movie set.
“As an actor […] to be able to dive into something that’s episodic you know so you have the opportunity to explore that character,” said Bloom. “This is sort of my first time in that in that TV space and I mean I think you know it really felt like an eight hour movie to be honest. It was so they spared no expense to bring absolutely everything to the screen. And as it, you know, in a way, you get to tease a character out so you sort of don’t have to show your hand too soon.”
“It was wonderful to be able to have those sort of secrets that sort of dawns with the shadow as it were the shadow self of the character and then knowing what was sort of coming you can kind of you can structure it a little bit you can think about where you’re gonna be going”, he added.
It’s difficult to disagree with Bloom’s assertions, as more and more A-list Hollywood talent step off the big screen and are drawn into TV – a move the likes of Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Tom Hardy, Steve Carell, Johan Hill, Emma Stone, Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and countless others have all made in recent times. It’s a key reason why this period is so often referred to as “a golden age of television”.
Adding her thoughts on benefits of an episodic production, Delevingne said: “I’m actually so glad that it is episodic because I think with something that is this important especially with the social commentary and the love story and the crime aspect but it’s a lot to digest and I think people are scared to have this conversation because people want to be ignorant about how many people are struggling in this world right now. And I think it’s a great way especially since it is episode by episode where each episode ends and you can have a conversation about … [If] you have a movie watching maybe even two hours and you probably talk about it 10 minutes at dinner and that’s it.”
“Whereas this – it kind of like it does, you know, tease it out and it does like let it in in a way that you can’t help but just feel so much,” she added.
The first season of Carnival Row – consisting of 8 episodes – debuts on Amazon Prime Video on August 30th. A second season has already been greenlit, and Bloom confirmed that filming will commence in Prague next month.