Moran Rosenblatt – We Were the Lucky Ones

By starrymag | April 25, 2024

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) What really connected you to both this series and role?

 

A) When I received the first email about the project, I knew nothing about it. I have heard about the book but I didn’t have the chance to read it. I was shooting abroad at the time, and I had no way of finding the book. I just knew it was a New York Times bestseller that tells the story of a Jewish family in the Holocaust.  Immediately the creative beast in me woke up with this new craving, to play a character who experienced the most terrible historical event that humanity has created, an event that no matter how many films I have watched on the subject and how many books I have read, it still doesn’t make sense how it could happen. I was happy to see that it was also amazingly well-written so there was no option but to fight for this role with all the means I have, which means to do the best reading I can yes? I have no other tricks.

About the role, I actually got a request to read for Mila’s character who goes through one of the most beautiful and difficult stories in the series. There were moments when just reading the text my heart burst with emotions. Then, we had a Zoom reading together with the amazing well known creators, Erica Lipez, the showrunner, and Tommy Kail, the director, and between the readings we had a talk and my energy sent them very quickly to offer me another role. Actually, it wasn’t that fast, I waited quite a long time with enthusiasm for an answer. After a while, I was offered the role of Herta. I didn’t even ask to read some of her scenes. I immediately said yes. I trusted them. Indeed, it was an amazing role. The thing that is beautiful about Herta is what actually challenged me in this role. I had to find the humor in the pain, go against it, because Herta never dwells in pain. She goes around it like an expert. She has always high energy and maintains her playful sexual character even in the most difficult moments. That was the thing that made me fall in love with her when I was reading the scripts. So first I said yes and then I fell in love with Herta. A good method for life in general, isn’t it?

 

Q) Herta is a resilient and driven woman. What helps to sustain her in the face of adversity?

 

A) I think what helped Herta in this horrible situation was the love for her husband. This is the first thing I realized. She is head over heels in love with him. If the world was divided into two groups – the first is the people who are focused mainly on themselves and the second group mainly about others – then Herta would definitely be in the second group. I am not saying either group is best, this is just how Herta is. Her concern and dedication for her husband, her desire to make him feel good, to smile, to get him out of despair, motivates her and does not let her fall apart. At least in the beginning of the story. Later, the safety of her child also plays a big part of her motivation.

 

Q) We see such a complex character with Herta, how did you build and balance these multidimensional elements of emotionalism and gritty resolve that we see in your portrayal?

 

A) First of all, thank you. It makes me very happy that this is what you felt when you watched the series. As an actor, I always try to use emotionality only when there is no other choice. It’s this turning point which an actor reaches only when there is nothing else to do but to turn there. These are important moments, but there should be only a few of them. Also, in life of course, these are important places to go to, but you should not go there too often.

When I saw a picture of Herta and Genek in the camp as part of the archival materials, I saw a woman who could go through a lot without shedding a tear. I can’t know if I understood her correctly, but I had to trust my instincts.

When I work on a new role I try to choose a real-life reference who seems closest to the written character to help me portray the character. In the end, the character will be a mixture of me, the written character and the real-life reference. So, I looked for the liveliest sexual and feminine woman I could find and I found someone, from a reality show, funny and cool, someone I can watch all day long and make me happy. I thought about how that woman would try to rise above this terrible situation Herta was experiencing.

 

Q) How does her relationship with Genek evolve as the political tides shift?

 

A) The war begins when Genek (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Herta are still a newlywed couple. Their relationship and its foundations have not yet been established. They have no idea the magnitude of what is about to come. As a couple starting their married life together, full of life and hedonism, they never imagined that the first decade of their beautiful marriage was going to look like this. The first step is Herta’s. She is following Genek to their unknown future while carrying their baby inside of her. She had the option to save herself but without hesitation she went after him. From that moment it feels like there is nothing that can separate them, but their relationship will be put to the test many more times throughout the series.

 

Q) We see Herta as a woman, wife, and mother. What does the idea survival offer and mean for her in each aspect of her life?

 

A) I have to share that I just recently became a mother for the first time and the meaning of key concepts in life takes on a completely new meaning. As I already said, the motivation for her survival comes from these people in her life, her husband and then her baby. What I do have to say is that on many occasions, I didn’t feel that as Herta, she is in a survival mode. These people did not have the perspective of history we have today about this crazy decade, and they were not aware that this was the situation they were in.  For example, as soon as Herta and Genek arrive at the camp after weeks of traveling by train without food or drink in horrible conditions – a journey in which some of the weakest of the passengers did not even survive – me, as Herta, felt that every second now, someone will come, realize this mistake and get us out of here. and they are all going to pay for what they did. I looked at the Soviet officer standing in front of us and said to myself: “Soon you will all be fired.” This were not the thoughts I thought I would think in this situation but these are the thoughts that came in to my mind.

 

Q) The series is based on true events. What about what you both read about in Georgia Hunter’s book and your ideal of the character has really stuck with you from filming?

 

A) The birth scene, of course, but there was also a really small moment that stuck in my mind. We filmed the first scene where you see Herta in her ninth month pregnancy in the Siberian camp. She carries wood, moves it from side to side. We started filming the scene and Amit Gupta, the director, told me to walk slowly and so I did. We finished the take, and he told me to go even slower and so I did. We finished the second take, and he told me to go even more slowly, and I didn’t understand how much more slowly I can go. But as the walk became slower, I realized how hard her situation is, how exhausted and hungry and powerless she felt. This was a situation that people, human beings, forced her to be in without her doing anything to deserve it. It was a powerful moment of realization that raised a lot of anger in me but also helped me understand Herta a little more.

 

Q) The series was filmed in various European locations. Which location had the most physically challenging elements for you?

 

A) Every location surrounding snow. I live in Israel and there is almost no snow here. In Tel Aviv, my hometown, the last time it snowed was sometime in the 1950’s. But the wardrobe department took such a good care of us that the cold was somehow bearable.

 

Q) This is such an amazing talented cast who brought a lot of heartfelt poignancy to such an intense series. What are some moments between the cast from filming that are memorable for you?

 

A) Our legendary director Thomas Kail brought us all together for a respectable amount of time before the filming for rehearsals and actually for us to bond. For about a month we went out every night to a different restaurant in Bucharest, which by the way has a really good culinary scene, so by the end of this month when we started shooting the pilot, we were very close.

Also, we finished the last month of filming in Spain to shoot the warmer locations and in the last week Helina’s real-life daughter came to see the set (Helina is played brilliantly by Joey King in the series) and after everything we went through suddenly the real daughter of this amazing woman arrived. It was a surreal moment and one to remember.

And actually every moment with Henry, my amazing partner. We became best friends. We talked about everything, we ate together, we laughed together, we did almost everything together. We made a real friendship that was created instantly.

 

Q) What kind of feedback about the series have you received from friends and family who have watched?

 

A) The series hasn’t been screened in Israel yet, so my family and friends here are eagerly waiting and looking forward to watching it. Friends and family in the US were amazed by the project and told me they felt really emotional to watch it.

 

Q) Why are shows like “We Were the Lucky Ones” so important to watch and reflect on as it puts a lens on such significant historical events?

 

A) I believe it is important to know how evil humanity can get but on the other hand to know how much strength and resilience humanity can have, a strength driven by love and devotion to your family.

 

Q) What do you hope that viewers take away from watching this poignant series?

 

A) I hope that the viewers will fall in love with the characters and will be able to identify with them in the full sense no matter what origin or religion they are from.

 

Q) What are the other projects that you have been busy working on?

 

A) In the last year, I have worked on the most important project of my life – raising my newborn baby. I also had another baby – I had the chance to create a short narrative film I wrote and directed and is soon to be ready to go out into the world. In addition, there are three projects I was a part of that are now being distributed in the US and across the world: the films In Bed by Nitzan Gilady, Kiss Me Kosher by Shirel Peleg and also the Argentine TV series for Amazon Prime “Yosi, the Regretful Spy.”

 

Q) What would you like to say to fans and supporters of the work you do?

 

A) Like the title of a very beautiful Australian TV series – “Please Like Me.”