Unlocking the past
Author Heather Morris persevered for more than a decade to share Lali Sokolov’s account of the Holocaust. With her bestselling book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, now a six-part series, Morris shares her own journey with Siobhan Duck
PRIDE. Joy. Excitement. Author Heather Morris experienced complex emotions watching her first book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, on-screen for the first time.
But perhaps the most overwhelming feeling has been relief. Relief that – after 18 long years – Morris has finally fulfilled the pledge she made to Lali Sokolov, the man at the heart of her story.
“The last thing I said to him – two hours before he died [in October 2006] – was that I would never stop trying to tell his story,” Morris says of the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who entrusted her with his honest and heartwrenching account of his time at Auschwitz.
Realising that Sokolov’s story was important, Morris urged him to engage a professional writer, but he batted her away saying firmly: “No!
No! I know that you can do it.”
And so, despite her limited experiences and distinct lack of contacts, Morris persevered out of love and respect for Sokolov.
It would be more than a decade before Morris published The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
And a further eight before Sokolov’s powerful story of finding love with wife Gita in the darkest of places was adapted into this six-part series for Stan.
Morris and Sokolov had originally envisaged the story as a film. Unable to get any interest in her screenplay for more than a decade, Morris followed her sister-in-law’s advice to “just write the bloody thing as a book and get on with it.”
“I thought, well, I can do that. And if I printed 100 copies, and gave them away to friends, I would have fulfilled my promise,” she explains of penning her book.
That book would go on to become a New York Times bestseller, touching the hearts of more than 3 million readers and studied in high schools around the world.
Now, having finally made it to the screen, Morris is delighted Sokolov’s story will reach an even broader audience. And she knows her friend would be too.
“The first thing he would say was: ‘You got it right’,” she smiles.
“He kept telling me how he was a good-looking young boy, and he was adamant I had to get a goodlooking boy to play him. He thought Brad Pitt would be perfect, but that was 20 years ago.
“Then he fell in love with Ryan Gosling. Those two [Pitt and Gosling] might be good-looking men. But Jonah Hauer-King [who plays the young Sokolov in the series] better fits that title, of a good-looking young boy.”
In addition to detailing Sokolov’s experiences during World War II, the TV series offers insight into the elderly man that Morris came to know so well.
Unlike the book, the series is set in 2004 where Morris first meets the grieving widower Sokolov, his love story with Gita unfolding as flashbacks shared during their conversations.
Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets) plays Morris, while the role of Sokolov is taken on by Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Keitel.
It was Morris’ idea to weave her meetings with Sokolov into the series to bring some levity to the experience.
“Because you have Lali and I, or Melanie and Harvey, whatever you want to call it, and we were just these people in Melbourne living our lives,” she explains.
“And we laughed, and we went out and had coffee and ate ice creams. We went to shows and movies.
“[Showing that] changed the emotional arc of just being continuously in that evil place [of Auschwitz].”
Meeting both Keitel and Lynskey was surreal for Morris.
Initially it was hard to imagine Keitel – who played tough guys in The Piano, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs – as a frail elderly man haunted by his past.
Upon meeting Keitel, Morris learned of his deep personal connection to the role as the son of a Romanian mother and Polish father.
“And so, he had this real intimate connection with Eastern Europeans and Slovakia is sandwiched by those two countries,” she explains.
“And to hear a little bit about his growing up as this young Jewish man in New York with these Eastern European parents made it all the more real – that he was perfect.”
Morris enthuses that this could be a career-best performance for Keitel.
“He was determined to nail it and he did. And whether it’s a swan song, I don’t know, but he’s 85 now.”
Likewise, Lynskey was eager to do the story justice and was shaking with nerves when she started.
“I don’t know who was more frightened – her of me or me of her,” Morris laughs, explaining Lynskey felt an added weight of responsibility in playing a real person.
The writer’s family quickly put the actress’ mind at ease, when Morris’ adult son greeted Lynskey with outstretched arms, addressing her jokingly as “Mummy!”
The crew weren’t as ready to accept Lynskey as Morris.
“I had to point out to them:
‘Come on, it was 20 years ago when I was younger’,” Morris laughs of being played by Lynskey.
“Give me a break! We’re not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes by having this young actress playing me. Although I know that Hollywood can do that.”
Having now watched the entire
series, Morris is proud that her friendship with Sokolov features prominently in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, if only to inspire others to follow her lead and “just listen”.
“Don’t get distracted when someone’s talking to you,” she enthuses.
“Learn that dying art of, well – I think it’s called – active listening.
“Because when you do shut up and listen, and you’re not distracted, it’s the only time you hear. Not only the words, but if you’re looking at the person, you’re interpreting their body language. You’re seen the emotions on the face, every aspect of them and the layers of the story that they’re telling you.
“And that’s what I got spending all that time with Lali.”
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, streaming from Thursday, May 2, Stan