Skarsgard gets the ‘Girl’ in spy thriller
Le Carre adaptation puts ‘normal’ Pugh in new world
You didn’t think John le Carre would make it easy, did you?
Two years after the British literary giant’s swoony spy thriller “The Night Manager,” starring Tom Hiddleston, landed stateside, another twisty le Carre classic has gotten the TV treatment. AMC’s six-episode “The Little Drummer Girl” (Monday through Wednesday, 9 EST/PST), adapted from the 1983 novel, stars newcomer Florence Pugh (”Lady Macbeth”) as plucky young actress Charlie Ross, who meets a mysterious man named Gadi Becker (Alexander Skarsgard) while vacationing in Greece, only to discover he’s an Israeli intelligence officer. His mission: to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell by impersonating a young revolutionary named Michel, with Charlie playing the role of his girlfriend.
Inching closer to their target Khalil (Charif Ghattas), the terrorists’ evasive ringleader, Charlie is trained to be a bomber and taken to a Palestinian refugee camp, where her eyes are opened to the other side’s plight.
If you’re already confused, there’s no reason to fret: “The most important thing about this series is that it’s supposed to be complicated,” Pugh says. “It’s supposed to be a world that we don’t know, so I hope people give it time.”
Pugh, 22, and Skarsgard, 42, share more intel on what to expect from the 1970s drama:
Question: How familiar were you with John le Carre’s work before signing on?
Alexander Skarsgard: My dad loved “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.” That was basically his introduction to literature when he was a teenager, and so he passed that along to me when I was a teenager. It was the first espionage novel I ever read, and I thought it was amazing. I read a couple of other John le Carre novels, like “A Perfect Spy,” but I had not read “The Little Drummer Girl.”
Q: What specific qualities drew you to your characters?
Florence Pugh: I liked the fact that she is like everyone I know. We’re at a time right now where pretty much every female character you read is magnificent in some way, and I found it quite interesting that she was a very normal human being in this totally surreal world. That was the thing that drew me in, really, and was quite interesting to play.
Skarsgard: (Becker) is very enigmatic, and it creates a certain moral ambiguity, because part of his job is coaching Charlie. He has to play the part of Michel, so when they’re creating this fictional love story to keep Charlie safe, she has to really fall in love with Michel. In doing that, Becker has to really convey Michel and make her understand the suffering of (the Palestinian) people. He gets conflicted, because he himself was an Israeli soldier and is forced to walk in the shoes of someone he doesn’t understand, but slowly starts to. It blurs the line between good and evil.
Q: How does Charlie’s dynamic with Becker shift once she realizes he has recruited her to go undercover?
Pugh: The whole play between him and her is complicated. We’re scared for her because she’s obviously being played, but the whole point of the storyline is you don’t know what’s truth and what’s lies. Ultimately, Charlie represents the complexity of that situation, and how someone feels once they’ve discovered or been educated about a certain side (of a political conflict). That’s where the relationship gets confused.
Q: What was it like getting to shoot at the Acropolis in Athens, where Becker and Charlie go on a late-night date in the first episode?
Skarsgard: No one has gotten a permit to shoot up there in 80 years, so I just assumed we’d be shooting (that scene) on a little hill somewhere with a green screen. It was not lost on us how privileged we were, to be there on our own (and) not surrounded by thousands of tourists. I’ll never forget, toward the end of the night we did our last couple of shots: Flo and I were sitting and talking, and we have our first kiss as the sun was rising. We could see it come up over the mountains and light up the Acropolis in gold. It was the most magical thing I’ve ever seen.
Q: How do you feel you’d personally fare as a double agent?
Pugh: Oh, God, I’d be the worst spy ever. I’d just feel too guilty that I was lying to everyone.