Lou Llobell Interview Foundation

Lou Llobell Interview: Foundation

Screen Rant speaks exclusively to industry newcomer Lou Llobell about her role in David Goyer’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation.

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Lou Llobell Interview Foundation

Industry newcomer Lou Llobell has a starring role in Foundation, Apple TV+’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s epic. A saga that spans a millennium, Foundation can be compared to a cosmic game of chess in which two parties – an Emperor who resists change, and a mathematician who seeks to control change – battle for the fate of the galaxy. Asimov’s novels and short stories are tremendously ambitious, and as a result, an adaptation has never really gotten off the ground before – until now, with the advent of long-format TV shows on streaming platforms.

Gaal Dornick is a key player in the story of Foundation, a gifted mathematician who serves as something of a protégé to mathematical genius Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). Showrunner David Goyer has adapted the role significantly from the books, gender-swapping it and turning Gaal into a much more three-dimensional character. Foundation boasts an accomplished cast, including the likes of Lee Pace and Jared Harris, but for Gaal, he has cast industry newcomer Lou Llobell, with this sci-fi TV series serving as her big break.

Screen Rant had an exclusive opportunity to speak to Lou Llobell about the role and about their experience filming Foundation given the context of the pandemic. They reflected on the quality of the writings, the lessons they’d learned from the cast, and their most memorable experience.

Screen Rant: To start things off, could you tell us a little bit about your character in the show?

Lou Llobell: My character’s name is Gaal Dornick, she is a young woman who is super-intelligent, super-smart – I mean both with mathematics and science, but also she’s got a high emotional intelligence, which is pretty amazing. She comes from a rural planet, it’s a water planet called Synnax, on the outskirts of the universe, and she solves an unsolvable proof and gets invited to Trantor to work with Hari Seldon, who is one of her idols, a mathematician who she looks up to. And then her journey begins, and it’s pretty incredible.

Voyagers is your only acting credit to date. Is it exciting landing a role on such a big show like this, or did you feel any pressure from it?

Lou Llobell: Yes, I did, but I was also just so grateful to have the opportunity – I’ve wanted to act since I can remember, and it’s something I’ve worked very hard for. For this to be my first big role, I’m so grateful, and I hope that I’ve been able to do this role justice.

What did it feel like to actually get that role, to be told you were in Foundation?

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Lou Llobell: Yeah, it was amazing. The audition process, we had a five-day test weekend thing, and it was quite overwhelming, but also some of the most amazing days that I’ve had in my career. Shortly after I landed back in London, two or three days later, David [Goyer] called me at 7 in the morning, and I had to say like I’d been awake already. He was like, “Are you awake?” I was, “Yeah, yeah,” you know, and I called my agent afterward, and we were crying to each other, it was just amazing. I’ll never forget that day.

That sounds wonderful, it really does. Now, as is common with Isaac Asimov’s characters, in the books Gaal is quite a cerebral figure. How did you develop Gaal into someone who’s a bit more three-dimensional as a character?

Lou Llobell: I think the fact she’s a lot more fleshed-out in the series helps. I think David Goyer and the writing team have really, really done an amazing job with putting all these characters onto paper and, reading those scripts, and being able to see exactly what it is they have tried to build for these characters. I also think Gaal’s just like a normal young woman, she goes through love and family, and has all these things on top of being super-smart and having this really fast brain, I think she is a real human being with emotions and goes through real situations like you and I probably have been through, or will go through in our lives.

Lou Llobell Interview Foundation

How much say did you have in shaping Gaal as a character?

Lou Llobell: As much as any actor, I suppose. We’ve got it in our hands, we take what is given to us, and we mold it into our own and take a little piece of ourselves, and a little piece of our experiences, and try and make it one big thing. And that’s exactly what I hope I’ve done well.

You are early on in your career, and you’re working with quite a few experienced veterans in this show. Did any of them give you any advice, or did you learn anything particular from them?

Lou Llobell: All of them were amazing. I mean, I worked with Jared [Harris] quite a bit, and he was always very forthcoming with answering my questions, making me feel settled when I was a bit nervous, and Lee [Pace] also has been amazing behind-the-scenes. We talk a lot, and it’s so wonderful to have such experienced people there to answer any questions I may have along the way.

Avoiding spoilers, what would you say was the most challenging scene for you to shoot?

Lou Llobell: So difficult with that. Avoiding spoilers! I will say… most difficult, the scenes I still enjoy the most filming, are probably the underwater scenes. We got to film quite a lot underwater, and it was an amazing experience, something I loved to do, some of my best days on set. I was exhausted afterward because my body was drained, but those were some of the best scenes I think.

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In terms of the research that you did on this, did you go through the books or did you prefer to work from the script and build from there?

Lou Llobell: I think the latter; I preferred to work from the scripts. I did read the first couple of books, and I really did enjoy them, I think because of the parallels between those and the scripts. You can just see where David got all the ideas from and where the script comes to life even more. But the scripts were just so wonderful, they were just a joy to read.

There are so many different planets and worlds in Foundation. What would you say was your favorite place for filming in real life?

Lou Llobell: I would have to say probably Malta, because that’s where we filmed Synnax, in these massive water-tanks, and it made me cry actually seeing Gaal’s homeworld come to life, and seeing all these amazing extras in outfits, and people from where she really is from, and I didn’t have to imagine very much – it was really quite impressive.

Obviously, you were filming this under some very strange circumstances. How did the pandemic affect production?

Lou Llobell: Oh, it was a very unique experience, I enjoyed every single second of it. And I’m very grateful that we got to work and travel and be able to produce this show under the circumstances. I hope that people will enjoy it, and I think it’s going to be a pretty amazing ten episodes’ worth of footage and hard work.

What would you say is the most challenging working with sci-fi environments?

Lou Llobell: I think everything that you would assume, I mean working with green-screens and stuff is what you would assume would be difficult, but we had very little green-screen actually, and we were just so lucky to have so many people working on this that could build the most incredible sets, that were so realistic; and we were on these amazing locations, and with this great costumes on, you didn’t have to imagine very much, and I think that was something that surprised me because it wasn’t what I expected.

Screen Rant: So – what’s next for you now with Foundation, have you got anything else in the works off the back of this?

Lou Llobell: You know, we’ll see! We’ll see what comes along.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/foundation-show-apple-tv-lou-llobell-interview/

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