Why “Lessons in Chemistry” star Lewis Pullman likes to think of Calvin and Elizabeth as “aliens” [Exclusive Video Interview] – GoldDerby (2024)

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In Lessons in Chemistry, Calvin Evans loves to turn up the jazz music and have his own space while he works – but what does the ideal work environment look like for the man who plays him? “Creating the perfect work environment is different for everyone. I think it might also vary depending on the project or depending on how it is sometimes when I read a script that I’m not involved in, but I [want to] “When I delve into the world of screenwriting, I try to find a soundtrack to a film that feels similar and listen to it. Usually I prefer one without lyrics because it throws me off a bit,” Lewis Pullman Stocks with Gold Derby (Watch the exclusive video interview above). “I ignore all the naysayers who say you shouldn't work in bed. I love reading scripts or writing in my diary in bed. And I love the couch – the couch with the dog… But I couldn't play jazz music.”

When Pullman took on the role of Calvin, the star researcher at the Hastings Research Institute who falls in love with Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), a brilliant chemist who works as a lab technician in Hastings, was only scheduled to appear in three episodes of the eight-part Apple TV+ drama. Bonnie Garmus' bestseller, on which the series is based, kills Calvin early in its run, at the end of the second episode, when the scientist is hit by a bus while out with his and Elizabeth's newly adopted dog, Six Thirty. But showrunner Lee Eisenberg was so impressed with Pullman's early work on the series that he decided to write Calvin into more episodes, including the seventh, which deals with his backstory. Pullman, of course, shot the first two episodes before reading the script for the seventh, so he and Sarah Adina Smithwho directed the first two films had their own ideas to fill in some of the gaps in Calvin's story.

“It was cool to be able to fill in those gaps without knowing whether we would explore them or not – I mean, we did it in the foreword that we were not I'll be able to explore it, but we wanted to incorporate all the fringe aspects of storytelling so that it bubbles outside the box – and that was really helpful,” says the actor. “Sarah is just such an eager, smart collaborator, and she's such a good filmmaker and her instinct to do that – I'm just so grateful that she took the time to do that with me and that she had such good ideas, [Calvin]. And there are a lot of little crumbs and Easter eggs in the book that we used about Calvin. And then we had to cut some of it out, and some of it we kept for later. But I think in many ways Lee Eisenberg … had such a good idea of ​​who Calvin was and what translated well to the screen.”

SEE Interview with “Lessons in Chemistry” director Sarah Adina Smith: Filming the shocking incident in Episode 2

The seventh episode, aptly titled “Book of Calvin,” not only provides a comprehensive backstory for Calvin, but also provides a sense of closure for viewers who may still be reeling from the character's shocking death at this point. However, Pullman initially had mixed feelings about Calvin being thrust into the spotlight like this, especially so late in the series.

“I was really, really excited to keep working on the show because it was such a fun group of people and such a fun story and one of my favorite characters. But I was nervous when we added the seventh episode,” he admits. “The structure of this show is so unique and it works so well that it's almost like a little movie for the first two episodes and then you really get into Elizabeth's story… I think it was really cool to be able to explore that, but it's really nerve-wracking because I thought, 'Well, the audience has already grown fond of this Elizabeth story and [is] and won't it be terribly confusing if we suddenly go back to the beginning and explore a character who is not the main character, who the audience knows is no longer alive in this world?' But as Lee once explained to me, [that] everything we told the audience about Calvin, everything we learned about Calvin, just tells us more about Elizabeth… I thought, 'Okay, this is brilliant. I'm in. Let's do it!'”

SEE Interview with “Lessons in Chemistry” showrunner Lee Eisenberg: “How the past influences the present so strongly was our guiding light”

When Calvin and Elizabeth first meet, they are both emotionally closed people who have spent most of their lives chasing scientific truths and who don't know what it's like to become emotionally involved with another person, let alone develop romantic feelings for them. But because the two characters share these traits, they are a perfect fit.

“I think they both don't particularly like other people – most other people – and if that's your approach, you may be ignoring a lot of signals and a lot of opportunities to meet someone who might actually be an outsider to you,” argues Pullman. “They're both very outsiders – I liked to think of them almost as aliens… What was so fun about those first two episodes is that you're kind of playing a narrative where aliens are coming to Earth because they're operating in a world that just doesn't make sense to them and doesn't work for them – and they see such a clear path, [what] anything could be and how people could act. And so I think that when they first meet, in some ways their similarities clash more than their differences, in a weird way. I think it looks and reads like their differences, but they quickly realize, “Actually, no, that's weird, we're kind of arguing because we actually agree, and that's very surprising.”

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