The Big Picture

The younger cast members of All the Light We Cannot See discuss their experiences on set and their reactions to the show’s success on Netflix. Aria Mia Loberti, in her debut role, reveals how she landed the part after sending in a self-taped audition for low-vision actresses. Loberti and Louis Hofmann share their favorite and most challenging scenes to film, as well as some behind-the-scenes moments.

Shawn Levy’s WWII drama series, All the Light We Cannot See, remains a success for Netflix after its initial 9.8 million viewership the week it premiered. Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the show stars big names like Hugh Laurie and Mark Ruffalo, but one of the most remarkable aspects is its younger cast.

In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, stars Aria Mia Loberti and Louis Hofmann spoke about their experiences on the set of one of Netflix’s popular new series. As in the book, Loberti plays Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who’s fleeing German-occupied Paris with her father (Ruffalo). Hofmann plays Werner, a young boy enlisted in Hitler’s regime who’s connected to Marie-Laure through a series of secret broadcasts. Not only do they give strong performances, All the Light We Cannot See is Loberti’s debut role on-screen after taking a chance and sending in a self-taped audition for Levy’s casting call for low-vision actresses.

While discussing their reactions to the show’s positive reception, Loberti and Hofmann share the scenes they were most anxious to film, what it’s like celebrating your birthday on the set of a Netflix series, and why Loberti excels at physical sequences. They also talk about their working relationships, and dad jokes, with Ruffalo, Laurie, and Levy, deleted scenes they wish fans could see, which parts of the book they’d like to see on screen, and why landing this role was so important for Loberti when she did. You can watch the full interview in the video at the top of this article, or you can read the transcript below.

All The Light We Cannot See The story of Marie-Laure, a blind French teenager, and Werner, a German soldier, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Release Date November 2, 2023 Cast Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann, Lars Eidinger Main Genre History Seasons 1 Creator Steven Knight, Shawn Levy

COLLIDER: I really want to start with a sincere congrats on the series. I thought you guys were both so fantastic, and Shawn does not stink as a director.

ARIA MIA LOBERTI: No, he’s pretty good.

LOUIS HOFMANN: [Laughs] He’s alright.

Trending on Netflix
Image via Netflix

Exactly. Let’s not let the ego get too much bigger for him. So I am curious, though, you never know how people are going to react to something and this has been the number one thing on Netflix for, I think, two weeks now. What is that like for you guys after putting in such hard work to bring this to life?

HOFMANN: I guess it’s always a little overwhelming. When you do something, you put so much work into it, and you pour your heart and your soul into it, and you just hope for the best outcome. You hope for as many people as possible to be touched and connected to the story, and then when it actually happens, it’s just really rewarding and beautiful.

LOBERTI: It’s an honor for us to be able to spend so much time making something that people can watch in their free time. They could do anything with their free time, and they chose to spend it with something we made. It feels maybe a little unreal. Maybe it’s not true. Maybe this is all a giant hoax, I don’t know, but it’s spectacular. It’s so cool.

Most Challenging Scenes to Film
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When you realized what the shoot was going to entail and what you were going to be doing, what was the day that you had circled in terms of, “I’m really nervous to film this,” or, “I’m really excited to film this?”

HOFMANN: That’s a good question. That’s a very good question.

LOBERTI: So the one scene that I was absolutely terrified to do — Mark and I had this in common — was the scene where Daniel says goodbye to Marie. We were just dreading that scene. Oh my god. And in comparison to the rest of the show, it’s not that much of an exertion of emotion, but it was just so hard on both of us, I think. So, that was what I was dreading the most. And the one that I was looking forward to the most was the dunking with Lars.

HOFMANN: [Laughs] It’s just so funny that that’s the scene you were looking forward to the most.

LOBARTI: I know. That’s my safe space is apparently torture scenes. I don’t know. No, my safe space is physical stuff because I come from a dance background, a martial arts background, so that was something I could latch on to and be like, “Heck yes, I can do this. I might not know how this acting thing works and the set thing works yet, but I can do that.” And it’s really funny because that was what shocked a lot of people. It wasn’t just you. It was like, “That’s the thing you take comfort in? Weirdo.”

HOFMANN: Oh my god. I remember on my birthday, you know Joshie, he collected videos from the whole team and the cast to send to me for my birthday, which is really lovely.

LOBERTI: I was soaked! I was still crying.

HOFMANN: Yeah. And your video was from the grotto, but you still have the best time. You looked so alive.

LOBERTI: You build up these tears, and it’s not natural to just shut them down, so I was still crying and did Louis’ Happy Birthday song or whatever it was. I’m in tears bouncing up and down like a little kid, and there was a unicorn floaty going by because the crew surprised me at the end of that sequence with a unicorn floaty. It was really great.

You didn’t share which scene for you.

HOFMANN: That’s true. I think the scene I was looking forward to the most was the one with Schmidt, where Werner tells his story because most of the character is quite reacting and quite passive, I suppose, and I just loved him getting active, taking the lead in a scene, and being able to share the story. That was something I thoroughly enjoyed.

Image via Netflix

LOBERTI: And you really pumped up your scene with Hugh, too. You were so excited for that leading up to it.

HOFMANN: That’s true. I love Hugh. He’s so sweet. And scared – I don’t know. I mean, to be fair, Shawn and the whole team and the whole cast, everyone was so incredibly welcoming and we could have felt a huge amount of pressure and funny enough, it was just a big blast every day to be on set even though the topic was dark, even though it was a heavy material. But I had such a good time on it.

LOBERTI: We all enjoyed it, and I think it shows.

I’m curious for now fans of this series, what do you think they would be surprised to learn about the making of the show?

LOBERTI: The amount of dad jokes that Mark Ruffalo and I tell between takes.

HOFMANN: [Laughs] Yeah.

LOBERTI: Like embarrassing, really bad jokes that nobody laughed at, but we were hysterical over. They’d be shocked about that.

HOFMANN: And the whole cast was sort of mocking Hugh and his accent. “My name is Hugh Laurie, and tonight I’m going to tell you all the beautiful things in life.”

LOBERTI: “And you, boy, must be fierce!” Hugh knows we do this. It’s okay.

HOFMANN: That was an ongoing joke.

LOBERTI: And the amount of times we weren’t actually together in scenes. So, like Episode 4, Lars’s coverage, my coverage, and Louis’s coverage were all done on different days, and so the crew would do our voices for whoever was on screen. So, that was really funny. There should be a blooper reel of that somewhere, with Shawn being like, “It’s fine now, Marie! I’m here to rescue you.” It was great. Shawn did great. Did a good Werner.

The Book vs. the Series

Again, you need to not inflate that ego. Very important. So, I’m sure you guys were familiar with the book. Was there anything in the book that you really felt like, “This has to be in the series,” or are really happy that it was in the series?

LOBERTI: Oh, gosh, I think what I was really excited about because it’s so visual, is that opening scene in the book where the leaflets come down for Marie, and she goes to the window, she feels the leaflet. She can feel the imprint, the pressed paper. She knows something is written on it, but she can’t see it, and her fingers aren’t sensitive enough to actually read it with her fingers, so she doesn’t know what it says, but she knows something dangerous is happening. That was such a vivid scene in the book, and it literally gets brought to life on screen exactly as it’s written. So I was really excited about that.

And one scene that we didn’t do that I was actually hopeful that we would do but it never was in the script is a scene between Marie and Etienne where Etienne is reading to her from The Voyage of the Beagle. They’re crafting this little fictional universe together, and they’re playing make-believe, and it gets Etienne out of his shell. Then they put on Vivaldi, and they just have a little jam and dance session together, and it’s like Etienne breaking out of his oyster shell. I’ve said that didn’t make it to screen, but I can see why because the series is so tight and action-packed. I see why it didn’t make it, but that was a scene I really liked in the book.

HOFMANN: We actually shot one scene with Friedrich, which might be news to some of the fans of the show.

LOBERTI: And he was fantastic, as well.

HOFMANN: And it didn’t make it into the cut, which was a little sad, but I’m sure there were plenty of good reasons. Again, Shawn knows what he’s doing. [Laughs] Don’t tell him he’s good! But that was something that I was really excited about when we shot it.

Aria Mia Loberti’s Audition Tape
Image via Netflix

Aria, I definitely have to ask you about being cast because Shawn posted a video of you reacting to getting cast, and it’s pretty crazy that you got this role. Did you ever think in the auditioning process that you had a chance or was this just sort of like a test run for the future?

LOBERTI: No. I had no idea. I was having a really rotten week, and in many ways, a really rotten year. My mental health was completely tanked. I fought my whole life to get access to an education and I had finally, finally made it. At the same time, I was just really grateful to be there, but I wasn’t happy, and I didn’t know why. And I literally went on the audition because I was having a bad day, and someone told me about it, and I was like, “If you’re having a bad day, just read from your favorite book. Maybe this will be a fun thing.” I didn’t have any friends where I was; I had just moved. And so I literally recorded Mark’s lines on my iPad, leaving space in between for me to do Marie’s lines, and then got on camera. I did the Marie lines and just sent my first take to the casting people, and I didn’t think anyone would ever see it. Then, a day later I got called back. And then I kept getting called back, and then I was like, “Oh boy, I should tell my mother.”

HOFMANN: You hadn’t told your mum?

LOBERTI: I hadn’t told my mother until I met with Shawn for the first time, and that’s when I’m like, “I should probably tell her,” because it was like one of her favorite books. Ridiculous. Never once thought. I actually had planned the speech with my mom, thanking them for doing an authentic casting search, hoping that they’d still hire someone who is blind or low vision, and asking if they thought I was good enough to audition for community theater. Never gave the speech. I don’t know what happened. Now, 300 million people have access to my audition tape, apparently, according to Shawn’s statistics, so that’s crazy.

HOFMANN: And Shawn never lies when it comes to statistics. [Laughs]

LOBERTI: “300 million people will have access to your audition tape.” I don’t know where he got that one, but that’s what he told me, like, a year ago. Now, it’s out in the world, and it’s really crazy to see how raw I was at the beginning of that journey and found the career I always wanted and didn’t know that I needed. It makes me so happy. It’s the first time in my life I’ve universally been happy. It’s wild. I don’t even know.

HOFMANN: It’s amazing.

All the Light We Cannot See is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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