One of the biggest draws of the new Peacock streaming service is the ambitious adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s visionary 1931 novel ‘Brave New World’. And while there may be a lot riding on this series, making the show didn’t fluster one of the stars. Joseph Morgan is a veteran of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘The Originals’ and he found the pace on the set of ‘Brave New World’ to be refreshingly free of pressure.
He compared the two processes, telling Cinema Blend:
“Well, first of all, you have more time to film the episodes on a streaming show. So Vampire Diaries or Originals are eight days for an episode. And the eighth day two crews are working because there’s a whole other crew starting the next episode, just for a double-up day. And so it felt to me, even though I know some people felt kind of rushed filming Brave New World, for me it felt like we had this wealth of time. And then, what was wonderful is because the show wasn’t completely written when we started, we were able to find what worked and expand upon that, which was nice… Also, you know, working for network you’re inhibited in terms of language, and that kind of thing. And there wasn’t that inhibition in Brave New World. Characters were able to express themselves more colorfully, which was kind of fun and new thing to me, but the whole experience was very different.”
On ‘Brave New World’, Morgan plays CJack60, an Epsilon, the lowest level of society. Epsilons toil, doing manual labor, while the privileged Alphas live in hedonistic luxury.
Morgan teased what is in store for his character, telling TV Guide:
“CJack60 is involved in a kind of horrific incident in the first episode of Brave New World. And because of that, he starts to question the reality of the world that he’s involved in, and he starts to feel. All the people in New London are encouraged to suppress their emotions with this drug, soma. He stops taking that soma, and he starts to wonder, ‘Well, why do the Epsilons have to do all of these jobs? Why are we stuck doing all of these jobs? Why is the world like this? And why do I feel like this?'”
The first two episodes of ‘Brave New World’ are now available on Peacock.
