Rick Riordan’s Greek mythos-inspired Percy Jackson series is the millennial woman’s Roman Empire, but I get the sense Logan Lerman already knows that.
Currently promoting his latest period drama, Hulu’s We Were The Lucky Ones, Lerman’s been bearing the brunt of our collective nostalgia for the “good ‘ol days,” when the prodigal demi-god son of Poseidon pushed lovesick preteens to erect Tumblr fan accounts in his name. Red carpet interviewers quiz him about his involvement with Disney+ reboots. The Cut reaffirmed we’re still crushing on him. He’s even been dubbed “White Boy Of The Century” on Twitter.
It’s not a bad thing, the fact that so many now-adults – men and women – associate Lerman with their youth and hold a surprising amount of affection for a character that meant so much to them decades after the fact. But it might be, in part, why Lerman is so determined to get “out of his comfort zone” when it comes to the shows and movies he says yes to now.
We Were The Lucky Ones is definitely that – a story that asks a lot of Lerman as Addy, a young, musically-gifted Polish Jew separated from his family during World War II. A showman and survivor, Addy’s journey is one we haven’t seen on screen often – if ever – a rare feat for a series steeped in a time period that’s so familiar to TV and movie audiences. The ability to build something new in this mined-to-death sandbox is what convinced Lerman to sign onto another show about Nazis so soon after his Amazon Prime thriller Hunters ended its run. He wanted something intangible. A challenge? Sure, but also, maybe, a way to define the next stage of his career as one that doesn’t simply coast on the memory of roles he played when he was just a kid.
We chatted with Lerman about growing up and growing into this new phase, why his Hulu series feels different, and learning to play jazz.
Was it a hard sell at all to go from a show like Hunters to this? Were you worried at all that they both deal with some of the same subject matter?
I think stories dealing with this subject matter are always a hard sell for me. I find myself very critical of these stories, in the sense that I’ve been approached for things related to this before, and I found myself feeling like they just didn’t add anything to the film or television history before it. And this came around and I was just really compelled by [author] Georgia Hunter’s family’s history. The fact that it’s all based in truth is one thing that really grounds me and something I find essential for telling stories about this subject matter.
But on top of that, it was exploring individual stories that haven’t been explored before in film or television — not that I know of at least. Addy’s journey was something that surprised me in terms of what he went through and how he survived the war. His like, conflict internally, I thought was interesting to play with. It felt like it answered that question, ‘Why make this?’ And at the end of the day, there’s a desire to want to watch it. You read something, you’re like, ‘I want to see this.’
Because you’ve been in this world before, did you learn anything new about the period?
I consumed so much material that kind of blew my mind. The little details of this particular piece of history — be it in Poland, Siberia, or for myself, for Addy, learning about his journey to Brazil. Learning about the refugee crisis and all the countries that wouldn’t take Jews in, it was fascinating.
You look at what’s happening now in the Middle East and you think, ‘History really does repeat itself …’
That’s why it felt necessary. It felt like it was universal in a lot of ways. This is a story, for me, about someone who’s fleeing a conflict, who’s in danger and is just seeking safety, and nobody will let him in. He’ll do anything that he can to possibly get away. I just thought, ‘That happens.’ It’s happening now, it will happen in the future, it’s happened in many different conflicts. It’s kind of a broader subject to explore rather than something that’s so focused on just World War II Holocaust history.
This is a serious drama, there’s not much room for levity. Did the filming experience reflect that as well?
It’s weird to say this, but I think everyone else would agree, it was the most enjoyable shoot I’ve ever been a part of. We had a really good time making it. We still had joy and hope and fun and all those things throughout. We didn’t just let the situations our characters were in and the reality of the show bring us down. Which is truthful to the characters, the people’s experiences. They felt those things too when they were going through it and surviving it.
What specifically about this story and this character challenged you?
I think what was most exciting about it was that it felt different from other characters or people I’ve portrayed in the past. It’s not necessarily that I see anything of myself in him, but it felt like I had something new to do here, and that was really exciting. Building the character out of this real person that lived was a challenge and there was a lot of work that went into it — especially with the dialect and the music. I learned how to play all of his songs, jazz pieces at the time, and sing them as well — that was all really challenging. I don’t see myself as a singer or an on-stage musical performer, so it was fun to do something different.
Your character’s comfortable being the center of attention. Do you share that trait or are you more of a ‘stand by the exit’ sort of person?
I’m more of that personality, yeah. I’m not as comfortable with that form of attention. But Addy loved it. He’s a true musical genius and understood his talent and felt comfortable with it and used it as a means to survive. So maybe if I had those circumstances. I might have to use whatever talents I have to survive too.
In a lot of ways, you’ve had to grow up on screen. You’re in your 30s now. How have the roles you’re interested in now changed? Are you looking for things that scare you now that you’ve kind of done it all?
That’s all I want, but I don’t know what that is. I like the surprise of something, I think that’s what I’m looking for, something that surprises me and feels like a new challenge — that’s not too repetitive. There are a lot of things that I’ve done over the years, but I just don’t want to do any of those things again.
Hulu’s ‘We Were The Lucky Ones’ is streaming now.
