AMC Plus’ ongoing journey sequence Nautilus is ready earlier than the occasions of Jules Verne’s traditional science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea, following a younger Nemo shortly after he constructed his submarine. That gave Star Trek: Discovery’s Shazad Latif the prospect to make the mysterious captain his personal.
“I had free rein, as a result of we haven’t met this character at this younger of an age, so that is the origin story,” Latif instructed Polygon in a Zoom interview. “It was fairly stunning to discover this over 10 episodes and create this character from the bottom up.”
Latif had six months to arrange for his function as Nemo, a personality beforehand performed by Omar Sharif, Michael Caine, and (within the 2005 film Mysterious Island) Patrick Stewart. Latif says he learn Verne’s e book and was notably gripped by the outline of Nemo having “a somber hearth.”
“It gave me one thing about his voice, which I actually preferred,” Latif mentioned. “There have been simply so many photos, like the best way he stands and folds his arms rather a lot.”
“Weirdly, I’ve performed Jekyll and Hyde and Nemo, who’re each in that film,” he mentioned. “I learn the Alan Moore comics and caught these photos throughout [my] room like a loopy man. You are feeling such as you’re in True Detective or one thing, simply shoving every part on the wall to get inspiration.”
Latif says Nautilus examined his endurance, with an intense 210-day shoot with only a two-week break within the center.
“On daily basis, you’re doing one thing totally different,” he mentioned. “You’ve obtained to be taught the stunts, you’ve obtained to do underwater coaching. As quickly as you get dwelling you’ve got about two hours to eat after which be taught your strains and also you’re utterly exhausted. You then get up at 5 a.m. once more. It was intense, however there’s one thing good about getting within the zone. By the top, you’re kind of a well-honed machine.”
Nemo is pushed to get vengeance towards the British East India Firm for killing his spouse and daughter, stealing his lands, and forcing him to work on the Nautilus. Latif mentioned it was generally robust to stability these darkish themes with present’s lighter journey antics involving saving whales and preventing an enormous squid.
“It’s exhausting to play this lead character within the type of Indiana Jones or Brendan Fraser in The Mummy,” Latif mentioned. “It’s important to purchase into that, however so long as there’s an emotional reality to every part you’re doing, I feel the viewers buys it.”
New episodes of Nautilus launch Sundays on AMC and AMC Plus.
