Leigh Bardugo's worldwide fantasy phenomenon is about to make it to our Netflix screens. The thrilling series focuses on both the Grishaverse trilogy that begins with Shadow and Bone, in addition to Six of Crows.
Archie Renaux plays Mal Oretsev, the brawn and brave-hearted childhood best friend of Alina Starkov. He spoke exclusively with TheThings about his life-changing experience on the show. Hint: He knew Général Kinigian before filming.
Getting To Know Mal
Your character Mal is Alina's best friend and a gifted tracker. Can you tell us what fans can expect from Mal?
"We're going to see this character Mal go to the ends of the Earth for his best friend. He's a character with a lot of heart, a lot of determination, a lot of courage. (He) will stop at nothing to make sure his friend's alright."
"A tracker in this world is someone that tracks down things like food if they were to track a hunt. Deer, elk, all those sorts of things. They also can see perhaps where the enemy has run off to. They're quite an important role to have in the army."
As you already said, Alina and Mal look out for each other at any cost. Does Mal's protectiveness solely come from that place of friendship, or is there a hidden kind of love there?
"Ya, I guess in the beginning of the story it is that friendship. I think it's because of this bond from what they've gone through, they were orphans together. They both lost their parents to the Shadow Fold."
"There's this bond that connects them and is so great and powerful. As they grow older, there could perhaps be this unspoken love in the romantic sense, yeah."
Similarities To Others Fantasy Shows
The show heavily focuses on dialogue, fantasy, action, and a lot of other factors that made shows like 'Game of Thrones' such a hit. Do you think 'Shadow and Bone' shares other similar strengths?
"There's a lot of great action as well. The fact that there are these different places within this world. These different countries, different cities, different cultures. That all creates an interesting dynamic...Especially these characters that we've read on the page that we love and we get to see it comes to life.
It's great with 'Shadow nad Bone' as well that even if you didn't read the books, they explain everything. You feel just as included.
"It's cool because I think you learn as you go along. It's nice that it doesn't give you everything straight away. It's not like, 'That's what's going on there, that's what's going on here, this is how this works.' It kind of eases you into it. You'll have your questions answered as the series goes on.
Getting To Know The Grishaverse
How deeply entwined were you with the Grishaverse before you were cast as Mal? Had you read the books before auditioning?
"I read the first book, the audition process was kind of rushed. They were shooting in the next couple of months. So I quickly went out and bought the first book. I tried to read that as I went along and to learn as much as I could about Mal and about the characters before going to shoot."
"It all felt so rushed, but also Ben (Général Kinigian) helped me out as well. He was into the books quite a bit before I was. I knew Ben, we worked together the year before. For my audition process, he gave me a few pointers."
How close were you and Ben between your last project and now? Are you close friends outside of filming?
"Ya! It's annoying that we can't see each other that much. He lives out in LA and I live in London. We did a show together called 'Gold Digger.' He kind of became my mentor. Then it just so happened that we would be starring in another series together. Less than a year later, which was really nice."
Then you get to film in a magical place like Budapest together! What was your favorite part about filming there?
"I love Budapest. It had the right architecture which fit this look we were going for. It also had some great landscapes, locations we got to go and shoot on. There's some really nice hills and stuff like that. We were quite lucky that Budapest was the place where we can get the architecture and the landscape all in one.
I found myself asking what was the natural setup of Budapest, those narrow alleys and markets. How much of it was set design?
"I think it was a mixture of both. There were some villages that were quite old villages, that kind of kept intact. Then obviously set designers came in and made it how we needed it."
What was the dynamic like between author Leigh Bardugo and showrunner Eric Heisserer in making the novels come to life onscreen? How was it working with them?
"It was so good. We were lucky enough to have Leigh actually being in our show for like a few months. She came in November I want to say, I can't remember the exact dates. It was great to have her there because we got to use her as a reference and Eric who was there."
"I think they were both right on the same page and were just a fountain of knowledge for everything. Especially to ask whatever we needed to. They more than happily pointed us in the right direction."
When everything was done, how did you all celebrate together? How emotional was that?
"I remember my last scene was on my own. It was a few reshoots we had to do. But I remember this one day, in particular, there were a few of us there. It was the last scene in the story actually. That kind of felt like the end of the series."
"I think it was an unspoken thing of, 'This is it.' This is the end of this mad adventure we've all been on. That's a moment I will always remember for the rest of my life."