AMC Plus’ ongoing journey collection Nautilus is ready earlier than the occasions of Jules Verne’s basic science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Underneath 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 informed Polygon in a Zoom interview. “It was fairly lovely 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 fireplace.”
“It gave me one thing about his voice, which I actually favored,” Latif mentioned. “There have been simply so many pictures, like the best way he stands and folds his arms lots.”
“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’re feeling such as you’re in True Detective or one thing, simply shoving all the things 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.
“Day by day, you’re doing one thing totally different,” he mentioned. “You’ve obtained to study the stunts, you’ve obtained to do underwater coaching. As quickly as you get house you’ve about two hours to eat after which study your strains and also you’re fully exhausted. Then you definitely get up at 5 a.m. once more. It was intense, however there’s one thing good about getting within the zone. By the tip, you’re form of a well-honed machine.”
Nemo is pushed to get vengeance in opposition to 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 typically powerful to steadiness these darkish themes with present’s lighter journey antics involving saving whales and preventing an enormous squid.
“It’s laborious to play this lead character within the type of Indiana Jones or Brendan Fraser in The Mummy,” Latif mentioned. “You need to purchase into that, however so long as there’s an emotional reality to all the things you’re doing, I feel the viewers buys it.”
New episodes of Nautilus launch Sundays on AMC and AMC Plus.
