Before landing the lead role in the Peacock series adaptation of the best-selling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, Jonah Hauer-King was familiar with the material. He read the book, which is a fictional story based on the real-life experiences of Holocaust survivor, when it was released in 2018, and noted that it sparked a phenomenon in the United Kingdom.
The limited series follows Lali Sokolov as he falls in love with another prisoner Gita Furman (Anna Próchniak) while imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942, his assignment as a tattooist at the concentration camp, and the survivor guilt he suffered following the Holocaust.
Hauer-King, who shot to fame after starring in the 2023 remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, stars as the prison-bound version of Lali in the show.
While speaking with Decider, the actor reflected on being asked to audition for the role.
“It never happens like that,” Hauer-King said in retrospect. “You’re usually scrambling around trying to get an audition and going on a long process. Very fortuitously, in the case of this, one of the producers had seen me in some things and they reached out.”
Going into meeting with the production team, he had prepared a pitch: ” I was so ready to tell them all these reasons why I wanted to do it, what I loved about it, really pitch it to them.” However, that wasn’t necessary. “After a while, they were like, ‘Relax, we would like you to do it. You don’t have to be in pitching mode,” he recalled.
The series, which premieres all six episodes on May 2 on Peacock in the US and Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, stars Harvey Keitel as an older version of Hauer-King’s character Lali, who interacts closely with Melanie Lynskey‘s Heather Morris.
“It was amazing to share the screen with Harvey Keitel. He’s a legend,” shared Hauer-King, who unfortunately didn’t get to share the screen with the famed actor due to the nature of their roles. “I naively thought that I was going to spend more time with him than I was, but then it occurred to me that we’re never going to be on screen at the same time. Everyone else got to work with him properly, and I was the only one who didn’t.”
The two both turned to Morris’ book to ensure consistency in their portrayals of Lali. “Because we were drawing from the same source material, I think we had the same foundation of who this person was physically, and also the essence of him… Talking to Heather Morris and getting all these amazing stories from her was really helpful,” Hauer-King explained. “We wanted each performance to breathe because obviously [it’s] two very different times, two very different experiences and contexts with decades in between. We didn’t want to restrict either performance. We wanted to allow there to be some difference, but I think we were confident knowing that we have the same foundation blocks from the research.”
Hauer-King also missed out on working with Lynskey on set, but made up for the lost time while doing press for the show’s release. “The realities of our production schedule and our filming schedule meant that we didn’t cross over that much, so it’s been a pleasure getting to know her now. She does such wonderful work in the show. She’s amazing,” he said.
At the heart of the series is the relationship between Lali and Gita, who later wed in real life after surviving the horrors at Auschwitz. The Ashes in the Snow actor calls their relationship the “most important” one in Lali’s story and the reason why the series stands out from other Holocaust dramas. “The fact that they were able to find someone in this place is so extraordinary. It really drew me in because it seems so implausible in many ways. The more I’ve learned about it and understood the story and where they were at, I think a lot of their love for each other was it was about finding something to believe in, finding a purpose, and finding any kind of meaning, which is very difficult at that time. They became each other’s beacon.”
He continued, “The fact that [Lali] was even able to perceive giving love in that environment and receiving love as well, was an act of defiance. Ultimately, I think it humanized both of them. So much of that camp was about trying to strip people of that identity and dehumanize them.”
Hauer-King had nothing but kind things to express about his co-star Anna Próchniak, saying that he had felt “very comfortable” acting opposite her Gita. “When you’re doing those types of scenes, any kind of love scene, but particularly in this story, and also scenes of such a horrific nature, you need to feel really safe and held by your partner because you’re having to be so vulnerable and having to go to such a dark place. I found her very easy to be around. She’s a brilliant actor and very present, as well. The chemistry came easy.”
He partially credits his connection with Próchniak, and the other cast members, for helping him decompress after filming intense sequences. “The best way for me to serve the story and to honor Lali was to bring as much professionalism and focus as I could. I think all the cast and crew felt like we had a job to do. But it would have been naive to think that it wasn’t going to profoundly affect us day in and day out.”
On set, Hauer-King was affected by wearing the prisoner uniform and re-enacting such horrific scenes from the Holocaust.”Usually on a job, I think it’s easy to step away, and you explore where you are and hang out with your castmates. But there was a slightly different atmosphere on this one. Inevitably, I think there probably needed to be,” he reflected.
Hauer-King continued, “But having said that, we also wanted to look out for each other. And we did… For me, the greatest escape is just being with people. And so we managed to explore Bratislava, where we were filming and that was a bit of a release.”
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is streaming on Peacock.
