Jacob Elordi is a period film connoisseur, he tells The A.V. Club. It’s no wonder he’s inclined to take on movies like the biographical Priscilla or the deeply romantic, ’50s-set On Swift Horses. Now, he takes his love for the genre to TV with his second-ever series—one completely different from his small-screen claim to fame, HBO’s provocative Euphoria. In The Narrow Road To The Deep North, Elordi stars as a somber war doctor who struggles with his past, especially an illicit affair that he simply cannot get over. After debuting earlier this year at Berlinale, all five episodes of the Australian drama premiered April 18 on Prime Video.
Based on Richard Flanagan’s novel of the same name, the series chronicles the life of Dorrigo Evans (Elordi), a doctor drafted to the Philippines during World War II. Elordi says that part of the reason he was drawn to this adaptation is the era. “Our world has changed so dramatically, and things are changing by the week, so it’s important to remember the past. Cinema is this thing of memory to me; it’s a way to remember.” He adds that he finds doing period work “incredibly cinematic,” the perfect words to describe The Narrow Road To The Deep North.
Each installment of this Justin Kurzel-directed miniseries is a visual treat. The show is gloomy and grueling when it dwells on Dorrigo’s experiences as a prisoner of war, or watching soldiers getting beaten up and dying, unable to control the outcome. But The Narrow Road is warm and full of yearning when it flashes to Dorrigo and Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young) as they frolic on the beach, exchange furtive glances across the bar, or hang out together with Keith (Simon Baker), Dorrigo’s uncle, who just happens to be Amy’s husband. Yes, Dorrigo’s fallen madly in love with his young aunt, while engaged to a wealthy and faithful Ella (Olivia DeJonge). Talk about an unexpected crisis.
For the most part, Dorrigo’s pining for Amy is internal, with just pain and longing spread over his face when he looks at her. Elordi tells The A.V. Club this was an intentional choice from him and Kurzel. “This was an incredibly repressed time for both men and women. Men didn’t speak much about how they felt or what they were going through emotionally,” he says. “It felt like an important aspect of playing someone from that era, and to have quiet moments with Dorrigo.”
Elordi and Young are a potent match in this forbidden love story, especially once the dam breaks and their characters give in to their desires. Elordi calls this the “summer of love” before Dorrigo is being shipped off to war. “That part was beautiful to shoot, and the chemistry came for free with Odessa because she’s a brilliant actor,” he says. “I felt lucky that Justin gave us two weeks to rehearse together, giving us a lot of freedom in front of the camera to try and make these two people look in love as truly as we could, despite the circumstances.”
Dorrigo’s brief yet intense romance lives with him permanently (as also seen in the ’80s-set version of him played by Ciarán Hinds), but never more than in the Philippines. He’s recruited to build the dangerous Burma Railway (known as the Death Railway). Here’s where The Narrow Road molds into more of a war drama: bomb blasts, torture scenes, and blood. There’s a noticeable physical difference in Elordi. In addition to spending a year preparing for the role and losing weight for it, he also took a six-week boot camp with his co-stars. But physical change wasn’t the only priority, he tells The A.V. Club: “It was also important for us to show the change Dorrigo goes through psychologically. But the interesting thing is that parts of him before and after the war are similar. No matter what happens to us, we can’t leave ourselves fully behind. Something is fascinating in getting to explore that.”
Ultimately, Elordi hopes that readers of the book are as satisfied with their TV creation as those unfamiliar with the source material. “I hope audiences are entirely satiated and full after watching, and they don’t feel cheated.” When asked about the specific tone of the series and if he referred to certain period pieces he loves, Elordi adds that while he saw a number of films, “I do think this show exists in its own space because it’s not about war. It’s a show that offers a lot of hope about the human spirit.”
