Alex Wolff & Oystein Karlsen On Capturing The Spirit Of Leonard Cohen In ‘So Long, Marianne’ — Series Mania
19.03.2024 - 08:21
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Leonard Cohen had a huge impact on generations of fans, and So Long, Marianne star Alex Wolff is no different.
Speaking exclusively to Deadline ahead of So Long‘s worldwide premiere at Series Mania this week, Oppenheimer and Hereditary actor Wolff paid tribute to the late singer-songwriter. “His contribution to my life has been so substantial that whatever words I have don’t sum up what he’s meant to my working life and to me personally,” he said.
Wolff, who is himself a musician and recording artist, plays Cohen in So Long, Marianne, which is one of the buzziest international series at Series Mania, which is Europe’s largest scripted television festival. The NRK and Crave series is the International Competition category against the likes of Peacock’s Apples Never Fall and the ABC’s House of Gods.
In the eight-part series, Wolff appears opposite Thea Sofie Loch Næss (The Last Kingdom) as Marianne Ilhen. The series tells the legendary love story between the Canadian singer and poet and his muse, Ihlen, showing how two lonely people falling in love during a period of their life when they are trying to figure out who they are and their place in the world, while one is becoming one of the most famous singers of all time.
In his first interview about the series, Wolff recalled how his older brother had given him a book of poetry containing Cohen’s words, inspiring him to begin thinking about lyrics and musicality. “That was essential to my teenage years,” he added.
New Yorker Wolff described sounding a year researching his life, copying his mannerisms, learning a Canadian accent and even hiring a handwriting expert to coach him to write like Cohen, and spent most of his time on set in character. “I tried to sink