Posted in: Hulu, TV | Tagged: no man's land

No Man's Land Star Leo Hatton on Hulu Series' Visceral Psychology

Leo Hatton (Postcards from London) spoke with Bleeding Cool about her role in season two of Hulu's war action-drama series No Man's Land.

With all the things going on in the world today, it's easy to lose sight of certain things that continue to be a rampant problem with indoctrination, war, and terrorism. No Man's Land follows the complications of the Syrian Civil War and the depths some are willing to go for survival. The series follows Antoine, a young Frenchman, Félix Moati, who is searching for his estranged, presumed dead sister Anna (Mélanie Thierry). In his travels, he ends up joining a unit of Kurdish female fighters and a ragtag group of international idealists who joined their cause to fight ISIS. Leo Hatton (Postcards from London) plays Ellie Gordon, a Texas school teacher who travels to Syria to find her boyfriend, only to discover he joined ISIS and undergoes the process of being radicalized herself. She spoke to Bleeding Cool about getting into the cathartic mindset, how Sissy Spacek helped inspire her role as Ellie, and working with series creators and showrunners.

No Man's Land Star Leo Hatton on Navigating Through Ellie's Dark Journey

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'No Man's Land '?

I found the subject matter very complex and deep. What I found intriguing is it's based on real events and things that happened. My character was based on an amalgamation of various Western women who went to join ISIS at that time. As an actress, when you're looking at a character at the extreme, you can go into the depths of why your character does something, why her actions happen, and all those things.

If you're sitting there, you're making up a character, you don't have that bank of information about other people's lived experiences that you can run, and the other stuff. If I go back to where I was when this was happening, I was following the events in Syria with abject horror and terror. I was engaged with the events as they unfolded in real time, and so it was quite a strange full circle moment when [the role of] Ellie landed on my desk, because I was completely horrified by the events, and therefore following it daily.

When it came around that I could explore all that through Ellie, it was like, "Wow! This is strange," and 10 years had passed. I forgot how much I had been looking into that new story and how much I've been looking at the events as it happened. When the part came around, it was like, "Cool! I can put my natural intrigue," I mean I'm not intrigued in ISIS in a good way, but in a horrified way. As actors, we're always looking for those parts that can go to the depths of the human experience, and that's what Ellie does (for me). She asks some of the biggest questions in life.

Was there something that helped you get into Ellie's headspace, prep-wise? Is there something psychological, like a book, film, or music, that guided your way?

I haven't seen anything specifically around a young woman deciding to join a movement like that. There have been some great performances, but there were a few podcasts, like serials of women who were viewed, who joined, and they were fascinating to listen to. I drew on a lot of my own stuff I had inside of me, like quite a lot of existential questions I ask.

I wouldn't say that there was one specific thing, but quite interestingly, I use Sissy Spacek from 'Badlands' (1973) because…maybe that was more technical, like the accent. I thought about Ellie and how she was caught up in the world, things were happening around her, and to her. She fell in love with this [life] and with someone. It was that space and limerence where your things are unfolding around you, how active are you in your choices, and how passive are you? That role Sissy Spacek (as Holly) plays was quite a great influence on some parts of Ellie, not the full parts of her.

What's it like working with Amit [Cohen], Maria [Feldman], Ron [Leshem], and Etan [Mansuri] as creatives as they navigated the show?

They're amazing. Marie and Etan, as producers, are incredible. They were incredibly collaborative. They're supportive and creative. They give space for the actors to ask the questions that are needed to do such deep work. I always say to people, and this also has to do with our director, Rotem Shamir from 'Fauda'. He's such a fantastic director who gives everyone the space to come into their own, and he doesn't take over. He is an incredible guiding force, so the whole team was a magical experience. It was like making theater for television, and how collaborative and extraordinary it was.

Season two of No Man's Land, which also stars Souheila Tacoub, is available on Hulu.

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