With Tommy on the day I arrived in Romania
“Hello, friend,” said Tommy, producer and director for the television series of We Were the Lucky Ones. “Come meet your family.”
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and I’d just landed in Bucharest, Romania, where filming would take place. Tommy was leading a rehearsal with the cast, who had flown in from LA, London and Tel Aviv. My heart galloped as I scanned the faces of the actors who would play my grandfather, his siblings, his parents. The next thing I knew I was wrapped up in hug after hug as we said our long-awaited hellos. My pulse began to slow and I felt strangely at home.
Producer credentials!
We talked that afternoon about how our project had come to be, tracing it back to the early 90’s, when Tommy met my future husband, Robert (then 12 years old!), at a summer camp in West Virginia. Robert introduced me to Tommy a decade later and we became fast friends. It was 2018 when decided to try to take We Were the Lucky Ones to the screen. The cast was enamored by our backstory. They peppered me with questions about my research, my relatives. At one point Logan, who was seated next me and who plays my grandfather, shook his head and said, “this must be so surreal,” to which I readily agreed. “You have no idea.”
On the morning we started shooting, I woke before my alarm rang and rocketed out of bed (too excited, apparently, for jetlag). My first impression of the set—a beautiful old bank in downtown Bucharest—was how crowded it was. There were SO. MANY. PEOPLE. Tommy was there, of course, along with his assistant director, Neil. I met Tim, the director of photography and Sam, our dialect coach. The sound team. The lighting team. The props team. The camera, costume, hair and makeup teams. And about 150 others, from grips to art directors to Covid supervisors.
As we got ready to roll, Tommy stood up to say a few words. He thanked everyone for being there, for the work ahead. And then he thanked me, for having the courage to bring my story to the world. Everyone cheered. I blushed. A few minutes later, the cameras were rolling. Someone handed me a pair of headphones and Tommy waved me over to his monitor. Neil called action! and I held my breath, watching as a camera panned across a crowd and landed on Logan’s face.
With Mia, who works with Tommy, in front of a green screen at an exterior shoot
He was seated on a bench in a hallway dressed to resemble the Polish embassy in Paris, waiting his turn to beg for the paperwork he needed to return home. There aren’t any words in the scene, just bodies—men, women, children, a dog!—and Addy. Young and hopeful, but bracing for the news he knows he’ll get. For the idea of spending Passover, for the first time in his life, away from his family. I didn’t realize I was crying until Amit, director for Episodes 2, 3 and 6, handed me a pack of tissues. “Thanks,” I sniffed, taking one and handing the pack back. “Keep it,” he said, smiling.
Most of my days in Bucharest were spent at a studio 45-minutes from downtown, where our production designer James and his incredible team have built a replica of the Kurc family apartment. I’ll never forget wandering through it for the first time with the cast. We talked in whispers as we ran our fingers over the richly patterned wallpapers, the blue velvet drapes, the etched glass doors in the foyer. We marveled at the sepia-toned family photographs carefully arranged throughout, the lacquered grand piano, the dining table with its lace tablecloth and hand-painted china. The furniture, the floors, the rugs, the décor—it all felt so tasteful, lived in. It felt real.
Robert joined me for the last few days of my trip!
When James asked me what I thought, I choked out an “It’s perfect, thank you,” then watched his face light up, his own eyes grow misty. “Oh, that means the world to me,” he said. “If you like it, then I’m happy with it, too.”
It was like that at every turn, with cast and crew telling me how resolved they were to do my family’s story justice, how they had chills seeing it all through my eyes, and thanking me (me!) for the opportunity to work on a show like this—one with a story and a message to which they felt so deeply connected. This is the piece that overwhelms me the most, I think—the commitment, the passion, the love every single person involved is bringing to this project.
At home, watching my mother watch a scene of her father at the piano
I’m back home in Connecticut now, having officially run out of tissues (thank you, Amit!) and I feel a bit like I’m living in two parallel universes. I’ll write more once the stardust has settled. In the meantime, signing off with a heart full of gratitude. To my families—at home, abroad, and on set—thank you. For everything.
