BEFORE LEAVING FOR ROMANIA TO SHOOT THE NEW HULU SERIES WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES, ACTOR AMIT RAHAV DECIDED TO VISIT THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM IN JERUSALEM TO IMMERSE HIMSELF IN THE SHOW’S SUBJECT MATTER. UPON ARRIVAL, HE REALISED THAT THE TICKETS FOR THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION WERE SOLD OUT FOR THE DAY. BUT THEN, A SIGN OF SORTS OCCURRED RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. THE MUSEUM’S TEMPORARY EXHIBITION (FREE FOR ALL, NO TICKET NEEDED) WAS DEVOTED TO THE SUBJECT OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE HOLOCAUST. RAHAV SAYS HE WAS STUNNED – IN THE SERIES, BASED ON THE BOOK BY GEORGIA HUNTER WHICH TELLS THE STORY OF HER FAMILY’S SURVIVAL, HE WAS SCHEDULED TO PLAY JAKOB KURC, A JEWISH PHOTOGRAPHER WORKING THROUGHOUT THE SECOND WORLD WAR. SEEING RAHAV IN THE SHOW, IT’S CLEAR THAT HE WAS INDEED MEANT TO PORTRAY THIS ROLE. HIS TAKE ON JAKOB – A BOHEMIAN SPIRIT WHO GOES THROUGH AN IMMENSE TRANSFORMATION CAUSED BY THE HEARTBREAKING EXPERIENCES OF TRYING TO SURVIVE – IS BOTH INCREDIBLY LAYERED AND TOUCHING. CALLING FROM LA, WHERE HE’S CURRENTLY PONDERING A LONG-TERM STAY, RAHAV TALKS TO US ABOUT THE SHOW'S UNIQUE TAKE ON TELLING A HOLOCAUST STORY AND THE WAY HIS FAMILY’S MEMORIES HAVE INFORMED HIS PERFORMANCE.

Hi Amit! Where in the world are you right now?

I’m currently in LA.

Full look **Celine Homme**, jewelry **Azature**

Nice! Are you there for a holiday or for an extended time?

I’m here for an extended time, I don’t have a return ticket. I’m currently moving from sublet to sublet, so I get to see a lot of filthy apartments and see different parts of LA every time I get to the new one. That said, the apartment I’m subletting right now is very cute and I don’t want to leave it, but I will probably have to move to a different one very soon.

So you’re exploring the city?

Yeah, I’m travelling around the city before I make it official and sign a contract. But I’m really enjoying the LA experience so far.

Left Full look **Celine Homme**
Right Full look **Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello**

What have been some of your favourite areas that you discovered?

I really like East LA – areas like Los Feliz and Silver Lake. But I am currently in West Hollywood which is also great. It’s just way more clean. It’s so clean, and so polished, the grass is so green that it almost looks fake. And I need something a bit more dirty and rusty. [Laughs] I’ve also been realising that apparently, I have been going to the worst places up until now. Whenever I go somewhere, I say, “It’s such a cool place!” And my local friends are like, “Who told you to go there?” They keep telling me I’m doing it all wrong.

Maybe they’re a bit jaded.

Maybe they are. Or maybe they want to be a tourist in LA. [Laughs]

Let’s talk about your new show, We Were the Lucky Ones. What about the way that the series (and the book that it’s based on) approached the subject of the Holocaust spoke to you?

I think that the fact that the book and the show are based on a real family’s story and events gives you the feeling that you know these people, and that they’re not just these epic characters. They are human. They are flawed, they are falling in love, they have dreams, hopes and fears. They have their own pride that they’re not willing to give up. And that’s what drew me to the story so much. Sometimes when you read a historical piece, the people in it feel like historical figures. But these characters were so well written and felt so relatable and approachable. That made it so much easier for us as actors to tap into them because they were so familiar to us.

Full look **Dior Men**, shoes **1774 Birkenstock**

How did you prepare to play your character, Jakob? Was there anything aside from reading the book that helped you portray him?

Having Georgia Hunter – the author of the book and granddaughter of Addy Kurc, who’s played by Logan Lerman – as well as her mother on set with us was the biggest privilege. Getting to hear their stories and memories, and see the pictures and certificates was such a significant layer. This story is made of so many different patches, and together, we created this massive fabric.

Also, before travelling to Romania (where we shot the show), I decided to visit the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. I went there, ready to soak it all in, and I realised that I was not able to go inside the main exhibition because all of the tickets for the day were sold out. But I was told that there was also a temporary exhibition available to see without a ticket. And that turned out to be an insane experience because as I approached it, I realised that the exhibition was focused on photographers in the Holocaust. And in the show, I play a photographer in the Holocaust! That was a mind-blowing moment for me.

Jakob is an artistic spirit who goes through quite a transformation caused by the trauma of WW2. Which parts of him did you find most interesting to explore?

That’s a great question! Jakob is a very sensitive soul. I think that out of all of the Kurc brothers, he’s the least prepared for going to war. But as time goes on, he grows a shield on him and becomes a warrior in these horrific times. And it’s really important to understand what his life goals are and treasures that he’s not willing to give up. In episode six, we see him risking his life to get back to the most important thing in his life – his wife, Bella. Leaving the ghetto, running to her, shaking her up from her own grief, and just having this wave of life inside of him is something that he could never have imagined doing when we first met him. That’s what I find most inspiring and heartbreaking about him as a character, seeing him go from the youngest man in the family to an actual grown-up adult who has the courage to risk his life for his loved ones.

Left Full look **Bottega Veneta**
Right Full look **Prada**

Looking back at all of the scenes you have done, is there one that sticks out as particularly challenging?

The morning after the ghetto invasion where Jakob walks through it alone – there are bodies all around him, and he can see the disaster that took place there. When I got on set that day, it was relatively quiet. It was just me and the extras, and that was a chilling-to-the-bone moment. I froze. It was just so realistic and sad – it was so immersive that I just choked. Coming on set, you never knew when these realisations would get you. Some days, we’d come and be like, “Okay, this is work.” And some days, it was just so devastating to realise what’s the story that we’re telling. So that was the day when it suddenly hit me and I got this flash of comprehending what this story is and what it means.

Full look **Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello**

On a more personal note, I read that your grandma, who’s a Holocaust survivor, would tell you her stories from that time when you were growing up. What is the impact that these memories had on you?

They had an enormous impact. The Holocaust story has been surrounding me ever since I can remember. My grandma is the funniest and sharpest person, and I admire and love her so much. At the age of four, she was sent to hide with a Polish family – she had a different name, a different identity, and she grew up without her parents. For four years, she was sleeping on two chairs joined together in the attic, not knowing what was going on, where she was or who she was. She had the most horrible upbringing – most of her extended family was executed in Auschwitz. So having these stories in my DNA, I was thinking about her a lot while filming. Any moment that I could go back home, I went to visit her and share with her my experience.

Having a Jewish ensemble means that a lot of the cast members have a Holocaust story within their families. And because this story is so rooted inside of me, I want to tell it again and again and again. I was very lucky to have this opportunity to tell this family’s story and know that my grandmother’s story was carried in me while doing so.

Left Full look **Acne Studios**
Right Full look **Dior Men**

Following We Were the Lucky Ones, what are the projects that you would like to do next?

I think that I might be ready for something a little lighter. I love all of the work I have done so far on Unorthodox, Transatlantic and We Were the Lucky Ones and I’m so grateful for those characters. But I feel like it’s time to do the exact opposite and face a new challenge. And I guess that would have to be a light-comedy-indie-atheist-futuristic-science-fiction type of story. [Laughs]

Interview by Martin Onufrowicz

Photography by Sam Ramirez

Fashion by Douglas VanLaningham

Grooming by Nathaniel Dezan

Photographers’ assistant Jacob Barri

Fashion’s ssistant Marilyn Monro

Film Lab @thatonephotolab