Marcus Zusak’s beloved 2005 novel, The Book Thief, has come to the screen this fall in an adaptation directed by Brian Percival (Downton Abbey) that captures much of the spirit and poignancy of the book despite the necessary tightening of the story required on the screen. The young French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse (Monsieur Lazhar) stars as Liesel, the little girl sent to live with foster parents Hans and Rosa Huberman (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson) in a small German town during World War II. Taught to read by the kindly Hans and befriended by local boy Rudy (Nico Liersch), Liesel begins to adapt to her new life with something like happiness.
But when the Hubermans hide a Jew named Max (Ben Schnetzer) in their basement, and as book burnings and an increased Nazi presence bring the war closer to their quiet home on Himmel Street, Liesel and the Hubermans are faced with one grim decision after another. Brooding over it all is the presence of Death, who acts as a literal narrator (voiced by Roger Allam) and as a marker for the harsh realities of life in wartime that the Hubermans and their neighbors must confront. For Liesel — who first borrows and then steals books from the library of the local mayor — words and stories are her one escape.
Leading the excellent cast is Rush, whose perfect mix of charisma, compassion and whimsy is the film’s heart, and Nelisse, who projects vibrancy and hope even during the darkest moments. Both were in Los Angeles recently for a small press conference with reporters, of which a edited transcript appears below.
When you started working together, what surprised each of you about the other person?
Sophie Nelisse: Well, I actually had no idea who Geoffrey was. Sorry, I didn’t. My friends would go, “So, who are you playing with?” I’m like, “Geoffrey Rush.” And they’re like, “Who’s that?” So nobody knew. But my mom told me. Apparently he could act. So that was good. But then I watched Shine and yes, he could act. And I was like, “I’m honored.” I felt honored to play with such a great actor. And then also he won an Oscar. And I was like, you know, I was just so happy. I was a bit scared because, you know, I’ve only seen Shine and parts of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh, I saw Quills also. Just like two minutes when he gets naked, that’s the only thing I saw. It was at the Mill Valley Film Festival and they were doing —
Geoffrey Rush: They sent clips from my films as a tribute. When I got up on stage to be interviewed, I just went, “Sorry Soph.”
Sophie Nelisse: So I was a bit scared. But he’s just amazing. We had a lot of fun. And I was just surprised that he was sort of like me. I mean, I’m not as experienced as him obviously, but he was just such a good actor. He just gets in and out of his character so easily and does the scene perfectly. He would just be doing something in the basement, run upstairs, get into character, do the scene perfectly and then make a magic trick just with things in the kitchen. And I was really surprised to see that he was the funniest on set. We had to make the scenes, and even if it’s a really hard subject, we would have so much fun.
And what about her blew you away?
Geoffrey Rush: Well, you know, I saw Monsieur Lazhar, which Sophie shot when she was 10 and it was comparably tough material for those kids. And I just felt I’d never seen anyone of that age have such a natural, beautiful rapport with a lens, and be able to delve into such a level of emotional credibility and subtlety, you know, and so effortless with the kind of gracefulness and charisma onscreen that’s not showy and not something to decorate the character. So I knew that she was going to be extraordinary as Liesel, a much bigger part and really carrying the film. But I’d already seen she had this wonderful range.
You’ve done a lot of theater — could you see this story translated onto the stage?
Geoffrey Rush: I think Steppenwolf (Theatre) in Chicago did a production that Brian and Markus went to see. This was maybe before we were shooting. I don’t know who did the adaptation. It was invaluable. It helped Brian a lot. He said it was really, really good. But they had adhered more to, what I think is a stroke of genius in the novel, having the whole story related by Death. And they had taken that idea, so they had a narrator present onstage all the way through, which Brian kind of thought you cannot have that in the film because we’ll never get to know the characters. And in a film, it’s got to be her story from the train to the house, with grief, with the literacy, with no mother, with new parents.
Have either of you read the book? Did you read it before doing the film, during or after?
Sophie Nelisse: I started to read the first 20 pages actually because at my first audition I read the book and the script. So I went really unprepared. But then in the plane going into my second audition, because it was in L.A. and I don’t live here, I read the script. And it’s the first time that a script made me cry. And then I just thought I have to do this movie, it’s really good. So my third audition I started to read the book. I only got to the first 20 pages in French. And I got the part. And I didn’t want to read the book because I was like, it gets confusing saying, “Is this in the book, is this in the script?” … So I said I’m gonna read it when I’m done shooting.
But then school was on and everything. And then summer came and I just didn’t feel like reading a book in summer. So I read it about a month ago, and I just really loved the book, but I should’ve read the book before because I’ve already seen the shooting of the movie at that point. So it’s like reading myself. I would just see Geoffrey as Hans. Or I’d see like Emily as Rosa. So I’d love to read the book to have my own perception of the scenes and everything. Now I know if I ever do a next movie and I have a book, I will read it before.
Geoffrey Rush: Shamefully, I hadn’t heard of the book even though Markus is an Australian author. So I read the screenplay. And, of course, I instantly went to the book as well as I thought it was such a phenomenal rich piece of writing. But it is a novel. The screenplay is sort of different in that the ideas and the narration of death can take the non-dialogue parts of the story into a different philosophical kind of terrain.
My teenage daughter said, “Dad, I’ve seen The Book Thief script on your desk. Are you gonna be in it?” And I said, “Well, they’re offering me the part.” And she said, “Oh, are you gonna be Death?” Everyone’s a casting director in my house. And I said, “No, the father, Hans Hubermann,” and I said, “Do you know it?” She said, “Oh yeah. We all read this book when we were year ten as 15-year-olds.” And she said, “And that book changed our lives.” And I thought wow, firstly because she used the word “book” in a sentence, I found that pretty wild — and that it changed their lives.
Sophie, you spoke about Geoffrey entertaining you during the tough scenes. What were the tough scenes for each of you in this shoot? (Warning: spoilers ahead if you have not read the book or seen the film)
Sophie Nelisse: It was the whole scene when everyone dies and then I had to cry all day. And it was fun because it was like a challenge for me. And at the end I was really proud of myself. But it’s just so depressing. And it was just so awkward at the same time because I had to kiss Nico and it was just really, really awkward. I just didn’t like it at all. No, we were like brothers and sisters and then we would look at each other saying I can’t believe we’re doing this. I mean we would speak all the time, but that day I barely exchanged a word. And it wasn’t so fun.
But I was really happy that he was there because he’s so joyful. He brings so much joy to everybody. He’s so cute. So, it was just so much — even if you’re really tired he’d be jumping around nonstop just going and says: “Hey, you want to this, you want to that?” So when I had to cry it was a bit annoying because he would jump right next to me when I’m trying to concentrate. I’m like, “Nico, I’m trying to cry here so can you please like go jump somewhere else?” But for the rest of the day — I mean, at the end of the day when I was really depressed and so tired and saying I cried all day — he would just be there and we would go and watch America’s Next Top Model.
Geoffrey Rush: Nothing specific … I’ve acted for a while and I’m sort of now coming up to 20 years in film after having done 25 years or something onstage. And, you know, on this role I was really attracted to it because of its lack of flamboyance and it’s quiet, ordinary quality. And Sophie really shifted the goal posts of what I thought screen acting was about, you know what I mean? Because she is somebody that doesn’t go out to the camera. The camera comes into all of everything that’s going on inside her. So I really looked forward to even the tough scenes of having to explain who Max was, where that accordion fits into the story, what you’ve got to do. You have to lie. We could be killed. To play that to a 12-year-old actress who is sitting there, I could feel her processing the burden of what the family now has to do, you know, and in a way, I was always projecting my own daughter at 12 or 13, even though I was getting a beautiful response. So I really enjoyed those days. But we then went off after we’d done all the back lot stuff, we went off and did some location things where my truck is going off to war and the train station and all of that. And in the meantime, the art department came in and bombed Himmel Street. Emily and I, when we walked on the set that day, we just burst into tears. It was a really strong day.
Mr. Rush, you’ve played some memorable characters over the years in film. How do you know when it’s a character you want to take on? Is there a moment when you’re reading the script or does it just come?
Geoffrey Rush: There is something that goes, “Do me, do me.” I don’t know what it is. But I certainly know when it’s not there. With Shakespeare in Love, by page four of that script I said to my agent, “I have to be in this story.” And same with this … It was just magic. I went, “This is beautiful.” And to be honest, it’s not the sort of texture of script that’s around too often. And for Fox 2000 to take this on as a studio, ’cause they’re mostly doing fantastical comic book adaptations, whatever, I don’t know … I have worked with Fox Searchlight many years ago with Quills and The Banger Sisters and stuff. But I knew they’d done Life of Pi, and I knew they did Devil Wears Prada, and now they were doing The Book Thief. And I thought, “I can’t work out the house style.” But I figured, “Well, they’re all bold, they’re brave. They break a mold of what we think could be in the cineplexes.” And I think that’s fantastic.
The Book Thief is out now in limited release.