Many of us know the tragic ending to Anne Frank‘s story, and that ending certainly plays out in Monday’s A Small Light finale. But the closing of National Geographic’s restricted sequence additionally sheds gentle on what’s not as well-known: what occurred after World War II to Anne’s father, Frank, and the individuals who hid him and his household from the Nazis.
The two episodes that end the sequence cope with the horror of the seize of the Frank and Van Pels households and Dr. Pfeffer. But additionally they spotlight the bravery of Miep and Jan Gies within the aftermath of that atrocity, and the best way that Otto’s bond with the Gies household fortified him within the face of such unimaginable loss.
TVLine checked in with Bel Powley (The Morning Show), who performs Miep, to speak about what it was like making that transferring finale. Read on to listen to her ideas.
TVLINE | We’ll get to the occasions of the finale in a second, however I’ve to let you know: I’ve been so taken with the best way this story has such a feminine focus, how issues like procuring meals for everybody within the annex was practically a full-time job. I really feel like we don’t at all times get that perspective.
Absolutely. And, simply on a bigger notice, that this era of historical past, clearly, has been explored lots in movie and tv, and it’s virtually at all times explored via the male gaze. I can’t let you know what number of movies and TV reveals I’ve seen about males at battle, which, I do know individuals love them, however I’m a bit over it. [Laughs] There have been so many unimaginable, heroic girls throughout this time who, yeah, they may not have been on the frontline and within the trenches, however they have been doing actually superb issues like Miep was.
TVLINE | Now that we’re on the finish of the sequence, discuss to me about how you assume this expertise modified Miep.
I feel, in that method, this present is also seen as a coming-of-age story. You know, once we meet this younger lady, she may be very relatable. I feel anybody who’s been of their early 20s, or who’s of their early 20s, can relate to, like, partying an excessive amount of and falling in love for the primary time and feeling a bit directionless and never figuring out what you’re going to do along with your life.
And over the course of eight episodes, yeah, we span a while, but in addition, lots adjustments inside this younger lady who, with out hesitation, stated sure to her boss as a result of she knew that was the precise factor to do. I feel issues change in her relationship together with her husband and her relationship with the Franks, relationship with Otto. But additionally, you understand, her relationship with herself. She most likely, like, realizes she had energy that she by no means knew that she had earlier than.
TVLINE | It looks like the entire exhausting stuff in her previous may embitter her, however she by no means comes throughout that method in your portrayal. As we see, she has hope for Margot and Anne’s survival well past the purpose that most individuals did, proper?
Yeah. But I do assume that, I imply, if it was me, I might have hope, too. Imagine being in that scenario. She most likely couldn’t bear to even go there, to consider what may’ve occurred to them. It needed to be in her head like, “No, they’re going to be OK. They’re strong, and you know, some people…we saw Otto come back.”
Since the second they went into the annex and Amsterdam got here underneath the occupation, everybody had to stay with hope. Otherwise, all the things would simply disintegrate, much more than it already had. I don’t know. I don’t know the place she will get it from. I feel perhaps it was her childhood… being despatched away as a child and being ravenous.
I feel perhaps seeing the selflessness of her start mom sending her daughter away to a different household to save lots of her life, after which the selflessness of the household who adopted her, who already had different children — I feel rising up with that kindness round, it most likely infuses into you. But it additionally offers you an extremely thick pores and skin and a way of independence and bravado.
TVLINE| Speaking of bravery: It should’ve taken a lot for her to march into the Nazi headquarters to attempt to purchase freedom for everybody taken from the annex.
Yeah. She simply had this, like, unwavering sense of what’s proper and what’s incorrect. I imply, we are able to all be taught from it… Her ethical compass was, so, so robust, and that’s why, like, with out hesitation, she stated, sure, in fact I’ll provide help to. Without hesitation, she stated, I’m going to enter the Gestapo headquarters and attempt to get them again.
TVLINE | Talk to me about capturing that scene. The Nazi iconography is horribly placing. As a Jewish lady in that scenario, what was your response if you stepped onto that set?
It was freaky. And you understand what? Fun truth. That set was the precise Gestapo headquarters in Prague the place we have been filming.
TVLINE | What?!
Yeah. I do know. It was mad. Yeah. It was horrible, and it was scary. I’ve to say, by that time within the filming course of, we’d already most likely been going for, like, 4 months. We’d positively gotten fairly used to seeing Nazis on set, and you understand, you get used to the world that you simply’re residing in each day and the narrative that we’re telling. But yeah, it was freaky.
Daniel [Donskoy], who performs the Nazi officer who arrested all of them and to whom she goes to make her plea to on the Gestapo headquarters, I feel he performed it so brilliantly… He was scene associate, and yeah, it labored.
TVLINE | Prior to the present, I hadn’t actually understood the friendship that Miep and Otto had. When I spoke with [showrunner] Joan Rater, she identified how shut they need to’ve been, for Otto to decide on to stay together with her and Jan for years after the battle.
There are so many issues that made Miep a really trendy lady for the time, and I feel that’s certainly one of them. I actually learn it as and performed it as they’re greatest buddies, like, greatest mates. And for a younger lady to have that type of friendship with a person 20 years her senior within the ’40s is unprecedented and is extremely modern, and I believed there’s one thing actually fascinating about that. It positively wasn’t exhausting to play that out with Live [Schreiber], who I like.
TVLINE | Talk to me about filming that scene within the finale the place he’s sitting in her lounge and thanking her for saving the diary.
Oh my god, yeah. He was so good in that scene. It was all very natural, and that basically is how Liev and I labored collectively for your complete sequence. We have been by no means married to 1 method of enjoying the scene, and we actually explored and performed collectively, which I feel is what makes these scenes work so properly…
I had no concept how he was going to play it. He was off-set. He was exterior, and we didn’t actually discuss in any respect till they referred to as motion and he got here into the room. I used to be blown away by his efficiency, but in addition, the truth that there was no type of anticipation to how he was going to play it made it really feel, clearly, all of the extra actual. It made it all of the extra emotional for everybody I feel. Yeah, I feel it was actually lovely.
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