Logan Lerman in ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’.Photo:Vlad Cioplea/Hulu
Vlad Cioplea/Hulu
Logan Lerman in ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’.Hulu
Hulu
“I will never forget seeing Logan for the first time,” she tells PEOPLE. “It was a scene where he was waiting outside the Polish embassy in France to try to get permission to go to return to Radom to see his family for Passover.”Hunter learned from her family members that her grandfather’s mother, Nechuma, wrote him a letter at the start of World War II, telling him that it was too risky to come home for the holiday. He tried to find a way back to Poland anyway.
“The camera just zoomed in on his face and he’s sitting outside the embassy waiting for his name to be called,” Hunter recalls. “He just looked so haunted and tormented at the fact that he’s been there, he’s going every day to try to get this visa to return. I just started bawling the second I saw his face. It just brought it home. I had imagined it, but seeing it, there’s nothing like it.”
Georgia Hunter (left), Joey King, Logan Lerman (center), Erica Lipez and Thomas Kail.PictureGroup/Disney
PictureGroup/Disney
Hunter’s grandfather didn’t talk about his Jewish upbringing, so Hunter developed the plot forWe Were the Lucky Onesfrom stories she learned from other relatives through a school project and family reunions.
The author learned how her grandfather, his four siblings and parents survived the war in ways that one publisher deemed almost too extraordinary to be believed — from creating false IDs to holding a secret wedding under cover of night.
Penguin Books
“I went into this particular project as a family historian, not really as an author,” Hunter says. “I had never written a book before, so I set out in 2008 to unearth and record the family story.” Her nearly decade-long research process involved interviewing family members, spending extensive time in museums and archives, and traveling to her ancestor’s hometown in Poland.
Throughout her time on the show, Hunter says that the cast, which features all-Jewish principal actors, had many questions about the real people they were portraying, and that their curiosity paid off in her eyes.
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“I am in awe of the way the entire cast has brought their characters to life,” Hunter says. “They’re such a beautiful ensemble.”We Were the Lucky Onesis now streaming on Hulu.
source: people.com
