Its about the cost of lies.
The idea of truth is being laughed at.
And thats whatChernobylis about, its about the cost of that, because its real.
Credit: Liam Daniel/HBO
The character of Lyudmilla thats portrayed by Jessie Buckley this is a beautiful person.
Was there anything you wanted to tackle but didnt?
Anything that wastoobleak?Episode 4 is a tough one.
And it was a first-person story, I was not making it up.
This is an account that somebody told in Svetlana Alexievichs bookVoices From Chernobyl.
We shot it, but it was just too much.
For a few people we did not.
Most of the characters on this show were real people, but notably Emily Watsons character was not.
So there were guidelines there that I did not want to violate.
What are you doing?
Stop doing that, do this.
The three leads noticeably do not speak with any sort of Russian accent.
And the acting starts going all into the accent, and Im losing those moments that feel legitimately real.
Theres an ease and simplicity to it thats not there anymore, its stilted.
And then just logically speaking, Soviet citizens didnt speak English with Russian accents.
They spoke Russian, so what are we even doing?
It doesnt make it more accurate to have them speak it with a Russian accent.
They just didnt know.
And another theory is, how about we do worry about it because it might happen?
And thats prudent, and we should do that.
The final scene between Legasov and Shcherbina was surprisingly tender.
In that same scene, there is also a caterpillar…The caterpillar was a cameo.
Johan was shooting the scene and the caterpillar just happened to be there.
There was no CGI there, there was no stunt caterpillar.
Do you think weve learned from Chernobyl?I think what were struggling with now is something worse.
The planet is heating, the climate is changing.
And thats where we are.
If theres something that people take away from this, I hope its not blah, communism is bad.
Yes, communism is bad, correct.
The Soviet system is terrible, correct.
That ended in 1991, here is what is going on right now in our country and every country.
Easier said than done, it would seem.
So Im forever hopeful, I cant stop being hopeful but I am forever concerned.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
