On the Verge: Antonia Desplat
Antonia Desplat’s name might sound familiar to a proper cinephile. That’s because her father is Alexandre Desplat, one of the most successful film composers in Hollywood. The actress has been making a name for herself over the last few years, with her largest and most public role in the Apple TV series Shantaram, based on the beloved novel. In the series, Desplat plays Karla, a Swiss woman who enters the life of Charlie Hunnam’s Lin, and he almost immediately falls in love with her. Soon, however, he finds there’s a lot more to her than he thought, and not necessarily in a good way. The London resident was in Los Angeles, crashing at her dad’s house when she chatted with us.
You know, it’s interesting. I interviewed your father, about eight or nine years ago.
Did you? That’s funny. I’m stealing his house at the moment.
He’s one of the most successful, famous composers out there, even won a couple of Oscars. Did his work influence your choice of career?
It did in a way. I wanted to be a ballerina. His career has made me have an upbringing where I had to be classically trained in music, in guitar, and ballet. I think it taught me how to have perseverance, and be very disciplined with my work. I left France when I was 16, when I left because I didn’t want to be “the daughter.” That’s how I was referred to in France. I love my dad, and I’m so proud of being his daughter, but I wanted to make my own way.
So then how did you end up an actress?
I couldn’t be a ballerina because of my height and my flexibility. Too tall, not flexible enough. My parents were like, “Oh, my God, we have to do something with this energy, because this girl is just constantly performing.” So they put me in an acting agency my sister was already part of. I got my first role as a grumpy young girl who didn’t want to do anything that she was told to. I got on set and I was like, “Oh! I think this is my new calling.”
You’re lucky you weren’t typecast as the grumpy girl who didn’t want to do anything.
(Laughing) No, because now I’m a very happy person who just wants to work and I love my job more than anything in the world.
Let’s talk about Shantaram, which is the biggest thing you’ve done in your career. What was it like, being involved in something on this scale?
It was terrifying because I did the audition, I think on a Tuesday. On the Friday, I was told that I was going to Mumbai to chemistry read with Charlie Hunnam. So I was flown out on Monday, and then I got the role in the next week or so. It was all so quick, and so anxiety-inducing because you know, I didn’t have a second to actually let the information sink in. But then the pandemic started, and we went on a hiatus for 14 months. I think that was a blessing in disguise, because it gave me a lot of time to sit and actually digest it all. I got to know parts of myself that I didn’t particularly know before, and I think having that time to know myself and to understand the character and the huge pressure of taking on the role of Karla, I felt very ready to take it on when we started again.
Karla is a great character in the book because, on the surface, she’s the perfect woman. Underneath that, though, there is such pain, and deviousness, and self-loathing. We find that there’s a reason to everything she does, she doesn’t do anything by accident. I would think playing that would have to be fairly immersive.
Yeah, I can just get lost in the character. There’s a sense of independence about Karla that I didn’t particularly have in my life, but then I started going out on my own for dinner, to the theater, to galleries, to the cinema, and really trying to understand what that felt like. She is so in control, but I think there’s this constant push and pull between power and love. She believes power is what’s gonna save her and keep her safe, and love is what’s going to destroy her, yet deep down all she wants is to be loved.
Do you find that playing a role like this leaves a lasting impression on you?
One hundred percent, yeah. I think there should be a rule after you come out of a shoot that is so long, where you go off on your own for two weeks and just recalibrate. Because you know, you’re living the life of the character in your head, and each character that you play in your life will bring out some part of yourself that you either haven’t tapped into, or have been afraid to tap into. I think Karla has definitely lingered.
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