Those About to Die: “It’s hard not to draw parallels with the Paris Games!”
Before Gladiator 2, we will dive into the arena this summer with this great peplum series on Prime Video, directed by Roland Emmerich. French actress Sara Martins will be in the cast. She tells us everything about this spectacular costume production, in the heart of the nascent Coliseum.
FIRST: Those About to Die (which starts Friday on Prime Video) is a great peplum series. It’s an increasingly rare genre…
SARA MARTINS : I was raised on peplums! I grew up in the 1980s and we saw a lot of them on TV. The sets are crazy, there were thousands of extras. It’s a great show. But these are also productions that require big budgets. You have to build a lot of things, make all the costumes… I loved the series Rome HBO at the time! I was a big fan. But it was very expensive to make and I think that’s why it didn’t last very long (2 seasons, editor’s note).
Where did you shoot to recreate ancient Rome?
In the legendary Cinecittà studios in Rome. Walking past Fellini’s studio number 5 is a thrill… And so there is a part of Cinecittà that reproduces ancient Rome with a few streets, a bit of the Colosseum etc. These are sets that were made in part for the series Rome (HBO) and have been kept for two decades. Some sets even date from the film Cleopatra (from 1963). There is also the Circus Maximus which was remade at the time of the remake of Well–Hur (2016). I felt like a child at Parc Astérix in front of all that! I even had the little music from the old Asterix cartoons running through my head, seeing these legionnaires in uniform around me on the set (laughs)!
In Those About to Die, you play Cala, a mother from Numidia…
Yes, she comes from this region in North Africa that was called Numidia. I had to work on a particular African accent from that time. We even created a Numidian language for the series, because we don’t know exactly what language they spoke in that part of the world. The series also tells how Rome, at that time, was a place of immigration. People came from all over the world. Rome was a very cosmopolitan city, where entire populations expatriated in the hope of offering a better future to their children. Cala, for her part, is the quintessence of maternal love. Everything she does, she does to save her children. Unlike the other characters, she is not in a search for power. Her family is all she has. There is a little bit of Liam Neeson in her films. Taken (laughs)! Because she is led to do things that are not very moral, for good reasons.
Those About to Die also talks about the manipulation of the masses, how to please the people to prevent them from revolting. It’s a very political series at heart, isn’t it?
Why does the population need entertainment, often the bloodiest ones, to not revolt? This is one of the central themes of the series. There is always a very political dimension in peplums. Because peplums are also a way of talking about ourselves with a certain distance. Those About to Die comes out during the Paris Olympic Games… and it’s hard not to draw a parallel with the tensions in today’s society! All these games, these entertainments, have something very political about them and that’s why the Emperor attended them… just as presidents are today in the stands during the football or rugby world cups.
It is also a historical series, which tells the story of the succession of Vespasian (played by Anthony Hopkins) and the construction of the Colosseum. What does it say about the Roman Empire?
We show the splendor of this society that colonized the world of the time. It’s fascinating. But what’s even more fascinating is its fall! Despite its power, its opulence, the Roman Empire fell. And we can’t help but make the comparison with our rich modern societies. Our megalopolises – which are the Rome of today – can collapse overnight. Why? How? Rome also seemed indestructible at the time. We see that it’s happening from the inside. It’s the internal fractures in societies that lead to their fall.
Filmmaker Roland Emmerich directed half of the episodes. What did he bring to the series?
Roland is a master of the image. He leaves nothing to chance on the set. Sometimes, he comes forward on the set just to move a candle a few centimeters… We are in this kind of detail. His brain sees a thousand things at once. Afterwards, in the direction itself, he is more silent. He prepares everything in advance to the millimeter and when we start filming, he is the first spectator. He is like a child who watches the show and lets himself be surprised. He lets us do it and lets himself be carried away.
Those About to Die, season 1 in 8 episodes, to watch in France on Prime Video on July 19, 2024.