#cast interview

The STRAW HAT CREW Cast talks about LUFFY’s evolution, SANJI & ZORO’s relationship, and SANJI’s Childhood Backstory

Q: You specifically said when someone asked about Azune’s pronunciation that it’s never been corrected, and [that] there is a reason for that. Is that tied to that question of identity, but also memory, because it’s so muddled? Because he was taken at such a young age?

A: It is that and so much more. I think that a lot of it is his… he’s really fixated on ‘I will be whoever I need to be depending on who I’m in the presence of’. And there’s certain things that I think are easy for him to compromise. There’s certain battles that he is not going to have because they’re not productive.

And something like correcting someone’s pronunciation was an accident. I just noticed that in the beginning of our play, people were pronouncing it differently. And to me, one of my philosophies in this thing that we do is that there’s no such thing as mistakes ever. Anything that happens — something like that can be folded into a discovery about the story, a discovery about a relationship or a character.

Can his eyes get any bigger?

Freya Allan(Mae) and Owen Teague(Noa) in KOTPOTA interviews

There are so many interesting points in this interview, so many funny moments, and Assad has never looked more beautiful. (I say this every time I see him, and he somehow keeps surprising me. It's like magic.)

We already knew but it's confirmed. I read comments of people saying stuff like "writers this season were fucking up the timeline with the dates" refering to the end of the interview + the date Daniel was transformed as if, AS IF, dates were being mentioned for the sake of saying some numbers.

He also confirms the new cult allegations as children of darkness 2.0 as a regression since he was 'proved' by his failure with Louis that leaving those old ways led him to loose everything, so he cocooned for two years to emerged into this very evil butterfly 🦋

Nothing new, but I feel that TV actors canonizing something the fandom holds close is always valuable. So, Armand finds comfort in being tortured

Assad said that it was not easy for him the change in tone and the writing of this season. He describes it as a journey with ups and downs and bipolar episodes, that he struggled with the first episodes as a viewer and with the scripts. He questioned many things but guarantees that as the season advances everything makes sense in ways that showed him this was the best way to tell the story. That many things come back and are revisited to give a new meaning, including for Armand particularly for episode 7. I'm scared.

As for the apology letters: Assad says he actually wrote his own version, and it was much more vulnerable and honest. He says something along the lines of, "He didn't realize it, but he couldn't read Daniel's mind because he was under his spell." He also says, "He thought he was clouded by the love he had for Louis, but it was for Daniel."

That last line is a little odd to me because there is this persistency in the conjugation that makes me think Armand only realized he loved Daniel AFTER Dubai.

Assad also says that Rolin was basically like, "Very nice, Assad, but that is not the letter we're using, yours is too vulnerable and honest for Armand right now." (I like to imagine Rolin patting him on the head before putting the apology letter on the writers' room fridge.)

He also explains that Daniel's letter and Lestat's letter served different purposes. Daniel's letter was a love confession, something meant for Daniel to Have. The apology letter for Lestat was also a confession, but one directed inward: an acknowledgment of what Lestat had made him become and of how the disaster Armand had made of his own life over the last century stemmed from his obsession with Lestat. Assad recognizes that, at this point in the story (episode 4), Armand has completely lost hope of being understood. He doesn't expect either Daniel or Lestat to hear him or accept his apologies, but he still believes it's important for Armand to say those things out loud.

Hi rambles on this small section of interview!!!!!

minor tvl ep1 spoiler, nothing major, but thought I’d say anyway

“He doesn’t know how to get himself out of it” (Assad about Armand)

Thinking about the parallels between lestat and armand already just from this line from assad and the end of episode one when lestat sees Gabrielle!

I can’t remember which interview it was or when assad said it exactly but I recall him saying that there was going to be a kind of parallel between both lestat and Armand’s journeys in season three. And this has reminded me of just that.

I don’t know how im going to cope when we see the scene/moment assad mentions where armand is understood for the first time in the final episode. It will probably involve tears and some aggressive pacing and flailing lol. I wonder if the understanding will come from gabrielle and/or lestat? maybe daniel? or possibly someone else entirely.