How director Shawn Levy found his blind leading lady for WWII drama All The Light We Cannot See

NEW YORK – The most-watched English-language series on Netflix globally for the first week of November, All The Light We Cannot See is a World War II drama about a blind French girl forming an unlikely connection with the young German soldier tracking her down.

Based on Anthony Doerr’s popular 2014 Pulitzer-winning novel of the same name, it stars 29-year-old American newcomer Aria Mia Loberti, who is legally blind and beat thousands in a global search for the protagonist Marie.

German actor Louis Hofmann, 26, plays Werner, a boy forced to fight for the Nazis. American actor Mark Ruffalo plays Marie’s father, while English star Hugh Laurie is the uncle who takes them in and hides them after the Germans invade Paris.

The four-part miniseries is directed by Shawn Levy, and the Canadian film-maker – who helmed the Night At The Museum film franchise (2006 to 2022) and the superhero sequel Deadpool 3 (2024) – says the project was a departure for him.

“I read this book when it came out and it moved me deeply,” the 55-year-old says at a screening held in New York earlier in 2023. “At that time, the rights were unavailable and I was also kind of known as the family comedy director, not the period piece auteur.

“But I wanted to see if I could do something more than I’d done.”

Levy, who also directed the action comedies The Adam Project (2022) and Free Guy (2021), felt the pressure of adapting such a beloved book.

“But I knew that if I did right by the material in my own opinion as a fan of the book, probably other fans of the book would be happy with the work as well.”

He believes the novel – which has been praised for its poetic style, intricate structure and level of detail – needed a long-form medium such as television to do it justice.

“I think that’s why they tried and failed to turn it into a movie – it’s too dense to do as a two-hour story.

“The novelist built such a complex and suspenseful structure and it’s almost romantic in the way it follows these two young characters separately, but they are almost destined to intersect.

“So I tried to honour what was on the page.”

For the part of Marie, Levy launched a global casting call and made sure it was accessible to blind communities, including by formatting the scripts to different levels of sightedness and reading techniques.

“I decided, early in pre-production, that the right way to do this story was to do it with authenticity, which meant casting a Marie who would not be guessing at or approximating what that experience is, but who had lived experience of navigating the world and coming of age with either low vision or blindness,” he says.

After the casting announcement went out, the production received thousands of audition videos, including from “people in their dormitory rooms, people in their bedrooms, people in their living rooms, and from some sighted actors, some non-sighted actors, and many non-actors”, Levy recalls.

But Loberti – who received a master’s degree in ancient rhetoric on a prestigious Fulbright scholarship from the United States government, and is now working on her doctorate – blew them all out of the water, even though she had never acted before.

She was born with a rare genetic eye condition that renders her blind in some environments and low vision in others. She says she auditioned “just because I loved the source material, and the book was so special – to my mum in particular, but also to me”.

But when she got the role, she could not quite believe it. “It feels like it’s a made-up story even more so than the fantasy of the film or the book.”

Loberti credits her 55-year-old co-star Ruffalo for making her feel comfortable on set.

Ruffalo is known for playing Bruce Banner/Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films and won an Emmy for his dual role as identical twins in the miniseries I Know This Much Is True (2020).

“He’s a lovely person and he really took time with me so that we could sell the relationship and make it beautiful.

“And what a good human being. He’s just a treat to work with and a wonderful mentor.”