This Season of The Alienist Gave Daniel Bruhl Nightmares
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness is not a feel-good show. Far from the TV equivalent of comfort food, the New York City-set period thriller interrogates the worst of human nature. And yet, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to fester in the United States, the beautifully unsettling series is almost compulsively watchable. Something about a story filled with dread and yes, even gore, seems just about right for the summer of 2020. But that doesn't mean it won't still give you nightmares.
Much like season one of The Alienist, which premiered in 2018, Angel of Darkness follows a team of investigators: private detective Sara Howard (played by Dakota Fanning), New York Times reporter John Moore (Luke Evans), and the titular alienist (for the uninitiated, that's an old-school term for a psychologist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (portrayed by Daniel Brühl), as they work to solve a central crime—but the show's second chapter has a decidedly more feminine energy than its first.
Yes, Howard takes on more of a leadership role within the trio, and that's certainly part of it, but several of the crime's key suspects are also women, and the story revolves around a maternity hospital, and the kidnapping and murder of babies, an idea so inhumane it isn't often explored on television.
"I could tell from my wife's reaction that second season resonated much more than the first one," Brühl tells Town & Country. "Without criticizing the first season, obviously with her being a mother and me being a father of a little boy and expecting our second child to be born very soon, we were very touched by it."
Watching the series affected Brühl so intensely that he had nightmares.
"It was interesting, because I'm not that affected whilst I'm playing and acting it out, but when I watched, it really gave me a couple of nightmares because I was thinking of my own child," he says.
"That theme of losing a child, of motherhood, or fatherhood, respectively, and of babies being kidnapped is universal. And it's so horrible that I think more people will be touched, moved, and affected by it."
The sense of anxiety that permeates the new episodes is exactly what gives the show an allure right now.
The season also delves deeper into Kreizler's work in the fledgeling field of criminal psychology; Brühl's wife, Felicitas Rombold, who just so happens to be a real-life psychologist, was integral in his preparation for the new episodes.
"My wife is an alienist for real, so she always gave me great advice and things to read. And she also pushed me to do a hypnosis session," he says, explaining that that hypnosis plays a key role in the new episodes. "Somehow I never really believed in it, or I didn't dare to do it, so that was a good reason to try it."
The first time he went in for an appointment, he says, nothing happened. The second time, though, he visited an acclaimed hypnotist in Hungary, where the show films. "I could feel that something was happening," he says. "Still, I wasn't ready 100% to let loose, because I'm such a helpless control freak. So I guess if I do it another time, then maybe I would fully experienced it."
That up-tight nature is a trait Brühl shares with his character in the show, though it's something Dr. Kreizler is actively working on in season two. "It's not that easy for Laszlo to accept that Sara Howard is pretty much taking over the position as the leader in their triangle, that she's really command," Brühl explains.
"Eventually, because he's a smart guy, he realizes that she has all the qualities to be, in fact, the best leader to conduct this new case. And I think thanks to that bond he shares with her, and also with John Moore, he eventually is able to open up emotionally more than he was in season one, which will lead to him finding a kindred spirit. I don't want to give away too much, but he will find someone that he's very interested in."
Over the past two decades Brühl, who was born in Barcelona to a German father and Spanish mother, has endeared himself to Hollywood as a sort-of European everyman, able to assume any number of nationalities, thanks to his ambiguous appearance and impressive language skill. As the Hollywood Reporter counted in 2018, Brühl played men from nine different countries over the span of just 15 years.
His best-known role among Americans is, depending on your taste in film, likely that of Nazi soldier Fredrick Zoller, from Quentin Tarantino's 2009 Inglourious Basterds, or of super villain Helmut Zemo in the Marvel Universe. Darkness, whether overt evil, or more a subtle tinge of wickedness, is not uncommon in the projects he takes on.
"The more diverse and different a project is, the more interesting for us as actors," Brühl says, explaining that after playing a devoted son in 2003's Good Bye Lenin!, he got tired of being offered the part of the "nice boy next door."
"So I was very relieved when directors came and all of a sudden offered me much darker material, very often with the perspective from outside. Within Germany, they saw me as that perfect son, and then the Americans, like Tarantino, Ron Howard, or people in Spain saw me in a different way, which was great."
But these days, Brühl wouldn't turn down a bit of lighter fare.
"After so much darkness I wouldn't complain about playing a nice guy again. We'll see what the future brings."
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness airs Sunday nights on TNT
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