An interview with Marton Csokas
Marton Csokas plays Francis Carver in The Luminaries.
Published: 13 June 2020
I think it’s a metaphor for existence. Everyone has arrived from somewhere else, they’re trying to leave their pasts behind and to build their futures with great dreams. Some of them strike gold, and they wrestle with it.
Who is Francis Carver and where do we meet him in the story?
Francis Carver is the son of a military man and a naval commander. He was brought up in Hong Kong, so he’s the son of an expat. The father was very overruling in a very severe naval way, so they’ve fallen out. He’s been in prison on Cockatoo Island for 10 or 11 years, and when we meet him he’s three months out.
His love affair with Lydia began before before all that, and that’s probably what held him together while he’s been in prison, and now he’s come out. Because of his prison record, although he’s paid his dues, he’s still very much labelled as a convict, which is frustrating for him. He’s had to beg, borrow and steal.
He’s staying in New Zealand for Lydia primarily and the first time we meet him, he suggests they should go away and start again. But Lydia has other ideas which, probably against his better instincts, he agrees to. They have something of a Macbethian relationship in that she spurs him on.
For me, the inner life of Francis Carver has been about wanting to honour that love that he has for her, whilst also, to a large extent, betraying his own instincts.
How would you describe The Luminaries?
I think it’s a metaphor for existence. Everyone has arrived from somewhere else, they’re trying to leave their pasts behind and to build their futures with great dreams and expectations. From the moment they set foot on the shore of this new land they are met with things that they probably hadn’t imagined and their metal is tested, their ethics are tested, their morality is tested. Some of them strike gold and they wrestle with it. You see some of the worst aspects of humanity, and some of the best.
What does gold mean within this story?
Gold represents hopes, dreams, aspirations but also greed, doom and death. The alchemical story of turning lead into gold is quite a good one. The gold that people find ultimately is not the external one but the internal one. That's the journey that interests me, the psychological journey that is more indicative of the human experience. If you earn it quickly, you lose it just as fast.
It’s not very often we see a period drama set in New Zealand.
It’s a pleasure to tell a story that is born in New Zealand, because of the beautiful landscape obviously, and it’s fascinating to see people arriving in Aotearoa (New Zealand) from all over the world. The Māori element meets with a very western greed, that’s not to say that greed doesn’t exist in every culture, because of course it does, but the opportunity for Tauwhare (played by Richard Te Are) is a beautiful juxtaposition for what capitalism really is in the gold rush, and how it defies the goodness of human nature. To see that story against the canvas of New Zealand makes it unique and special.
Series synopsis
An epic adventure mystery based on the Man Booker prize-winning novel of the same name. Set on the wild West coast of New Zealand’s South Island at the height of the 1860s gold rush, The Luminaries tells an intricately woven, suspenseful tale of love, murder, magic, and revenge.
The story begins in 1865. Anna Wetherell (Eve Hewson) has travelled to New Zealand to forge a new life. On the last day of her voyage, a romantic first encounter with the radiant Emery Staines (Himesh Patel) fills her with great expectations for what lies ahead. But the scheming fortune-teller Lydia Wells (Eva Green) has other ideas for Anna, and lays a trap to ensure that the planned rendezvous between the young lovers never takes place.
Deceived, swindled, and betrayed, Anna’s fortunes begin to fall. She is drawn into an elaborate plot of blackmail, involving opium, gold, shipwreck, fraud, and false identity, which ultimately finds her framed for murder and fighting for her life.
But the bond between these star-crossed lovers is more than mere affinity. Anna and Emery are what is known as ‘astral twins’: they were born at the very same instant, and under the very same sky, which means that they share a single destiny.
When Emery vanishes without a trace, leaving Anna without an alibi for a murder she did not commit, the noose of the plot begins to tighten around her. Faced with the impossible, she must ask: do we make our fortunes, or does fortune make us?
Cast and Crew
Eva Green - Lydia Wells
Eve Hewson - Anna Wetherell
Himesh Patel - Emery Staines
Ewen Leslie - Crosbie Wells
Marton Csokas - Francis Carver
Benedict Hardie - Alistair Lauderback
Erik Thomson - Dick Mannering
Richard Te Are - Te Rau Tauwhare
Callan Mulvey - George Shepard
Kieran Charnock - Edgar Clinch
Paolo Rotondo - Aubert Gascoigne
Yoson An - Sook Yongsheng
Matt Whelan - Cowell Devlin
Joel Tobeck - Benjamin Lowenthal
Matt Sunderland - Joseph Prichard
Byron Coll - Charlie Frost
Erroll Shand - Harald Nilssen
Gary Young - Quee Long
Mark Mitchinson - Thomas Balfour
Michael Sheasby - Walter Moody
&
Eleanor Catton - Writer, Creator and Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Mona Qureshi - Executive Producer for the BBC
Tim Bevan - Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Andrew Woodhead - Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Eric Fellner - Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Christian Vesper - Executive Producer for Fremantle
Claudia Bluemhuber - Executive Producer for Silver Reel
Tim White Executive Producer for Southern Light Films
Lisa Chatfield - Producer
Judith Trye - Co-Producer
Luke Robinson - Associate Producer
Claire McCarthy - Director, Executive Producer
Felicity Abbott - Production Designer
Edward K. Gibbon - Costume Designer
Denson Baker - Director of Photography
Jane O’Kane - Make-Up Designer
Alastair Reid - Supervising Editor
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