Authenticity, Chemistry and Honouring a Harrowing Chapter of History: Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young Chat 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'

Adapting The Narrow Road to the Deep North was always going to require a dream cast and crew. More than that, any attempt to bring Richard Flanagan's acclaimed 2013 novel to the screen was always set to demand a roster of creatives dedicated to doing the book justice, and to honouring the very real history that the work of fiction draws upon. The author didn't spin a true tale on his pages; however, much is shared with reality. Flanagan's text is steeped in the experience of Australian POWs during World War II, specifically those forced to work on the Burma Railway by the Japanese military. IRL, his own father was one of them.

A cream-of-the-crop lineup is the aim for every screen project, of course, whether it's destined to grace cinemas or television. Streaming via Prime Video from Friday, April 18, 2025, The Narrow Road to the Deep North's talents should make other TV shows envious, Australian and international alike. For the first time in his career, filmmaker Justin Kurzel plies his skills on the small screen. For the five-part miniseries, he adapts a Booker Prize-winning novel again, as he did with True History of the Kelly Gang. Kurzel collaborates with screenwriter Shaun Grant once more, and unpacks complicated Aussie history again in the process as well, as the pair previously navigated with their take on Ned Kelly, plus Snowtown beforehand and Nitram afterwards. Standing before the lens for the duo: Jacob Elordi (Oh, Canada) on a rare return Down Under, Odessa Young (My First Film) falling into the same category, plus everyone from Irish great and Belfast Oscar-nominee Ciarán Hinds, as well as Japan's Shô Kasamatsu (Tokyo Vice), through to the Aussie likes of Olivia DeJonge (Elvis), Thomas Weatherall (Heartbreak High), Simon Baker (Boy Swallows Universe), Heather Mitchell (Love Me) and Essie Davis (One Day).

In one of only five Australian texts to ever claim the prestigious literary award — Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark, DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little, and Peter Carey's aforementioned True History of the Kelly Gang and Oscar and Lucinda are the others — Flanagan charts the path of Dorrigo Evans. Before the Second World War, he has a future in medicine calling. Afterwards, he carves out a career as a respected surgeon. The Narrow Road to the Deep North jumps between the two, as well as his ordeal while being held captive as a prisoner of war. Elordi plays the younger Dorrigo in the series' 40s-era sequences. Hinds steps into the character's shoes in its 80s-set segments.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a character study, as well as an exploration of multiple sides of war. It delves into culture clashes, interrogates heroism and steadfastly stresses the importance of remembering horrors gone by so that they aren't repeated. It's as much a love story, and a portrait of a long-lasting marriage, though — and yet those two aren't quite one and the same. As a young man, Dorrigo's future is also tied to Ella (DeJonge), whose family have ties back to drafting the Australian constitution. Decades later (played by Mitchell), she remains by his side. But before shipping out, before his medical prowess is needed in Syria, before being transported like cattle through Thailand to the jungle and before the compulsory strenuous labour that will claim the life of some of his friends, Dorrigo spends a summer embarking upon a secret affair with Amy Mulvaney (Young), the wife of his uncle Keith (Baker). It's this romance that he thinks of as he endures war's cruelties, and that also stays with him long afterwards.

Casting Elordi and Young as the youthful Dorrigo and Amy are the best choices that The Narrow Road to the Deep North's guiding forces could've made for the two roles. For both actors, it also brought them home. Since 2018's Swinging Safari marked Elordi's first film, he's largely been busy overseas, meaning that Australian projects have been rarities his your resume. With Young, since The Daughter and Looking for Grace each made a splash in 2015, the same has also proven true. On the path from there to The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the pair have amassed an array of credits: The Kissing Booth trilogy, The Mortuary Collection, Deep Water, The Sweet East, Saltburn and Priscilla among them for Elordi; Sweet Virginia, A Million Little Pieces, Shirley, The Stand, Mothering Sunday, The Staircase (with DeJonge), Manodrome and more for Young. They also each have Sam Levinson projects to their name; as the world knows, Elordi is one of Euphoria's stars, while Young led the film Assassination Nation.

"There couldn't be a better opportunity to come home," Elordi tells Concrete Playground about The Narrow Road to the Deep North. In fact, he responded so strongly to Flanagan's novel when Kurzel sent it his way that he started advising his family that the book was the key to understanding him, a statement that "I kind of regret saying", he also notes now. The Macbeth and Assassin's Creed filmmaker's involvement was crucial for him, too, as "an enormous fan of his work for my whole conscious movie life".

Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Prime Video

That's similarly the case for Young, who reteams with Kurzel for the second time in two years, after featuring alongside Jude Law (Skeleton Crew) and Nicholas Hoult (Nosferatu) in the director's excellent 2024 crime-thriller The Order. "I would do anything that he asked me to do. I would love to work with him for the rest of my life, because I believe that he makes me a better performer," she shares.

In our chat with Elordi and Young, we also dug into why Elordi felt such a powerful connection to The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and how infrequent that reaction is for him; Kurzel's penchant for difficult stories; and how Elordi and Young built chemistry together, as characters that Flanagan has compared to stars exploding in galaxies in real time. Covered as well: Elordi and his co-stars' commitment to authenticity in the POW scenes, and the sense of responsibility to the real-life men who worked on the Burma Railway that came with it — and what the two make of their respective journeys from starting out at home to overseas success, then coming back for a series they're clearly both proud of.

On Why The Narrow Road to the Deep North Was the Right Project to Bring Both Elordi and Young Home After Their International Successes

Jacob: "For me, it was Justin Kurzel. I've been an enormous fan of his work for my whole conscious movie life. So it was just the opportunity to be able to work with him."

Odessa: "Yeah, me too. Sorry to copy."

Jacob: "No, no, no. But of course, then you double down when it's Richard Flanagan's text. It's just there couldn't be a better opportunity to come home and try to make some cinema."

On Elordi's Strong Reaction to the Novel, So Much So That He Told Family Members That the Book Was the Key to Understanding Him

Jacob: "I kind of regret saying that now, because if you read the book, like it doesn't remind me of myself at all."

Odessa: "You've changed."

Jacob: "I think there's so many parts, there so many bits of him that are so inherently Australian, that it reminded me so much of a lot of the men in my life and the people that I know, and things like that.

But it is a rare thing — but I feel like those things always happen for a reason. The right thing does find you at the right time, and you read it at a moment in time when it speaks to you. And that's always such a great treat."

On Young Working with Justin Kurzel on Two Projects in a Row, with The Narrow Road to the Deep North Following The Order

Odessa: "I think sometimes you just meet directors who make you a better actor, and he's one of them.

I feel like I got a really lovely introduction to him working on The Order, because for me it was a low-pressure environment. I kind of got to be a bit of the relief from the very, very difficult story. He likes difficult stories, does Justin.

And it was lovely. We just got to know each other under really low-pressure circumstances. And I just really, really love the way he works. It feels very natural to me.

I would do anything that he asked me to do. I would love to work with him for the rest of my life, because I believe that he makes me a better performer."

On the Importance of the Series Being Many Things, Including a Love Story, a Character Study, a Look at Multiple Sides of War, an Interrogation of Heroism and a Reminder Not to Forget Past Horrors

Jacob: "I think that's what makes for great cinema, is all of those human elements and the minutiae in those moments. I think all of them compounded, especially in a piece about memory — it is what cinema is about.

It's a whole life compressed and contained and examined and looked at and explored. And I think having them all is what makes it such a complete piece."

On Building the Type of Chemistry That Author Richard Flanagan Compared to Stars Exploding in Galaxies in Real Time

Odessa: "I think we just both probably sensed in each other quite early on in the rehearsal process that we were both ready to just put it all there. And, I don't know, we were just going to take it seriously. We're going to give as much as we could.

Sorry, I'm using like sports terminology. Leave it all on the field."

Jacob: "Full credit to the other side."

Odessa: "Yeah, everyone was a great player today.

No, but I think we got very lucky. I think we have just a natural understanding and trust in each other. You never know if that's going to work out that way, but it did."

Jacob: "Yeah."

Odessa: "And I think that for me — I won't speak for you, but I do sense this in you — there's no point in doing it if you're not doing it fully."

Jacob: "Yeah."

Odessa: "And I think we're both that kind of actor."

Jacob: "Which is really just — it's either casting from Justin or just some profound luck."

On Committing to Authenticity in the Series' Prisoner-of-War Scenes, and the Sense of Responsibility to the Real-Life Men Who Went Through It That Comes with It

Jacob: "It would probably be the most-important thing. We're talking about real men, and we're talking about Richard Flanagan, the writer's, father — and Shaun Grant's grandfather. These are real people and the history, it's still there. And the trauma of it lives on generationally.

So it's not about entertainment. It's not about shooting guns and making some great spectacle. It's about telling the truth and immortalising something as best that you can."

On What Elordi and Young Make of the Journeys That They've Each Taken Since Their Early Australian Breakthrough Roles

Odessa: "It's hard to characterise it. I think it's actually helpful not to think about it, and not to try to maybe intellectualise — at least for me — why I've chosen the things that I have.

I think so much of the course of a career happens on instinct, and some of it's also dumb luck. But I feel incredibly proud and incredibly lucky, and I guess I haven't done so bad if I'm here celebrating this."

Jacob: "It's an immense amount of luck — and I would say probably shared with a deep love for movies. And if you love movies and you love cinema, it's not so deliberate but you seek out the things that hopefully move you and mean something to you in that moment."

The Narrow Road to the Deep North will stream via Prime Video from Friday, April 18, 2025.

Images: Prime Video.