Kaos star explains how Romeo + Juliet inspired the series

Aurora Perrineau shares a family anecdote that links these two productions.

What do KAOS And Romeo + Juliet ? In the 90s, Baz Luhrmann dusts off Shakespeare and gives it a new lease of life by modernizing the drama of the two cursed lovers of Verona, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Thirty years later, in the same spirit, Charlie Covell, behind The motherf***ing worldunearths Greek myths and tells them in a contemporary, sarcastic and cruel fable.

On Mount Olympus reign the all-powerful gods led by the greatest of them all, Zeus (Jeff Goldblum). Sadistic and omnipotent, his reign wavers when a prophecy announces that his overthrow will gradually come. This comes true thanks to a trio of men, ready to free their people from the yoke of the gods. Among them is Eurydice (her name will evoke certain memories for experts in mythology). On screen, she is played by Aurora Perrineau (Westworld). It is she who makes the link between the two productions.

Recently, on social media, she shared an anecdote that compared the Netflix series to the cult drama:

“When I was chosen to play in KAOS, the series on Netflix, the mood board was heavily influenced by Romeo + Juliet by Baz Luhrmann. Mercutio was prominent in the painting. It was only during production that the creators discovered he was my father.”

His father, the actor Harold Perrineauquickly confirmed the truth of the facts. At the time, the actor became Romeo's best friend on screen and, like the lovers, experienced a tragic fate – a role for which he auditioned six times! In an interview for Vulturehe explained that his lack of theatrical training frightened him. How could he embody Mercutio without a stint at Julliard? Fortunately for him, the director was looking for modernity, and being himself was more than enough:

“I had never auditioned for Shakespeare before that. Everyone else was from big drama schools like Yale or Julliard, and they were competing for these roles, so I never got them. But this one, I just had to relax and be myself. Because it turned out that for Romeo + Juliet, Who I was really served the character. He didn't need to have a standard American or British accent, or speak with a careful iambic pentameter. He wanted someone who spoke like me: from Brooklyn, with a Brooklyn edge and a Brooklyn accent. My lack of theater training ultimately worked to the benefit of this audition.”

KAOS And Romeo + Julieta family resemblance therefore within the characters, but also in its aesthetics. With its ingenious mixture of classic and modern, its decor far from the images that we have of ancient Greece, and its violence, KAOS reconciles us with our Greek lessons, just as Baz Luhrmann reconciled us with our British literature lessons.

The series has been available on Netflix since August 29.

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