Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Fantastic news for all of us: the Golden Globe-winning series Mozart in the Jungle returns to Prime Video today. The Amazon original has picked up many new fans and a cloud of buzz since picking up their trophies nearly a year ago at the awards ceremony. The show took home Best Television Series – Comedy, and Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for star Gael Garcia Bernal. With the brand new season upon us, it would be impossible for the show to not rack up even more curious eyeballs.
And this third season is just the charm. For many reasons, including the locations, risks, storytelling, romances, and fantastic acting, it would by no means be a stretch to declare this the show’s best season yet. It has achieved a balance and an excitement that it came so close to grasping in its first two seasons, with the help of some pretty gorgeous backdrops and compelling storylines.
We recently sat down with the cast and producers in New York City to talk travel, music, and of course, love.
The new season opens quite far outside of the jungle in Venice, Italy; Rodrigo is hard at work with a legendary opera singer (Monica Bellucci as Alessandra) and Hailey is traveling with Andrew Walsh’s (Dermot Mulroney) symphony. It doesn’t stay that simple for long, but it explains why several of the main characters, including Bernadette Peters as Gloria and Malcolm McDowell as Thomas, end up in Europe as well. As Peters gushed, “It was so much fun. We became a family, because Malcolm had his whole family there, his children, and so did Paul (Weitz, creator, writer, director and executive producer). So we’d see them for breakfast, and we’d see them for dinner, walking in the streets. It’s such a beautiful place, I know it looks gorgeous.”
Weitz agreed, saying, “It was really fun. I think the thing with this show is that because opera music is so international, the reality is that the conductors are traveling across the world basically. Whatever ideas we have, it seems like Amazon will go for it. I don’t know whether the Golden Globe helped that along. It’s sort of a thing where you can dare yourself to do something, and then if you don’t chicken out, it will happen.”
Roman Coppola, a fellow creator, writer, director, and executive producer, noted, “I think people appreciated when we had the performance in the vacant lot in the first season. But other occasions brought the music to unexpected places and people seem to appreciate that and it’s fun for us, too. When you’re filming a musical performance in Symphony Hall, it feels a little been there done that.”
Executive producer, writer, and director Will Graham further explained, “In working with the actual composers and artists that we worked with on the show, it’s very real. These are people that kind of live international, global. This season we worked with Nico Muhly, who has a cameo in the show. We’d do these calls and he’d be in Reykjavik, and then he’d be in Moscow, and then he’d be in Tokyo. He was never in New York, where he lives, never in the same place twice. So I think in some way the show just sort of trying to echo that reality of what’s it’s like to be this sort of global artist.”
Mozart in the Jungle ends up with a global artist in his own right on their hands this season. Thomas makes an interesting venture into EDM music, and as McDowell explained, “I think Thomas wants to be relevant. And even though it’s beneath him, he gritted his teeth, can’t stand it, but he knows he has to reinvent himself. So he tries it. God bless him for trying, but you could see that his skin is crawling a bit. But he gets into it.”
This might be a new one for some MITJ viewers, but hey, a music fan is a music fan, right? We all know that some fans veer into “snob” territory, and Coppola has certainly experienced several of those since the show premiered in 2014. “We have been pretty lucky in that the music snobs, your term, enjoy the show,” Coppola confessed. “And it’s nice to hear. There’s one important conductor who was intimidating, ‘Oh, what’s he gonna think?’ And he said, ‘Oh, fantastic show, I really enjoyed it. I just wish someone would tell that woman how to hold her bow properly.’ It’s all in good nature. I think people appreciate that we don’t get every exact thing right, but the spirit is there. Some other real classical musicians said, ‘In reality, I go home with my kids, I watch TV, go to sleep, whatever. Our lives aren’t that exciting.'”
But that doesn’t mean the subject matter isn’t! As Weitz added, “Recently there was an anthrax scare at the Metropolitan Opera because somebody dropped white powder into the musician’s pit… it was the ashes of a deceased friend. So you know, in real life there are so many stories that seem like they would be appropriate for the show.”
Also appropriate for the show? The Hailey/Rodrigo storyline. In the first two seasons, we’ve experienced them going from strangers, to maestro-assistant, to “Whoops, we made out a little bit”, to “We’re friends!…” So where is it this season? As Bernal summed up, “It’s complicated, it’s one of those things I love that it is not defined. It takes many shapes, takes many possibilities, just like love should be.”
Kirke echoed that sentiment, recalling her reaction to their storyline this season. “I was like, ‘Oh, ok that makes sense,’ it just seemed like another extension of things they might do with each other. Something that’s really cool about their relationship is how varied it is, how it isn’t just a romantic relationship, or how it’s even more of a romantic relationship because there are these creative and friendlier elements of it.”
From Weitz’s point of view, “I was a little bit worried about being coy and never dealing with their romantic attraction. But I really like the idea that at it’s heart it’s not about that. That it’s in a weird way about friendship. One thing that can screw up a friendship is romance or status. And also, clearly she has to become her own person.”
“You sort of look at where Hailey’s been,” Graham pointed out. “She’s not just happy to be in the room anymore, she’s thinking about what she really wants, and what kind of music and what kind of art she wants to make. And that changes the dynamics of a relationship for a mentor who sometimes is someone you make out with and sometimes it’s someone you talk to and sometimes it’s someone you make music with. So I think in some ways that is part of the story of the two of them for the season.”
Plus, it’s always lovely to hear that on-screen friendship extends to real life as well. “He definitely really enjoys playing Rodrigo and so it’s a pleasure to be around somebody who’s happy and enjoys doing what they’re doing it and it definitely rubs off on me,” Kirke said of Bernal. “It’s very much a dream to get to work with Gael. I definitely had a major crush on him when I was 12 years old and watched that movie [Y Tu Mamá También] over and over and over. But I think that whats been surprising and incredible about working with Gael is the actual friendship that has occurred, and not unlike Hailey and Rodrigo, but the privilege of being around and actor who is really free and really generous and has always made me feel welcome. It’s very encouraging. I think the whole cast is filled with people like that. People that I would never have expected to be around and have only been supportive of me, so I’m really lucky.”
We’re all lucky that season 3 of Mozart in the Jungle is available to enjoy on Prime Video now!
[Watch Mozart in the Jungle on Prime Video]
