‘Losing Alice’s Ayelet Zurer Believes Her Show Can Help Change Perceptions of Womanhood

One of the most tense shows of 2021 has nothing to do with murder, kidnappings, or dimension-altering television. It’s about one woman, a script, and a deep desire to make the best movie possible. Despite its simplicity Ayelet Zurer’s restrained and ever-complex role in Losing Alice will keep you gasping.

Zurer plays the titular Alice. A filmmaker, Alice used to be known as a daring artist but has since traded that life for stability and more time with her family. When she meets the impulsive, brilliant, and young Sophie (Lihi Kornowski), she slowly begins to awaken from her creative block. But what cost will this awakening have on her quiet, perfect life?

Zurer’s role in Losing Alice plays constantly with restraint. It’s Zurer’s quiet looks at her husband David (Gal Toren) that feel the most scathing, the slump of her shoulders after directing a successful scene that feel the most erotic. Decider spoke with the Losing Alice and You star about what it was like to tackle this deeply complex role and why Alice’s messiness is actually positive for women.

Decider: It feels like you’re constantly playing different versions of Alice. There’s the parent, the wife, the director, the auteur. You see her shifting through these identities moment to moment. What was it like balancing all those roles at once?

Ayelet Zurer: It was very, very challenging. I have to admit, I didn’t realize how challenging it was going to be until we actually went into filming. … It just didn’t dawn on me that we were going to film it like a film. It’s not like a TV show where you have an episode and then you have the beginning, middle, and you finish that and then you move to the second one and the third and so forth. It was shot like a movie, it was three movies shot at the same time.

When we started filming, I did what I do when I go into movie filming, not TV, which is to know everything by heart. I didn’t know why I was doing it. Sigal [Avin] thought I was crazy. But I said to her that it really helps me know exactly where I am in the story because you can shoot, on the same day, the beginning of the story and the end. Imagine going from one side of the spectrum to the other side of the spectrum. But knowing everything, having everything in my mind, was very helpful. The funny thing is that it was a lot, so I slowly but gradually was sucked in so much that it was hard for me to even be friendly or communicate. It was just Alice, Alice, Alice, the whole time. Later on we talked about that, actually not too long ago because I stumbled upon this article about brain research. Apparently what they’re saying is that they know today once you learn something and you process it, then you let it go, it actually continues to process in your mind and creatively. There are new connections made in your brain, so some new artistic things are coming up. I feel like that’s what happened to me. I went into the place where it was so subconscious everything sort of ruled me rather than me ruling the thing.

That comes across. Sometimes you watch things and it feels lacking, like you wish that like an actor was allowed to explore the full depths of a project. This doesn’t feel like that at all. It feels like a complete thought.

That’s great to hear. Yeah, it was. We are all very intense people. I think Sigal, who is an amazing writer and director, and myself and Lihi [Kornowski] we were really deeply in and very intensely. I think you can feel it, you can sense it.

Losing Alice is obviously a very erotic show. But the most erotic scenes aren’t the sex scenes. They often happen after Alice figures out a scene that she’s been struggling to direct. Were there any conversations about making the creative process look so erotic? Because there is definitely a connection between sexuality and creativity in the show.

Me and Sigal talked a little bit about where I begin as Alice and where I end… In the beginning, she’s definitely — you can see even from the way me and my husband in the story are in bed. It’s sexual, but it’s not quite it. But the minute that creativity seeps in it’s sexual in a way that’s not coming from just being sexual but from being alive. And it’s a creative energy that sort of becomes that, that becomes erotic in a way. Because also there’s such an attraction between Sophie and Alice, on the base of creativity and on the base of creation that it sort of comes up and up and up. It’s percolating, and it was definitely discussed.

Speaking of Sophie, how would you define Alice’s relationship with her? It’s so complicated, I’d love to hear your take on it.

There’s many dimensions to it. It’s a — how do you call that cube? We used to play in the ’80s.

A Rubik’s Cube?

Rubik’s Cube, yeah. That’s kind of what it is. It’s one thing but it becomes some other thing, then it becomes another thing and another thing and they keep changing. In the end, I think that it’s changing based on Sophie’s behavior but also because of Alice’s creative process and how deep she goes into the story and starts to question. Then it’s unclear what’s reality and what’s the story within the story. But Sophie is her, maybe in her youth. Something she used to be, something free and unapologetic, and maybe sexual in a different way. And she’s also everything she’s afraid of now because of the competition. She is young where (Alice) is maybe not so youthful.

She’s also a great friend and someone who could have been a complete companion or equal in the workspace. I think they do understand each other deeply. But the circumstances don’t allow them to become that. It’s so many other things. She’s her fear and her attraction.

Absolutely. There’s an underlying tragedy in that, because these two women seem perfectly suited to understand each other.

Exactly. That’s what we put at the end.

Did you base that relationship off of anything in your real life? Or was it inspired by any movies or shows you’ve seen?

No, not real life, obviously. But sometimes you don’t need to have anything but what’s really happening on set. And I think Lihi did a wonderful job bringing this dangerous creature in, in a way. That was very helpful for me. She brought a lot of sensuality and sexuality that didn’t come up in the rehearsals but definitely in filming. So that kind of raises the bar.

Also, we talked about many things. Mulholland Drive was one of the things that really impacted me way, way a long time ago when it came out. So it kind of stayed with me. But also just the way that the relationship unfolded while filming.

It’s so rare to see the complexities of a female friendship honestly depicted on screen.

It’s normally fantasized. It’s elevated.

It is. It’s either too sweet or too mean or too erotically charged. Like it’s just too much of something.

That’s what’s beautiful about this is because it’s the casting but also Sigal’s writing that’s so great. Because she is a woman, a wife, a writer, and a director. So she has all these sides of her and I think she struggles like all of us to put them all together. But also, she does something very beautiful. Like you said, she really plays with the definition and archetypes of women and she does it so softly that some people don’t feel comfortable with it. Because they are like, “No, we like the woman to be bad or good. We don’t like the middle ground because we don’t feel comfortable with it, because we don’t know what to do with it.”

That middle ground freaks some people out. But it’s a more interesting story.

It creates an interesting story. But it also helps us as women, just by allowing us to be exactly what we are. We are complicated creatures, and not good, not bad, but complex and sort of allowed to be one. Because once you put that on screen, it sort of becomes “Oh, I can be that in life. I guess.” I think we are impacting somewhat how people perceive womanhood.

What scene was most challenging for you to film? 

There was one scene with the beautiful, wonderful Gal [Toren] who was playing my husband, who I really enjoyed acting with. He’s wonderful, and also very intelligent, and just so cool. He’s a musician, by the way. he has a rock band in Israel. So he’s way cooler than what he plays.

We had one scene in the beginning of filming, maybe it was the third day or so. We sit down on the bed and I talk to him and I express my emotions and why I want to do what I want to do. In the first few takes, I was really crying, because I felt overwhelmed with the passion that Alice is expressing, and Sigal kept saying, “No, no, you have to pull back. You have to pull back.” I had such a hard time pulling back. One because I’m so used to expressing because that’s the story. But also, she really wanted it to be more subdued in a way that the passion and the emotions are percolating rather than expressed. We had a moment of not being on the same page, for a minute, and then I had to trust her and go with the way she envisioned the thing.

That day was the day that I realized we are actually doing something very unique genre wise. From then on, it clicked. I was there, and we were completely on the same page, and we had each other’s back. It was really beautiful because she really understood everything I’ve done and gave her. And it was really a satisfying feeling for me.

This is a miniseries, but we’ve seen several miniseries turned into multi-season projects. If there was a Losing Alice Season Two would you be open to returning to the project?

I’ll do anything to work with Sigal again. I had so much fun. We became such close friends, and it would be amazing. I don’t know if this could turn into another thing because I feel like it’s a closed story. So I don’t know what she’s planning, and I’m sure she’s thinking about it. We didn’t talk about that, but definitely yes, I love her. I enjoyed working with her. She really impressed me. It was great working with the other actors. It was one of the highlights of my career, so there’s no way I’m not saying yes the next time she turns to me.

Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like to tell viewers?

I just urge people to watch it in the original [Hebrew]. It’s hard to do that. I know. There’s dubbing. And I understand why people would do it. I just wish they gave it a chance because I liked it so much with the original performances.

New episodes of Losing Alice premiere on Apple TV+ Fridays at 3/2c a.m.

Watch Losing Alice on Apple TV+