At the premiere of Amazon Prime Video‘s “Cruel Intentions” on Tuesday night, Zac Burgess, who plays Lucien Belmont in the series, shared how he has still not watched the original 1999 film, which starred Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe.
“I didn’t want to replicate Ryan (Phillippe’s) performance,” Burgess told Variety. “When we were auditioning, (the series creators) did not want us to replicate anything. They wanted the fresh take. And so for me, if I watched it, I would have been tempted to bring something from the past.”
Brooke Lena Johnson, Sarah Catherine Hook, Zac Burgess, Savannah Lee Smith, Sara Silva at the “Cruel Intentions” Los Angeles premiere held at The Ebell of Los Angeles on November 19, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Tommaso Boddi
Sarah Catherine Hook, who plays series lead Caroline Merteuil, echoed Burgess’s sentiment.
“We really birthed the essence of Caroline together, especially in the in the final callback session, that’s where we discovered her,” Hook said. “We didn’t want to copy any performances from any of the films…We really create(d) our own versions of these characters.”
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Burgess described Lucien as quite rambunctious early on in the show but explained that his narrative arc offers complexity as the show progresses.
“He’s got a lot of depth. I think it’s an absolute goal to be able to play a character like him,” Burgess said.
He also credited showrunners Sara Goodman and Phoebe Fisher for supporting his approach as an actor of taking time to evaluate and understand who Lucien was. Burgess teased that his character ends the season on a major cliffhanger and hopes to explore more storylines in a potential Season 2.
“There’s the big backstory of why Lucien is the way that he is,” Burgess said. “And that really dives into the relationship with Caroline. There’s a really deep love there.”