Creators & actor of Netflix’s Young Royals say the magic on screen came from trust

The creators and lead actor of Young Royals took centre stage on Wednesday at Aarhus’ Musikhuset, to discuss with moderator Ann-Lind Andersen the making of Netflix’s latest hit Swedish Original. The session was both attended by a packed crowd of fans and streamed live.

The teen coming-of-age drama produced by Sweden’s Nexiko, has received a massive following on social media, after its launch on Netflix July 1^st.. “It’s surreal that all of a sudden, I have 1.3 million followers instead of 24,000. I love it!”, said 18-year-old Ryding - known in Sweden for several TV dramas (Gåsmamman, Love Me), now a heart-throb for many youngsters around the world.

Young Royals was selected as opening show of the Aarhus Series Festival (October 27-31), set this year under the theme of Generation Z.

“The Generation Z does have a natural way of talking about sexuality and identity,” said writer Lisa Ambjörn about the series, which deals with destiny and heritage, through the story of Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding), searching for his identity and falling for fellow student Simon (Omar Rudberg).

Asked if writing about a gay prince felt unnerving, the writer known for SVT’s Dreaming of England said: “When the producers first pitched the idea to me, it was a different genre, more of an Elite, Riverdale story, starting with a murder, then going back to the whodunnit. It didn’t awake anything particular in me…until I understood [the gay love affair]. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. How would it be for a young [royal] person, so restricted, to experience this. Overnight I changed the genre and storyline. It felt powerful and unique,” she said.

Regarding her tight collaboration with Sekersöz, Ambjörn said she was startled by her unique directorial technique, based on playfulness with actors, improvisation in few different long takes. “Usually some directors work on a script, research, shoot 2-3 takes and you’re done. Here, you get one scene with different emotions, spend time on a scene, then on another with a different tone. You basically tell the story three different times: at script stage, then on set, then in the editing room where you find all the [best] moments, knit them together, and that’s what you have on screen,” noted Ambjörn.

(Read our interview with Lisa Ambjörn: CLICK HERE).

Sekersöz (known for the films Beyond Dreams, My Life as a Comedian) said she created her own technique to respond to the fast pace of TV filmmaking. “Unlike with theatre or film where you work at length with actors on their characters, and find different layers, with television, you don’t have time for this, so that was a way for me to find the magic…I want to have fun when I work. I don’t believe in perfection, but intuition. And when preparation meets intuition, it’s the best!" she said.

Sekersöz who mentioned Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides as visual reference, also spoke about trust between cast & crew. “Lisa and I had an understanding before going to set of what we were going to tell, having spent time discussing the story beforehand. As I had Lisa’s full trust, I felt I could own the material on set to allow actors to improvise. In any case, we all knew where we were heading with the story and its themes.”

For the director, beyond establishing trust with the cast, having brave actors ready to expose themselves, was also key to creating chemistry on set.

Concerning the casting of Ryding, Ambjörn said she ‘immediately saw the prince in him’, while Sekersöz praised the young actor’s intelligence and professionalism, despite his young age.

The Young Royals guests closed the session by confirming that Netflix has ordered a second season. “We’ll have the same themes as in season one, but we’ll go deeper,” said Ambjörn.