(dramatic music) - What really struck me
about "The Queen's Gambit" was that it wasn't at all about chess. It's not about a game. It's about the cost of genius. - It's a story about how
you survive in a world when you have a very
specific gift that makes you harder to understand. - I think she looks to chess
as very much an escape. - Although it tells that story about a child genius
working up to a world level. It's actually still more about her demons. (dramatic music) (people chattering) - Scott sent me the book
to read before I met him. And I devoured the book in about an hour. I fell in love with Beth immediately and there was a really strong kinship. - This character is
essentially her own antagonist. And I was fascinated, I'd never read a character
like this before. Somebody who was so brilliant
and so self-destructive, and in a world that she
was already kind of, not a part of. - Are you sure you want to do this? - I'm sure. - We don't have a women's section. - Back in the 1950s, there
are very few females turning to chess. They weren't given the opportunities, Beth trying to make her way
in a male dominated discipline in world is something that's
quite distinctive and unusual. - Tevis was writing with an understanding of the next century almost. It's quite brilliant. - How old are you? Nevermind. Don't answer that. It'll just depress me. - I'm 36. - She's so centered in
how intelligent she is that she doesn't necessarily think of herself as a woman first. And I do think that
there's something to that, because you're experiencing the sixties through her in the way that she just automatically
assumes that she is equal. - Am I good enough now? - To tell you the truth of it child, you're astounding. - [Crew Member] Marker. - And action. Almost 10 years ago,
Bill Horberg had brought up the book to me as something
that I might want to do. We briefly flirted with
doing it as a feature. And Allan Scott had written
quite a nice script, and nothing ever came of it. It was very hard to get a movie
like that made at the time. Then right after I finished "Godless", I had this revelation and I said to him, what about "The Queen's
Gambit" as a mini series? - The overriding interest I've always had is to make it powerfully emotional. And I think when you extend something, you get the time to follow all kinds of paths and all kinds of seams. - What I really wanted to
focus on and the challenge in turning it into a mini series for me, was making sure that what you're
really invested in, is her. - Someday you're going to be all alone. So you need to figure out
how to take care of yourself. - She's come from a home
life, and just a lot in life, that has left her feeling very unstable. She doesn't really know
where she's going to end up. - What's that game called? - [Mr Scheibel] It's called chess. - Will you teach me? - I think Beth's first true
connection is with Mr Scheibel. It's with somebody who
she feels understands, not only her gifts, but
how her brain works. Also somebody who can tell her, no. - You have resigned the game. - You didn't tell me that in the rules. - It's not a rule, it's sportsmanship. - And then I think she's
got a wonderful friendship with Jolene, and that
comes from a place of, both understanding that
they're very different, and yet have come from
the exact same place. - Most of us are lifers,
been here a long time. - I would say she's kind
of like a mother to Beth in her own little way. They're not adopted for the
majority of their lives. So they kind of do need
to depend on each other in that place. - [Carer] Greens to even your disposition, orange and browns for
building a strong body. Take them both. - In the early sixties, late fifties, it was very common to give children in orphanages tranquilizers
to make them easier to handle. So, yeah, she becomes
addicted to tranquilizers and sedatives when she's nine. - Well, the trick with addiction, with drinking or drugs or anything, is making sure that you empathize with the character and still
tell a compelling story. A sleight of hand for
me was humor sometimes. There's a long sequence
where she steals the pills. And that was as funny as it is harrowing. - Elizabeth. (glass crunching) - As she gets older, she
forms many addictions. She discovers alcohol when she's about 15. (Beth coughing) - It's good. - And consummates that relationship. (upbeat music) - Anybody who's dealing with problems of addiction is their own worst enemy. She keeps self-destructing along the way. - There's a moment when she's been on a particularly tough bender, and she meets the first
person that she ever played, who's another girl called
the Annette Packer. - I knew you were going places. And that meant something to me. - That whole exchange was
really, really tricky, and rough to do because I just had to be in this state of everything
is falling apart. And you looked up to me and
now I have to carry that shame. Like she was just, she was an angry bird. - I'm worried about you. - What on earth for? - For me, the whole story
is organized around that. Is she going to lose hold of herself? Or is she going to be able to make it? - She shows the assurance
of a player twice her age. That's national recognition, dear. - She's also addicted to winning. (dramatic music) She's addicted to feeling
like she is in control. - Chess is the one thing she
feels like she can control. That on that board, she's in charge. Whenever she's moving those
pieces around, she's at home. - I win. - I have every confidence. - You do feel for the relationship
that both Mrs Wheatley and Beth have together. And Mari played her with deep empathy, and I think sympathy. - For the role of Mrs Wheatley, I had been telling Bill Horberg, that it's someone like Marielle Heller. And Bill said to me, why
don't you just cast her? And as we can see she's extraordinary. - Things are beginning to happen. - Beth is very obsessive, full stop. Like I think that is just something that is intrinsic to her. - Harry, it'll be check
once the pawn moves and the knight trades, can't you see that? - No, I can't. I can't find it that fast. - Well, I wish you could. - When your brain works that quickly, it can drive you a bit mad? But I also think that she is aware that her gift makes her special. - [Reporter] Sometimes people
find patterns or meaning where there aren't any. - What does that have to do with me? Well, creativity and psychosis
often go hand in hand. (camera clicking) - I do think she's like
consistently worried that she's a bit crazy. - Beth has visions of seeing
a chess board on the ceiling. - This is in the book. She looks up to the ceiling and imagines the position
and the places of the pieces. - Do you ever go for games in your head? I mean, play all the way through them? - Doesn't everybody? - The person that she feels closest to, I think in terms of the
way that her brain works is actually, Benny. - There's a little bit of
a reflection in each other, even though they're
vastly different people. But I think he enjoys
getting into mind games, and into other people's heads. And he sees that in Beth. - I don't even know if I'm good enough. - You're the best there is. - His reassurance kind of
makes her feel a bit more calm. But I do think that she's
juggling a very fine line of like, am I insane? Or am I a genius? - And I've been watching your games. You attack like Alekhine. - You can reach for your best,
but it only really matters if other people see it as well. And I think Benny
appreciates Beth's talent when he sees it, and finds that
attractive from the get-go. - And action! To make chess cinematic is, is impossible. And I realized, I want the chest that we do
show to be accurate enough but I really am focusing on
the stakes around the games, and the players themselves. Beth Harman in particular, and the idea for me visually
was to get inside her. - I found that the strongest
points is just being on people's faces in their reaction, even if you don't understand chess, you know the seriousness, and the drama that they're going through. - I resign. (dramatic music) (people chattering) - Steven Meizler is quite
good at shaping just, very little light and very natural light, and finding little spots
that create its own drama. - Sweet dreams. - The show really shifts
along with Beth's perspective. Every time I got to go onto a new set, I was always completely blown away by the way that it looked. (dramatic music) - Uli Hanisch is a genius. I came to Berlin because
I wanted to work with him. We've shot Mexico city here in Las Vegas, and Paris, Russia, pieces of New York and Lexington, Kentucky. - Well, now. - What Beth does, is traveling and playing
chess at tournaments. And so we have, like hotel rooms, airplanes, hotel lobbies, restaurants, ballroom kind of situation,
for each tournament. So it was our target to- - To repeat but-
- To repeat. - Make it different.
- But different. - Yeah, exactly. - I asked for a pleasant room, and I believe they gave me one. (Mrs Wheatley laughing) - This here is a pretty
special location in Berlin, it's the Haus Cumberland, and we turned it into a hotel in Paris. - What will you have
then for your one drink? Must be special if it is your only one. - Cut, awesome. That's a cut. For me, every set I would walk on would be a fantastic place to shoot. And the whole crew would come on the set, and you would hear 50 people, a hundred people oohing and
ahing about these locations. Benny's apartment was interesting because we shot the exterior in Toronto. And then Uli designed
this basement apartment that was amazing. And right away, I started
changing the scene because of so many good things in the set. - [Anya] I love it. Oh, it's so good. - The cinematography, the costumes, the production design, they're all for me, part of the same thing. We'd spend a lot of time
talking about where Beth is at in the story. - We had so much fun coming
up with the look for this, because again, we got
to grow up with Beth. - When I first read the script, I had in my mind the Beth was a redhead, funnily enough, Anya also felt this. - When I first read it, I was like, she needs to have red hair because I want her to be
completely identifiable, even if she doesn't want to be, and he had thought the exact same thing. So we just started off
on a really good foot. It was all wigs. I couldn't, I was very
happy to dye my hair, but I just couldn't, you know, there are days when we were going between five different ages in a day, and that's just not
possible with your own hair. So we had baby Beth, we had sexy kitten, and we had glamor pus. - To sell the age, the
younger, the less makeup. And then we slowly add
very, very small adjustments until you start seeing her older. She basically gets more
of these eyelashes. So her eyes become sexier. - [Man] Wow! - [Anya] Thanks. - Beth has a thing for flair. As you can see in the show, she likes the finer things in life. She starts to really, really like clothes. - With the costume
designer, with Gabriele, her wardrobe is just amazing. She would have a palette
book, and all of the dresses, and the different wardrobe
that Beth would be wearing. But more than that, we'd spend a lot of time
talking about where Beth is at in the story. - In the beginning, Beth is always determined by other people. By her mother, or
dresses in the orphanage. And later on she's alone and
she discovers more her body. She has power being feminine. - As we go forward, you know, she's more and more glamorous. There's a point where she dresses up like a pop musician that she sees on TV for a brief period of time. - She experienced it. Searching for cool is difficult because the cool doesn't exist. And her search for coolness, is actually her search for herself. - At the very end, when she's kind of finally comfortable in the world of chess, Gabriele found this
beautiful long white coat with this white hat from Moscow. And you realize she looks
like the white queen. - What's fascinating
about watching her grow up is that she puts on all of
these different personas. - Who the hell are you? - It is incredibly sad because
it's basically just saying that she just doesn't feel
like she's enough without them. - You are very beautiful. - I don't see myself that way. - Then you are blind. - It's not a physical loneliness
that she's suffering from. It's an emotional and intellectual one. - I think this is the
reason why the mini series is becoming more prominent, because you can explore these richer, more complex stories. - Having the opportunity to
spend time with Beth in this way and not just see all of the wins, but all of the hard
work and the sacrifices that it takes to get to the wins. I think hopefully that just
builds a lot of empathy for somebody who, I selfishly really, really care about. (audience applauding)
Astounding. I cannot stop recommending this miniseries to people. It is one of those rare, elite productions where you cannot find a glaring weakness. From script, to casting, acting, set design, wardrobe, hair & makeup, thematically poignant, free from lazy tropes.
I’m sure you could nitpick little details, or some aesthetics might not be your cup of tea, but as far as the strength of the production. chef’s kiss
tfw you will never meet beth harmon
That was really good! Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting. This show is amazing and I am now also a huge fan of Anya Taylor Joy from her performance in it. It also showed how she got her hair tucked away to fit the wigs on top of. I enjoyed this.