Vincent Cassel is always up for a challenge.
With his latest TV series, “Liaison,” it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“I had the opportunity to come up with a very French character for the international market with a real production value, knowing that Apple was behind it,” Cassel says. “And to me, it was an opportunity I couldn’t let go.” Cassel also wanted the opportunity to work with French actress Eva Green.
Apple TV’s “Liaison” is six episodes long and premieres on Friday, Feb. 24.
The series is a high-stakes, contemporary thriller exploring how the mistakes of our past have the potential to destroy our future, combining action with an unpredictable, multilayered plot where espionage and political intrigue play out against a story of passionate and enduring love.
Cassel says the series is an spy thriller that keeps the audience wondering what is happening.
He plays Gabriel who has a troubled past, but he’s not letting it get in the way of being successful.
Cassel says portraying Gabriel was interesting because he was trying to insulate this kind of loneliness.
“These guys who are doing this are seeing behind the curtains,” he says. “They work for everybody. They work the Americans. They work for the Brits. They work for the French and for the Vatican. They know what really rules the world. Of course, they become really dark and cynical. To cope with that, you need to have a sense of humor.”
Cassel says he wanted Gabriel to be as real as he could be.
“(Gabriel) is super responsible in what he does,” he says.
Cassel is also proud to be part of the series because it’s the first Apple series to be done in French and English.
He says all of the characters add to the layers of the show and Gabriel is no exception.
“I think the character becomes really interesting because you don’t know what to think about him from one scene to another,” he says. “I love the idea that suddenly you hate somebody and then you kind of like him. And then you become passionate. And then you despise him a little more. It’s this journey about what you think about somebody.”
Cassel says the production, while demanding, remained a challenge all the way through for him.
He says being able to tell a story from outside of America is a huge deal – though it can be lonely.
“For work, I travel to these locations and do my job,” he says. “After the production is done, I go back home, and being an international actor it can be lonely but there’s also a great freedom about it.”
Cassel hopes that viewers will recognize that the series is a new kind of a show and becomes more and more international when it premieres on Friday, Feb. 24.
“It’s a most different point of view on politics, but accessible to an international audience,” he says. “It’s about the mix of culture and it’s something to be interested in outside of America.”
