Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio
Zoe Kazan's latest project continues a surprising family legacy that many viewers may not know about.
Kazan joined Eli Rallo on the October 7 episode of Rallo's Prose Society podcast where they spoke in depth about her new Netflix mini-series East of Eden, starring Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, Joseph Zada and more. Kazan created the new series, out now, and also serves as co-writer and showrunner of the adaptation of the classic John Steinbeck novel of the same name.
Speaking with Rallo, Kazan explained that she has loved East of Eden since reading it as a teenager and continues to find new meaningful quotes whenever she revisits the story, even while writing the Netflix series. However, what some people may not realize is just how connected her family is to the story.
Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the acclaimed 1955 film adaptation of the novel, which offered its own set of challenges for her own adaptation. Kazan previously stated that she avoided rewatching the film so it didn't influence her project, but after pre-production started on the series, she finally had the chance to revisit the movie was was left feeling "enormous relief" to see how different their interpretations were.
"I think I'd been secretly harboring a fear of like, what if I'm actually stealing things from the movie and I don't remember that," she said. "Just seeing the movie and realizing like, oh, the thing I'm making is about something totally different. Like the movie is a pretty loose adaptation of [a small] portion of the book. Some of my favorite stuff in the movie is completely invented, it has nothing to do with the book at all."
East of Eden is now streaming on Netflix. You can follow along with new episodes of Prose Society with Eli Rallo on iHeartRadio.