‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ showrunner Ben Vanstone on the ‘rare opportunity’ of the limited series: ‘You’ve got to make people feel things’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Christopher Rosen
·4 min read
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When writer and showrunner Ben Vanstone first read Amor Towles’ 2016 bestseller “A Gentleman in Moscow,” about a Russian count living out his life under house arrest after the Russian Revolution, the story’s theme of finding humanity and grace while in isolation struck a particular chord. No surprise: It was 2020, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“The feeling of entrapment was in a lot of our minds back then,” Vanstone tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “But more than that, it was the central character and how his humanity in the face of adversity carries him through and he discovers a whole new life for himself inside this hotel. It’s perhaps not the life that would have wanted for himself at the outset. But it’s kind of the life you needed and deserved.”

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Set across 30 years, “A Gentleman in Moscow” focuses largely on the aforementioned Russian oligarch, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewan McGregor). After he’s placed under house arrest inside the Hotel Metropol in Moscow, the Count is forced to abandon his old way of life as an aristocrat and form new relationships that move him in unexpected ways. As the title character, McGregor – a previous Emmy Award winner for “Halston” – is at the top of his game, bringing humor and pathos to a role the actor has previously called a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

“I think it’s really rare to have an actor with the complete skill set needed to be the Count, with the charm, with the energy, with the playfulness, with the gravitas, with the dignity – just natural dignity. And to combine that with an actor who is professional and really, as human as collaborative as you would hope, it’s a dream,” says Vanstone of McGregor. “And I don’t think we could have gotten anyone better. You know, genuinely, I think that he’s just incredible in the role, and just a wonderful person to be around.”

While “A Gentleman in Moscow” is a lush period piece, with great detail and attention paid to its era-appropriate recreations of costume and location, the show is something of a unicorn, Vanstone explains, in that it relies on characters, relationships, and emotions rather than a genre twist.

“You’ve got to make people feel things. And that’s the whole point for me of making a show like this,” he says. “You don’t want to drift into becoming too saccharine or too indulgent in a way, so you’re sort of balancing the tones of the humor and the laughter with the sadness and the despair, and I think it’s about trying to capture all of those emotions that make you feel. That was always our ambition with this show, and I don’t think there are many shows like us. I don’t think there are many broadcasters as brave as Paramount+ with Showtime to decide to do a limited series that is so character-based with so much emotion. It’s hard without the sort of big genre drive – a murder or an investigation at its heart. It’s just about these people. So it’s such a rare opportunity to be able to do something like this.”

“A Gentleman in Moscow” is now streaming on Paramount+.

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