How Actor David Hoflin Transformed Himself Into F. Scott Fitzgerald
When a Swedish-born Australian actor takes on the role of America's greatest novelist, there's bound to be a few challenges. Yet David Hoflin, who plays F. Scott Fitzgerald in the new Amazon series Z: The Beginning of Everything, steps into the role with convincing ease.
Perhaps because, for once, Fitzgerald is not at the center of this narrative. Instead, Z, which premieres January 27th, focuses on his wife, Zelda. From her high school days in Montgomery, Alabama to her raucous New York City life with F. Scott (whom she lovingly refers to as Goofo in most scenes), in this series, it's Zelda's world-and Fitzgerald is just borrowing from it.
We caught up with Hoflin at the Crosby Hotel, where he opened up about the dark underbelly of the 1920s, what drew him to playing Fitzgerald, and how his co-star and producer Christina Ricci ignited Hollywood's latest flapper craze.
What were some of the challenges you faced in filming this series?
It's always tough when you're trying to portray a character who lived in real life. One good thing is that there is very little video footage of F. Scott, so it's not like I had to emulate him or mimic the way he spoke exactly. It's not like people are going to watch it and say "That's not how F. Scott acted." But I guess there's the pressure of making sure that you're respectful to a character that's so iconic.
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I think really, to begin with, it was important to define the relationship between F. Scott and Zelda. They had a very tumultuous relationship but it was also very passionate. So the challenge there was to try and set up a base of their love for each other so everything else could stem from that. If people watching it don't care about their relationship, they're not going to care as much about what happens to them.
What drew you to this role?
We read The Great Gatsby in high school in Australia so I didn't know a great deal about F. Scott Fitzgerald but I did understand that he was very influential in his time. And there is something very romantic about the 1920s jazz age especially in New York. Even the idea of what it would have been like to be around in that time I think is appealing to a lot of people and there is something also to the fact that it's set in New York. And we filmed in New York. And it has that classiness but also an underlying dirtiness.
And I think that's what we try to explore especially in the later episodes that there's a grittiness to the time. It wasn't just glitz and glamor. There was a lot of underground, underbelly, sordid things that were going on in that time. And I think that's interesting. As time goes on, it gets romanticized. I think there is an image of people at that time being proper, and clean, and nice, and friendly and this idea that everyone was respectful. It's often portrayed as a time when people had manners and everything was wonderful, when, in reality, people are always people.
What do you make of the fact that there are other Zelda-focused projects in production right now?
As far as I knew, when we were shooting, we were kind of the first cab off the rank. Things tend to come in groups and you always have these time periods when certain things get popular, like vampires or the medieval era.
I think things catch on when it's the right thing at the right time. Christina [Ricci] is really the one who spearheaded all of this, so I think she brought it to people's attention that otherwise maybe were not interested. Because nobody had the rights to Zelda before this. So I think she had the foresight to know it was a good story and people caught on. That's just my take.
What materials did you research to play this role?
The tough thing about portraying him was that I wanted to make sure I stuck to my interpretation of what he was like. Because nobody is sure really, unless they've met the man, exactly who he was. But I decided to read a lot of his books and short stories at the time of when we were shooting this. I haven't even started on The Great Gatsby yet because that was written later. So he was well-known for only writing about what he knew and with This Side of Paradise which was the book that made him famous, the main character is based on him. So I took a lot of time in slowly reading This Side of Paradise to see if i could get a view of the way he thought of himself-rather than relying on the way other people saw him. So I think that really helped.
Fitzgerald is very clear when he's writing. And you get a very clear indication of what he thought he was in a manifestation of Amory. So that was something that was in the back of my mind when we were filming. The character traits that he thought he possessed.
What did you learn about him and his love for Zelda?
I learned that he was hugely passionate-the way that he writes there is no mistaking it. He's very eloquent and with some of his short stories you get sucked right into it in the first paragraph. I'm not a huge book reader, especially of authors of that time, but I would just get sucked into his short stories.
So I do think he had a longing to be successful as a writer but he also had a passion and was very, very talented. He wasn't perfect, he had his vices. But he had his love for Zelda at the core of it. That is what drove him to become more successful. A lot of the heroines in his stories were based on Zelda. And I don't think there's any surprise that, after he met her, his writing became a lot more appealing to people.
Who would Zelda be if she were alive today?
She'd definitely be a strong woman. I mean, maybe Lady Gaga? Someone so out there but so definitive in their choices. Whatever work role, she would be passionate or powerful, maybe a politician. Someone who would stand up for what she believed.
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