MONTREAL — For Alex Wolff, portraying legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen required a deep dive into the poet's early works and learning new guitar skills.
The 26-year-old U.S. actor and musician stars as Cohen in “So Long, Marianne,” an eight-part Crave series premiering on Friday.
Set primarily in 1960s Greece, the show chronicles Cohen’s relationship with Marianne Ihlen – played by Norwegian actress Thea Sofie Loch Naess – which inspired the iconic song the show is named after.
Cohen and Ihlen first met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960 and spent the majority of the decade together. Ihlen died in July 2016 at the age of 81, just three months before Cohen's death at 82.
In preparation for the role, Wolff said he studied Cohen’s works including his debut poetry collection “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” 1961’s “The Spice-Box of Earth” and 1964’s “Flowers for Hitler,” which was dedicated to Ihlen.
“I think I got into the language of, you know, his language and I really let it marinate in me,” Wolff said in a video call.
Wolff, known for his acting roles in "Hereditary" and "Old," has been a musician for most of his life. He formed the Nickelodeon group The Naked Brothers Band in 2007 with his brother Nat, which also had a TV show. That group later evolved into the duo Nat + Alex Wolff, who are set to open for Billie Eilish on her tour beginning Sunday in Quebec City.
Despite his musical background, Wolff said he had to “undo everything” he knew before in order to step into Cohen's shoes. He took lessons from a classical guitar teacher to learn fingerpicking – a style he said felt “very counterintuitive” at first.
“I kind of fell in love with it and it’s almost like a train moving. I found that was really helpful (in embodying Cohen) too,” he said.
Wolff said arriving on set and seeing Loch Naess as Ihlen was the final piece of the puzzle.
“When I showed up and saw Marianne it was like, really easy to kind of get into the world of what was going on with Leonard and Marianne during that time,” he said. “I think I felt like Thea did a lot of the work for me.”
Loch Naess said the universal theme of love is what keeps the decades-old relationship between Cohen and Ihlen compelling.
“I think these are two people ... lonely, lost and they find each other on this very beautiful island, but there's a darkness beneath it,” she said in the video call.
“I think that's a story that's sad and beautiful but very recognizable in a way.”
The couple's relationship also inspired the 2019 documentary "Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love," directed by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield.
Wolff said he deeply connects with Cohen’s work and felt “very lucky” to portray the late poet on screen.
“You can't put into words what he's contributed to my life, emotionally (and) creatively,” he said.
“It's like so pure and so deep in me that I feel guilty, you know, describing it. It's more just something that fundamentally was necessary for my growth and development as a person.”
The series, a Canada-Norway co-production, includes an array of Canadian talent including Éric Bruneau, Kim Lévesque Lizotte and Macha Grenon. The show was shot on location in Montreal, Hydra and Oslo.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
Alex Goudge, The Canadian Press