“This is very much of the world of Dangerous Liaisons but it's a prelude to the novel,” said Harriet Warner, showrunner and executive producer of the STARZ series adaptation of the classic story. The novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos has been famously adapted for the stage and screen several times, including the 1988 film adapted by Christopher Hampton and a contemporized version in 1999 titled Cruel Intentions. Not limited by a feature film runtime, the series picks up before the novel, but plans to tell the full story, as Harriet Warner shared during a TCA press conference. “Our characters, over the course of hopefully multiple seasons, will get to that point that we meet them in the novel, of real moral compromise and corruption. And we go with them on that journey in Season 1 but there is still innocence. We love these two characters and that was always my intention. I want to take them to the edge. I want to get us to that place. But I want us to love them and go with them on that journey and really see how that world and their pasts impact and take them to that space in the novel.”
(STARZ)
“The book and the film felt like the backstory between them was always such a potent force in their present actions,” said actress Alice Englert, speaking of her character Camille’s relationship with Pascale Valmont. “It felt really exciting to get to be a part of that original vulnerability that they then do everything they possibly can to shed themselves of back when they were dreamers, before they were nightmares.” The novel describes Camille as a woman who was born to avenger her sex and dominate men, someone who views love and war as almost equal emotions. The period attire aided in that quality for Alice Englert. “The costumes were, for women, a kind of bondage, literally. And that was really interesting to experience what that feels like, how it’s genuinely so much harder to do anything that could help you escape or feel comfortable in the world.”
Playing Pascale Valmont is Nicholas Denton, who revealed that he initially auditioned for an entirely different project. “I originally [went in] for Gossip Girl with Robert Sterne, who is in the casting department,” the actor revealed about his journey to the role. “They were like, okay, you’re kind of on for Gossip Girl but you’ve definitely got some potential to be Pascal Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons, which could not be any more different time-wise.” Like Alice, Nicholas fell in love with the more complicated version of Valmont that audiences will meet in this series. “There’s many different facets to him. Sure, he’s sexy and seductive at times, but he’s also a human, and I think that’s at the heart of the human condition and that love.”
“In the course of Victoire's life, she's never met someone like Camille and she really cherishes her,” shared Kosar Ali about her character in the series. “She isn't a perfect human being, and she doesn’t make right choices, whatever that means, right or wrong. But I think she's coming from a good place.” Another quality of Victoire explored in the series is her religion. “She’s Muslim, and we did a lot of work historically about what it meant to be a Muslim in that time. We’re pinpointing that she is Muslim but it’s not all she is… A character can still exist without having to pinpoint exactly what faith they’re from.”
“This is the ultimate love story,” added executive producer Colin Callender. “This is boy meets girl, girl leaves boy, boy meets girl again. It goes on and on, and half the fun of the show is watching the two, Camille and Valmont, navigate that relationship.” As believed and revered as Dangerous Liaisons is, this promises to be a fresh take. “What was glorious about working with Harriet was that she created a whole life and backstory for all the characters that was very detailed, including Victoire, played by Kosar. And so by the time you begin to meet these characters, you have a sense that there's a depth to them and there's a history to them. And they have a history that in some cases haunts them, in other cases drives them to do difficult and complicated and messy things. But Harriet rooted the characters in their backstory in a way that isn't quite there in the book. And that was a glorious invention on the part of Harriet and it's what makes the show so much fun.”
Dangerous Liaisons premieres tonight at 8/7c on STARZ and is also available to stream in the STARZ app.