New Netflix series remake of classic movie gets exciting update from star

Stephen Porzio

The limited series also stars Florence Pugh.

JOE recently interviewed American actor Christopher Abbott about his lead turn in the excellent thriller Bring Them Down.

During the conversation, the actor opened up about the challenges of playing the role of a farmer in rural Ireland who gets into a dangerous, escalating feud with a young local (Barry Keoghan).

These challenges included not only learning to speak in an Irish accent but also learning to converse in the Irish language.

Abbott spoke to JOE from New Zealand where he is currently filming East of Eden, Netflix’s upcoming star-studded limited series based on the epic novel of the same name by John Steinbeck – which was previously made into a beloved 1955 film starring James Dean.

The seven-episode show will follow “the multi-generational Trask family saga explored from the perspective of the standout female character Cathy Ames”.

Written by Zoe Kazan (Wildlife), Pugh will star as Ames, alongside Abbott, Ciarán Hinds, Hoon Lee, Martha Plimpton, Mike Faist and Tracy Letts.

As such, we had to ask Abbott about the project, to which he said:

“I would say [I’m] maybe a little more than halfway through [filming East of Eden].

“I can say that I think what we’ve done so far, I mean it just looks beautiful. I feel like every actor says this but it is really a great group of actors involved in this. I genuinely look forward to working with them on a daily basis.

“And the last two weeks, me and Ciarán had a lot of stuff together and I love that man.”

Also during the chat, we asked Abbott about his role in Ann Lee, Oscar-nominees Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold’s follow-up to this year’s critical and commercial hit The Brutalist.

While the actor stayed tight-lipped about Ann Lee, he said he was “thrilled” to see the filmmaking duo – who he has worked with several times in the past – get so much acclaim for their Adrien Brody-starring film.

“Of course, I’m thrilled for them. I’ve known them both for a very long time,” he explained. “Mona was one of my first friends in New York when I moved to New York a long time ago and Brady, I met separately a couple of years after that, so they’ve been a part of my adult life for a while.

“It’s hard to not be biased. But they’re both friends and they’re both people that I always believed in.

“I feel like I can say I knew that their time would come and the fact that now it has, where they’re being recognised in probably the broadest sense is really reaffirming – just for my own gut instinct.”