Within the opening minutes of National Geographic’s A Small Light, it becomes clear that this is not a typical series about World War II. When we often think of this time period portrayed in films or shows, we’re often following soldiers in battle, often neglecting to not focus on the ordinary individuals who were suffering during this time period. From the start, we’re immediately thrown into the world of one of the most pivotal and important voices of this generation, but just through a different perspective. The series centers around Miep Gies (played by Bel Powley) an often overlooked central figure inside of Anne Frank’s life during the war. For those who have never heard of Gies, Gies was Otto Frank (played by Liev Schreiber)’s secretary during World War II and was asked by Frank himself to help hide his family from being caught. A Small Light puts Gies at the center of the story, highlighting her bravery and determination to protect the Frank family at all costs, risking her life in the process.
In March, I spoke with Billie Boullet (Anne Frank) and Ashley Brooke (Margot Frank) about the bravery behind A Small Light, girlhood, and learning about Gies’s time in the Resistance.
Leia Mendoza: Something that Susanna [Fogel] said a while back during her Sundance Collaboration meeting is that A Small Light is essentially about “A very funny person in a very serious situation”. As you both play two of the central individuals in this story, what would you say is the most interesting part of finding that balance, because those who were involved had no clue that they were about to be living in a major historical event?
Ashley Brooke: I think what’s so incredible about the Frank family is their resilience during this time. As our show shows, they were celebrating Hanukkah in the annex during this time where religion was not celebrated at all. It was really looked down upon to celebrate being Jewish, but they were resilient in the fact that they were able to take these moments of hope and I think that’s what’s so fascinating to me. I think balancing ordinary life in these extraordinary circumstances, you can’t really balance it. You just have to live through it. I think that’s what our story shows; these characters going through these struggles as the Holocaust is going on around them and they’re trying to go through their everyday lives, but it’s scary. There’s always this tension going on about “Is this going to end?”, or “Is this going to keep carrying on?”, and as our story goes on, you don’t really know when the end is going to come. So, I think that’s what’s special about A Small Light. The fact that we try to show the hope in balancing their everyday life and these circumstances.
Billie Boullet: For me, it really brought the humanity towards it. During this time, if you really lived through it, you wouldn’t know how to face it. You wouldn’t let it settle in and then move on. It’s different stages of your life and how that goes about, so they brought humor into it because you have to make some light to it, because it’s still your life. You’re not going to be completely gloomy for all these years when you’re hiding. They brought the humanity of that. Now, we can think of the Holocaust, and let that settle in and see the whole historical event. But, they never knew when it was going to end, what was going to happen next. They really showed each event in their life and the different stages of their mental states throughout all of the years.
AB: Also, just going off of that, but I think that the humor in the show is really special to A Small Light because it allows for audiences to digest the material. But, humor allows for more empathy towards these characters. I think bringing humor into our show will allow for that.
LM: And I think too, I think this is the first time I’ve ever really seen girlhood portrayed in this era.
AB: Yeah!
LM: Going off of that, since we’re all girls, we all go through similar things, just in different ways now. What would you say was one of the most surprising things about girlhood that you learned throughout this experience?
BB: I think one of my—actually, I don’t think I can say this! I can’t say that if it’s a moment that happened, but definitely in the show there’s moments of portraying girlhood with Miep and the two girls, which I think is so nice and so special. It shows what it was like, because Miep is a very cheeky little girl. She’s always happy and fun when she’s around the girls at the time. She brought that to them and with them. She was their second mother. She was definitely a mother figure for Anne, 100%. I feel like her and Miep had this sisterhood that she didn’t necessarily have with Margot, because they had a bit of a prickly situation. Well, not prickly, they were just very different. She had this sisterhood with Miep which is shown throughout A Small Light. Girlhood is definitely in the show, and it’s definitely not passed over.
AB: I think it’s definitely based in our relationships too, like the sisterly relationship we have in A Small Light. Every time Miep comes in, it’s just hope for the family that is in the annex. I also think it’s so interesting with Miep too, and how brave she was and how brave it was to be working in The Resistance during this time. I didn’t really know about The Resistance at this time, until I got this project and I started researching about it. I think it’s so powerful to see women who stood up during this time because there wasn’t many. That’s what’s so amazing, to bring those stories to life.
LM: What is something that you are going to take with you from A Small Light that you’re going to carry with you for the rest of your careers?
BB: I think cherishing the relationships that you create on set. Even though we live far away, I live in London and Ashley lives in LA, I think when you create a good relationship on set, it’s not just a work relationship. You have this friendship that you want to cherish. You don’t stay in one place, and you work everywhere. Having these people in different places, it lets you have more freedom to work. You don’t feel so isolated, you know the people everywhere. If I ever work in LA, I can go see Ashley, and if she ever comes to London, we get to see each other. To me, it’s definitely taking on board the relationships that you create. Especially on A Small Light, everyone on the cast was so amazing and the crew were so amazing, and we all really connected so I’m going to take that with me.
AB: I would say that there’s so much that I learned from the cast and the crew, everyone was so inspiring and so kind. I also think that Joan [Ratner] and Tony [Phelan] were so nice. I was allowed to go on set on days I wasn’t filming and just watch behind the scenes to see what they were doing as they were taking notes. I shadowed all the directors throughout A Small Light and so I learned so much from that side too. But then also from these incredible actresses and actors that we had the privilege of working with. Just being able to watch them work and see their work ethics was so inspiring, and I’ll carry that with me through my whole career.
A Small Light is now playing on National Geographic and Disney+. New episodes come out every Monday.