[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the finale of Earth Abides, “Forever Is Tomorrow Is Today.”]
The familiar location wasn’t the only full circle moment Alexander Ludwig experienced while filming Earth Abides. As it turns out, there was a pretty shattering scene that had a powerful connection to something that was happening in his own personal life, too.
In the finale for the MGM+ drama, the virus that wiped out most of the planet’s people reached San Lupo, putting several members of the community in danger — including Joey (Elias Leacock), who is ultimately unable to stave off the infection and succumbs to it in his parents’ arms.
Filming the unthinkably sad scene would be gutting for anyone, but that was especially true for Ludwig because of what was happening in his own life.
“Joey’s final moments were really tough. It was this really weird thing that was happening with the universe this time: My son was being born within a day of my son on the show passing away, and it was just a surreal experience for me.” The effect, though, was that he was able to call up the emotions of agony was a cinch. “Digging up that emotion was just the easiest thing ever.”
Ludwig went on to explain that for Ish, losing this son in particular was especially tragic because of how much hope he’d invested in the child helping him to resurrect parts of the world that were left behind.
“Joey is to Ish the future. It’s possibility. He’s everything, and he’s the most beloved, so I think losing him rocks him to his core, but it’s because he has the rock in Emma and a foundation upon which they’ve already built that he’s able to exist and survive something so tragic,” he explained.
MGM+
It wasn’t the only scene that required a vehement display of raw emotion, either. In Episode 5, Ish and Emma had to make a huge decision about what to do with Charlie (Aaron Tveit) after he proved to be capable of unforgivable violence against women in the community.
For Ludwig, it was the scene he most looked forward to seeing playing out onscreen: “When our tribe has to decide if we’re going to go there, are we going to take a life, that’s a huge decision in this new world that they’ve created.”
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For Jessica Frances Dukes, who portrays Emma, the scene proved that the elders had what it takes to protect themselves from those who might harm them.
“The beautiful thing about it is no one is perfect in this. Everyone is flawed, and at the end of the day, the main thing that’s important is protecting what you love. And when people come in and disrupt that, what do you do? There is no jail, there is no, ‘We call the cops.’ We are the judge and jury now, how do we keep our community alive?” Dukes explained of her character’s mindset in that moment. “Sometimes you have to make certain decisions, and I think that one of the things that we come up against numerous times are predators, and, just as the mountain lion… it’s a predator. And you’re either the prey or the predator.”
Earth Abides, Streaming now, MGM+
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