Italy, 1348 – suddenly the bubonic plague spreads across the country causing societal meltdown. Hard to imagine, hey? This is the setting for Kathleen Jordan’s Netflix dark comedy, The Decameron, loosely inspired by the 14th-century allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio. Amongst the pandemic chaos, members of high society quarantine themselves in a lavish Tuscan villa, one of which is Neifile, played by Parisian actor Lou Gala. Sheltered and god-fearing, Neifile soon finds herself thirsting over villa hottie Dioneo, unlocking a newfound sensuality and sexual desire.

Alex James Taylor: Hey Lou, congratulations on The Decameron, it’s such a fun ride. Take me through your experience first reading the script.
LG: I just felt incredibly overwhelmed with joy. Kathleen Jordan’s writing is so precise, it explores so many things, it has intimate moments, it’s very funny, but it also has a dark undertone mixed in. It’s incredibly brilliant. Then when I found out that I was going to be playing Neifile I felt so happy because she’s such a special character.

AJT: I love the timing: a show about a deadly virus sweeping across the world…
LG: [laughs] Yes, it was the beginning of how Kathleen [approached] this project, to explore this strange moment we’ve all experienced and how it affects the mind, communities and people. It was a way to pay homage to everything that happened respectfully while also trying to be playful and funny.

“I took a leap of faith with [The Decameron] because I knew from the beginning that we should leave the fear of being weird away from the set and jump into it in the most joyful, playful, profound way.”

AJT: Did you know about Boccaccio’s book beforehand?
LG: I’d heard about it but I wasn’t familiar with it. My parents gifted it to me [before filming] so I started reading it. It wasn’t necessarily something Kathleen asked us to do because she was very aware that she was doing something completely different and was taking a lot of freedom. There’s also a [Pier Paolo] Pasolini movie adaptation made in the 70s, so I watched that as I was familiar with his other films. For so many people, especially in Italy, this film has a strong resonance as part of the culture, it was a huge success when it came out. So maybe Italian people have high expectations of us, but again, this is a very different story.

AJT: And in terms of the show’s comedic timing and pace, it’s so purposeful in its rhythm and works so well. You’ve previously done comedies in France, I wondered how the humour changes between countries and cultures?
LG: It was a big change, but it’s not even necessarily country to country, although I have heard people talking about British humour [in relation to the show], even though the writer is American. In France, there aren’t so many projects like this, it’s rare in general, this type of comedy. This darkness and also the critique that comes with Kathleen’s writing, because she explores the social conditions, and every character in the show is flamboyant in a… Grotesque way. So all of that, there’s not so much in France, maybe there’s [a show] that could be close called Kaamelott. I took a leap of faith with [The Decameron] because I knew from the beginning that we should leave the fear of being weird away from the set and jump into it in the most joyful, playful, profound way.

AJT: It must be exciting to push your character further and emphasise their characteristics. Throughout the series, Neifile has a sexual awakening, discovering lust and liberation, that must have been fun to play.
LG: It was. I liked that strong evolution. Before the villa, Neifile had been living in a very protected environment, so she didn’t have a real sense of the outside world and human interactions, and then she’s on this journey of change and exploring so many new things. I think everyone can relate to this. Also, what is beautiful about her is how vulnerable she is, and how she is confronted and conflicted by experiences. She starts in a state of anxiety, concern and is full of care for everyone, and then she starts to live for herself, and that was incredible.

AJT: You filmed the series entirely in Italy?
LG: Yes, that was also very special because I was dreaming of filming in an interesting location and when I learned it was in Rome, I was like, “Wow,” because it’s just full of history of beautiful places, churches, buildings, museums – and also you eat so well! We were shooting in Cinecittà [Studios], which made it incredibly special because that is where so many iconic Italian movie directors filmed in the 60s and 70s. [Federico] Fellini of course, but also [Roberto] Rossellini, and I couldn’t be there without having that in mind, this history of cinema. We were shooting in Studio Five, Studio Cinque, which is the one Fellini loved and there is even something written when you enter where he says if there’s one place he would love to stay forever, it would be there. We filmed all the inside shots at Cinecittà and the gardens and outside shots in Tuscany, near Viterbo.

AJT: That sounds like the ideal job.
LG: Yes! It was perfect in so many ways.

AJT: And you clearly have a love for Italian cinema.
LG: Yes, and so many movies. But it’s difficult not to think about [Pier Paolo] Pasolini, for example. Theorem [1968] is one of my favourite movies, it’s beautiful. It’s about a man who arrives in a villa in a very privileged environment, where everyone is kind of… not uptight, but they definitely have trouble living their life, they’re kind of asleep in a metaphorical way. He arrives and he’s going to wake up everyone and again, like we were talking about before, it’s a coming-of-age story. He’s sort of a disrupter who starts to give life to everyone around him in a very beautiful way.

Interview originally published in Heroine 21.