Cinematographer Romain Lacourbas Discusses The Witcher Season 2, Henry Cavill, And Disney - Exclusive Interview

When it comes to pinpointing why Netflix's "The Witcher" has been a smashing streaming success since it debuted in 2019, it's almost impossible to single out one particular element that has elevated the series. Created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, the storytelling in "The Witcher" — based on Andrzej Sapkowski best-selling book series — is naturally compelling, and there's no doubt that the narrative is beautifully enhanced by the video games inspired by the author's saga.

On top of that, the cast members — led by Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla of Cintra, and Anya Chalotra as Yennifer — have all mastered their roles, which are made all the more remarkable by the production's makeup and visual effects. Perhaps the most pivotal element in the success of "The Witcher," however, is the series' stunning cinematography, which has made the impossible possible for 16 episodes by transporting viewers to the fantasy realm of The Continent.

One of the acclaimed filmmakers behind the camera for the series is Romain Lacourbas, who brought his unique vision to four episodes in Season 2: the premiere chapter "A Grain of Truth," the second episode "Kaer Morhen," the fifth episode "Turn Your Back," and the season finale, "Family." In an exclusive interview with Looper, Lacourbas — who, in his 17-year career, has split his time between European and Hollywood productions — discussed his role in creating the vision of "The Witcher" for Season 2, his work with Cavill, and his goals as a cinematographer beyond the series.

You mentioned the other cinematographers. Since the cinematography is split up with this season — kicking off and ending with the episodes you shot with a couple in-between — do you compare notes with the other cinematographer to make sure that you're all on that same page?

Yeah. We did that a lot, which is something I really love — sharing experiences and having multiple brains working together. We did share a lot and I was working the same way with Vanja Černjul on [the TV series] "Marco Polo" years back. Basically, I started the season and the first block with Stephen Surjik directing it at that time. There was only one main unit shooting. Then, JP, who was part of Season 1, joined for episodes [3 and 4]. From then, we started shooting with two units at the same time.

So, yes, we were sharing all the time, our experiences and thoughts and ideas about the sets we had in common. JP and Terry, they had a lot of sets that we were not sharing, but for all the actual locations that we were sharing, yes, we were sharing ideas. It's always great to be able to share thoughts with others, and also to see which path they would take and how they would light the sets. You always learn from others, especially from other DPs.

You've mentioned a bunch of different collaborators putting together these scenes, but I'm wondering how collaborative Henry Cavill might be on the set. Does he discuss certain shots with you? Or is he just one of these guys that's like, "Hey, I'm here as an actor and I need to stay out of Romain's way."

Oh, he's extremely collaborative — him, Lauren and possibly a couple of other producers. Henry's one of the people who knows the books the best, as well as all the scripts the best. It's really amazing how much he knows — all the lines of all characters. It's really amazing. He's really collaborative. He would sometimes come to discuss an idea or to suggest an idea, but he would never push for it. If he came to talk about a shot and asked for a reason why the camera was [in a particular spot], it was really rare. It would always be for the purpose of the story. He was extremely generous and extremely professional.

You may have heard he had an injury also during the shooting, amongst the COVID and all that ... He injured his leg, so he had to train even harder after that to be able to come back to the set. This guy was waking up at half past 4 in the morning doing a lot of training with the stunts, and then he came to the set to get a lot of makeup, hair, prosthetics, and contact lenses for his eyes. When we were on set for 12 hours, he was probably there for 16, always with the same smile and the same generosity, and the same, "Just happy to be here, happy to be part of that adventure" [enthusiasm]. It was great for me. We really got along very well together.

Does Henry ever lighten things up? When I talked with Paul Bullion, who plays Lambert, he, too, talked about how he admired Henry's dedication, but does he ever get people laughing? You've got to break the tension once in a while. Did you see that sort of thing behind the scenes?

Yeah, of course that happens, although it was not a tense set or anything. Believe me, the general ambience was really nice. Of course, there are some jokes sometimes. He is cracking jokes from time to time, and there is a time for that, as always, on the set. But most of the time, it's about, for him and for all the other actors, to tell you the truth, it's about being focused. But yeah, there was a very good atmosphere.

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with Liam Neeson for the first "Taken" movie, and again earlier this year for "The Ice Road." Since you were the DP on "Taken 2," how memorable was your work with Liam?

That was a tough one because we were shooting in quite a few different countries. We shot in California and Turkey for the most of it, and we shot in studio in Paris. There was a lot of traveling, moving the actors, moving the crew, finding a new crew where you go and trying all those location to merge, not to match, but to merge together somehow. So, it was quite a challenge, but working with Liam ... that's another giant. When you work with that kind of guy, it's like Henry. They're so professional, but most importantly, they're so creative and so into their role.

Henry was telling me one day, by the end of the shoot, "You have to realize, Romain, I'm dreaming 'Witcher,' I'm sleeping 'Witcher,' all the time, every day of every hour, every day of the week. I'm thinking about the book and the game and the script. I'm living under the skin of a Witcher for the whole duration." Liam is the same kind of guy. He's really into his character. But what strikes me though, is that [when] you're there before [filming], Liam is Liam. He would eventually crack a joke or say anything, then from the moment you say, "Action," he just flipped to his character like that. It was quite impressive to see, actually. You know what I mean? It's like he suddenly, and you think he just made a little joke for the crew and the AD is laughing, and then half a split-second later he's in character. But yeah, again, I was very fortunate to be able to shoot with him. It was very a physical shoot for him as well. If you remember running on the roof of that old market in the center of Istanbul, driving cars with the top driver on top of it. Yeah, it was quite an adventure.

Is there any particular character's film that you would like to do? Would you like to be the DP for Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man? Any particular men or women superheroes?

I think Superman, because it was my favorite superhero when I was ten ... Yeah. I think I would say Superman, to be honest with you, although I'm a big, big fan of all the Batman franchises. They're so different. I also love the way Christopher Nolan starts to explore the darkness on "Batman Begins." Yeah. Then the franchise suddenly shifted into something more cavernous. I really enjoy those days ... We saw that with "Joker," obviously, which even though it's the Batman world, there's a lot of big franchises like that are focused on the darkest part of their heroes. I find it fascinating and very inspiring. It's suddenly not only superheroes anymore — it's superheroes and their big luggage, full of humanity and failures. It's easier for the audience to identify with them and the ambivalence of it, it's much more compelling and much more fascinating. So, Batman. Okay. Maybe Batman.

How about a Batman and a Superman movie? How about that? We can get those kids together again!

Obviously I've seen "Justice League," and I watched the very first "Wonder Woman," which was interesting. Which other big superheroes ... "Spider-Man," obviously. I really enjoyed the first one. "Iron Man," I think the first "Iron Man" is amazing. There are many [so] it's hard to keep up, to be honest. It was hard this past year to get the theater and I missed it. But I'm glad they reopened.

Is there any particular film that you think might have informed your work on "The Witcher"? I think it may be too easy to say the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy because of the scale, but are there others if not consciously, subconsciously, that influenced you?

I re-watched "The Lord of Rings" and a few "Game of Thrones" episodes. But more than "The Lord of the Rings," there's a few scenes in "Maleficent" and probably, more importantly, there's a few scenes in "Cinderella" — one of the iterations of "Cinderella," where I thought the colors, the color palette [was inspiring], It was in-between poetic storytelling and a very modern way to tell the story.

My thought when I started prep on Season 2 of "The Witcher" — and Stephen Surjik, the director, was all for it as well — was to try to explore the color and try to push the color and try to enhance the color in order to make a show colorful, even in a Witcher world, which you can imagine as something not dull, but gray and muddy colors and earthy colors. We really wanted to start pushing the colors and use primaries, pastel colors, as much as we could and enhance the saturation. I started watching references that were colorful to me. I'd say "Cinderella." I remember doing a scene where the blue was extremely heavy, and the color of the candles were very saturated and the whole room was really warm. I thought that, at least for the first episode, it was interesting to try to step into somehow some sort of poetic genre but staying within the heroic fantasy context — especially for that first episode with all the scenes with the cursed Nivellen in his magical manor. 

I thought all those scenes in front of the fire, the dinner scenes, the drawing room, the bathroom scene, needed to feel a little bit like a fairytale because that's the only moment in the season with an episode that could exist by itself in terms of the writing; in terms of the story only. Because from the moment this episode is over, the serious training starts. Right? We enter Kaer Morhen and then it's about Ciri who wants and possibly going to become a Witcher. Episode 1, it's something little bit apart. With Stephen Surjik, we were convinced that this episode needed to have some sort of a fairy tale taste flavor.