‘It just became Leonard and Marianne’: How the actors in ‘So Long, Marianne’ made both Leonard Cohen and his muse matter

It’s easy to refer to “So Long, Marianne” as “the Leonard Cohen show,” but that isn’t exactly correct. The hint is right there in the title; it isn’t called Leonard, after all.
“So Long, Marianne,” which is streaming now on Crave, is a two-hander in all senses of the word: it documents Leonard Cohen’s youth and his time on the magical Greek island of Hydra, yes, but it also delves into the inner life and the struggles of the titular feisty Norwegian paramour, played by Norwegian actor Thea Sofie Loch Naess. New York actor Alex Wolff (“Hereditary,” “Old,” “Pig”) is hypnotic as the Canadian great, capturing both his magnetism and melancholy, but Naess matches him beat for beat, giving us more than just a muse, but a portrait of the warm, spirited woman in full.
Their first few encounters are telling, too: she refuses his help while stubbornly trudging up the stairs with several jugs of water; he watches her dance with a Greek man in a rare moment of sensual freedom from her cheating husband. He is drawn to her strength, not her sexuality. “There is no Leonard performance without Thea,” Wolff said. This is a romance, not a biopic.
Their performances are grounded in complex context often missing from romance stories: the infidelity, the depression, the battle for self-acceptance, the quest for identity. You know — real life. Despite being set on the idyllic isle of Hydra, the conflicts feel earned, real.
We chatted with Wolff and Naess about the pressure of playing real-life lovers, their own love affair with Hydra and the pleasures of being present.
Deep despair is woven throughout this piece. How did the treatment of mental health issues feel more authentic to you than in other art you’ve seen? And why is it important to show existential malaise in art?
Wolff: That’s a theme in Cohen’s work, and something I’ve dealt with and I know the creator of the show has really dealt with, and a lot of people have dealt with. So that made it easier. But if you really feel Cohen’s work in your blood, you relate to that on some level, some kind of existential dread or some kind of despair or sorrow, at least at some time in your life. He was very honest about it in a way that very few people, and especially men, ever are. I’m proud to be a part of a show that shows it and doesn’t pull any punches.
And like Irving Layton says in the show: great art can make people feel less alone. So what was the most intimidating part of taking these roles for you?
Naess: The fact that we’re playing people who have lived. And for Alex, Leonard is a god here in (Montreal).
Wolff: What you said about his work making people feel not alone, that’s a burden that I didn’t take lightly. Yes, Leonard is a god, but he has a strange duality: he feels mystical, but also people feel like he’s part of them. And so what I had to do is just make him part of me and do my best to reflect what he means to me. I didn’t try and be the universal Leonard or show what other people knew. I just tried to reflect how he resonated with me personally.
Why does he resonate with you?
Wolff: It’s so monumental. It’s so profound. It’s something I can feel and taste more than I can intellectualize, and it would almost be grotesque to even … For me, it feels icky for me to try and say what he means to me, but I just know he came along in a time of my life where I really needed him. And if it wasn’t for the show, just me personally on a selfish level, what he means to me is, without him I wouldn’t have been able to get through this time. Because it was a really tough time of my life when it came along. And I needed him. That’s how I feel, I just really needed him.
Alex is inhabiting a much more known role, but less is known about Marianne. Was it scary for you, Thea, to figure out, how to make her just as vital in the show?
Naess: There’s some material about her, but not a whole wide world. So my job is to be a vessel for her soul and be like, how can I portray her essence and her strength and the things that in history often get lost when you’re just, “Oh, she was the muse.” No, she was a human being. And that’s what I wanted to show.
So Hydra is a really magical place in the show: a place to reinvent yourself. Do either of you have a magic place like that for yourself?
Wolff: Hydra.
Naess: Hydra.
The same place!
Naess: I want to go back. But I don’t know when (we’ll be) ready, because it holds all these experiences that we still really haven’t processed. That’s also what I love about this show, is that it shows the beauty and the magic of the island, but also the darkness lying underneath it. And I think we also felt that.
What did you love most about acting in this love story together?
Wolff: You can sit at a desk and watch the interviews and read his volumes of poetry and listen to the albums. But Leonard did not come into fruition until I met Thea and I was there. And it didn’t become Leonard Cohen the icon, it became just, like, Leonard. It just became Leonard and Marianne. My performance was solely about Thea. And it was solely about whatever was going on with her. And there would be no show and there would also be no character, nothing would happen, if it wasn’t for her. And that’s not just, like, self-effacing: I really believe it. And I thought that way the whole show. Even when I wasn’t acting with her, I was still working from all the experience of acting with her and being with her, and it informed who I was.
Naess: For me, working with Alex, I felt like it changed everything in a way. It made me a much better actor and, as an actor, it’s the dream.
Wolff: I’ve been paying her to say this.
Naess: And I paid him, so we’re even. The dream is to just be present, yet it’s often hard. But for us, on the first audition, we were just there and allowed to be in that space and time, and just be with each other. It was the most magical experience of my life and he is a genius. And when someone is that present, you are forced to be there. So he makes everyone on the show better. Even when we weren’t working together, it was like I was homesick for Alex because it was just, even the scariest scenes, we were like, we have each other.
Wolff: And we had always Øystein. A lot of directors get scared at actors being present because they’ve had this thing worked out and it’s really easy to understand. As someone who has directed, sometimes you’re like, “No, I had this idea.” And Øystein Karlsen, so much credit goes to him because I think he wanted to get lost on the road, too.
Naess: He always says the best idea wins, whoever’s it is.
Wolff: As Leonard says, if you don’t become the ocean you’ll be seasick every day. And I think that’s how we felt. If we don’t do it completely, we don’t move with it, then we’re going to drown and that’s going to be tough.
This show has a very earthy sexuality to it. What sets this love story and these love scenes apart for you? How did it feel different for you?
Naess: It takes its time. It allows the audiences to really be there and with the people. There’s also something about this myth that we’ve all dreamt about. “I want to give up my life and go to this Greek island and live a bohemian free life and pursue my art!” It sounds wonderful, but you also are allowed to scratch the surface and see beneath all the glowing clichés.
Was there any bit of lore or clothing or song or poem that acted as your main talisman to guide you into the character?
Wolff: Well, I’m allergic to wool and there was a big white wool sweater I wore. And I learned to love the itch of the wool. I put it on and whenever I (wore) that sweater I got really into it. And then I’d just, like, smoke a pack of cigarettes before every scene.
How did working on this project change you?
Wolff: I’m more tolerant of wool!