‘All the Light We Cannot See’ panel: A global casting search finds two needles in a haystack [WATCH]

People will look at the cast of the epic Netflix limited series adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II-themed novel “All the Light We Cannot See” from author Anthony Doerr and finds a few names that catch their eye – specifically Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie. They’re big names with decades-long acting pedigrees, after all. But the real stars of the four-parter that premieres in its entirety on November 2 are two females you have never heard of – one a young child, the other a young woman – for whom the series is their introduction to performing: Nell Sutton and Aria Mia Loberti.

The two portray the same role a decade or so apart and are the product of a global casting search for actresses to play the lead character Marie-Laure LeBlanc. As “All the Light We Cannot See” casting director Lucy Bevan told an audience at the DGA Theater in West Hollywood gathered to watch the first two installments and a post-screening panel discussion on Tuesday night, Sutton and Loberti emerged from a casting process that featured literally thousands of readings “to find a needle in the haystack.” It turned out they found not one but two needles: Sutton, who plays the young Marie-Laure, in rural Wales, and Loberti (the older Marie) at Penn State. Both are blind – Sutton legally, Loberti entirely.

Watch the full panel discussion above, featuring “All the Light We Cannot See” executive producer and director Shawn Levy, executive producer Dan Levine, casting director Lucy Bevan, writer and executive producer Steven Knight, production designer Simon Elliott, cinematographer Tobias Schliessler and editor Dean Zimmerman.

“All the Light We Cannot See” follows the story of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and her father Daniel LeBlanc (a charming Ruffalo), who flee German-occupied Paris with a priceless diamond in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the Nazis. The pair are relentlessly pursued by a cruel Gestapo officer (Lars Eldinger) who seeks to possess the stone for his own selfish ends. They soon take up residence with a reclusive uncle (Laurie) who transmits clandestine radio broadcasts as part of the resistance. Marie-Laure’s path ultimately collides with Werner (Louis Hofmann), a brilliant German teen who is enlisted by Hitler’s regime to track down illegal broadcasts. The tale interweaves the stories of their lives, both separately and interconnected, over the course of a decade.

“We decided to open the process up to someone blind,” said series executive producer Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things”), who also directed all four episodes. “When you do that, you’re not calling regular agencies for opportunities. We had to find people in places where no one looks.”

Added Bevan: People were thrilled to audition. There was a sense of excitement in the blind community that this was happening.”

The casting to play both ends of the age spectrum of Marie-Laure was the lynchpin of the series. As Levy noted in a featurette that ran Tuesday night prior to the screened episodes, “She’s the heroine of the book. She’s blind. I wanted to cast Marie with a blind young woman who understands what it’s like to walk that road. That’s a valuable detail and nuance that impacts and informs every frame of this series.”

One day, a digital file arrived from a blind woman who had never before acted: Aria Mia Loberti. She was clearly brilliant, having graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Rhode Island as a triple major in Communication Studies, Political Science and Philosophy. She went on to become a Fulbright Scholar who was working on her Ph.D at Penn State. What she was not was a performer, at least not yet.

“She was a unicorn of a discovery,” Levy recalled in the featurette. “She’d never auditioned. She’d never thought about being an actress. She’s an academic. She went in an audition from her phone and I Zoomed with her, and increasingly my realization was, I think she could be great.” Later in the featurette, Ruffalo says, “I’m a little jealous, because it took me 30 years to show up and be able to do what she did in two weeks.”

Tuesday, casting director Bevan noted, “She was so composed and stylish. She was wearing her grandmother’s clothes. She was just so articulate and intelligent and had incredible grace.” Added Levy: “As soon as she got the part, one of the first things Aria said to me was, ‘I want to be great. I don’t know what to do. So be honest, tell me how to be great’.” The first two episodes screened on Tuesday showed an actress who was indeed great.