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Harlan Coben’s Lazarus, a gripping thriller series on Prime Video, revolves around Joel “Laz” Lazarus, portrayed by Sam Claflin, known for his role in Daisy Jones & The Six. The story delves into the tumultuous life of Lazarus, a psychiatrist who embarks on a downward spiral following a profound personal loss, leading him to believe he can communicate with the deceased.
Reflecting on his approach to embodying Laz, Claflin shared insights during a recent Zoom interview with DECIDER. “I tried to immerse myself in his perspective, and frankly, it wasn’t too challenging,” Claflin remarked. “When you hit your late 30s or early 40s, you often get these flashbacks from childhood while walking down the street, and suddenly, you find yourself in tears without understanding why—something I’ve personally experienced.”
The narrative of Lazarus unfolds as Laz grapples with the suicide of his father, Dr. Jonathan Lazarus, played by Bill Nighy, who was also a psychiatrist. In his quest to uncover the reasons behind his father’s actions, Laz discovers he can communicate with his father’s former patients, all murder victims, who address him as though he were his father. This leads him into investigations of their mysterious deaths and the murder of his twin sister Sutton, who was tragically killed at 18. As if this weren’t enough, Laz also learns he is the father of his ex-wife Bella’s (Karla Crome) son, Aidan (Curtis Tennant).
Describing Laz’s turmoil, Claflin used the term “midlife crisis,” highlighting how Laz is “haunted by his past traumas and decisions.”
“It’s an experience I’ve been through and am navigating now in a positive way,” Claflin confessed. “Particularly as men, we tend to suppress our emotions and feelings, which inevitably leads to an eruption. For Laz, his father’s suicide serves as the catalyst that opens Pandora’s Box, unraveling his sister’s death, his previous breakdown, and the collapse of his marriage. It all begins to spiral from there.”
Though Lazarus is an original Harlan Coben project and not based one of his best-selling books, Claflin’s onscreen work includes several notable book-to-screen adaptations such as The Hunger Games franchise, Me Before You, and Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & the Six. Lazarus was Claflin’s first time working with Coben.
“I watched his series Fool Me Once before filming this, before I even kind of knew about this as a project. And I loved that series,” he said. “So for me, this was an exciting prospect because of that. And I’ve now since watched so many of his adaptations. I just love his writing. You can’t help but get addicted. There’s no one quite like him.”
**All six episodes of Lazarus are currently streaming on Prime Video, and it’s at this point that we should note that we’ll start to get into some slightly spoiler-y territory. You’ve been warned!**
The six-part series, which was shot in Manchester, England, is yet another twisty thriller in Coben’s catalog, creeping in with a shocking ending. Claflin recalled being sent a script for the first episode, highlighting the “withdrawal” he felt over the “few weeks” that took place between that and receiving an early draft of the script for the second episode.
“I think we may have even started filming before I knew what the ending was,” he shared. “So I was just trying to play each moment as real and honest as possible. Like, Joel really believes that what he’s saying is true. And I just have to kind of play the honesty in that.”
As for how Claflin interpreted the Lazarus ending, he said that Laz is “imagining the conversations he wish he’d had with his dad.”
“But the sequences, all the flashbacks, they are tape recordings that he has obsessively listened to, to the point where he does start to sort of put things together,” he elaborated. “So the conversations he’s having with the sort of supernatural ghosts are things, conversations his dad has had with those people, and he starts putting the dots together.”
Viewers figure this out as Laz’s sister Jenna (Alexandra Roach) discovers tape recordings of their father’s sessions with his patients. It turns out that while feigning a collaboration with Detective Alison Brown (Kate Ashfield) to close cases and put away criminals, their father had been responsible for the murders they had people framed for. The real twist arrives shortly after this, though, as Laz finds Aidan has inherited the “same sort of psychopathic tendencies as his dad” and has already claimed a victim.
“With regards to Aidan, there’s a moment his dad says, it skips a generation. So Laz has been saved in that respect,” he noted.
Describing the phenomenon as a “haunting,” Claflin said he thinks that “Laz will be able to help him through it,” though the series ends immediately after this revelation.
“But I’d like to think that it and make him confess. But I have a feeling that would be too easy,” he conceded. “So who’s to know? Who’s to know where it leads?”
When asked if he would be open to returning for another season of Lazarus if the opportunity presents itself, Claflin said he “loved playing the part so much,” as he did “the world” they created and “all the other characters within it.”
“The one thing I would say is that I’d be curious to see what someone could cook up,” he said. “So I’d never say no.”
Nonetheless, he highlighted how Lazarus concludes on “sort of a perfect ending where it’s sort of left open-ended.”
“But it depends,” he added. “It depends on what is written and what is thought out. I couldn’t dream of coming up with any ideas myself. But Harlan is a master at this, as is Danny, his co-writer. And I think between them they could probably think of something pretty spectacular. So I definitely would jump at the chance of working with them again.”
Harlan Coben’s Lazarus is currently streaming on Prime Video.