Rebooting a beloved IP is always tricky. In the case of Little House on the Prairie, where the original series ran for nine seasons and spawned four movie specials, it took not only ambition but also a great deal of vision and talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Netflix’s take on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical novels begins earlier than the original NBC did, chronicling the Ingalls family’s first attempt to stake a homestead in Independence, Kansas, versus Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
In doing so, they meet many characters wholly new to Little House fans, including the uniquely enterprising and multifaceted Lacey Aubert, played by Rebecca Amzallag.
We were fortunate enough to sit down via Zoom to discuss Amzallag’s role in the show as well as her experience exploring the material.
Did you watch the original Little House on the Prairie series?
I did not. When I was of the age when I probably would’ve watched, I lived in France, and it didn’t stream on the kind of regular TV that we had access to, so I never watched it.
I’m kind of grateful now that I could rediscover it with a different POV, or I can just kind of have a neutral attitude towards it.
It is one of those shows that’s very formative for people who grew up with it. There’s a lot of connection with the characters. You get a special kind of freedom in playing Lacey because Lacey wasn’t in the original series.
Exactly. And I don’t know if a character like Lacey could have existed in the original series. She’s such a wonderful feminist addition that’s still plausible, but also such a nice North Star for Laura.
This show will probably continue on for a long time. It’s so nice that while she’s still so young, [she’s learned], “Oh, it’s possible.” It’s almost like she’s made from Laura’s imagination in a sense.
Rebecca Sonnenshine did a great job bringing in new characters that live so comfortably in the world but represent things in our current culture.
Did you feel that the costuming for Lacey helped get you in touch with her character?
Wolf and Mitchell. Mitchell (Travers) and (Mitchel) Wolf, the costume designers, are UNBELIEVABLY talented. I cried the first time I worked with them because they want to know what you want to do. They have options for you. Their research and their polling was unbelievable.
They went all over the U.S., talked to so many different experts. They went to very cool, specific Winnipeg spots as well, and they pulled so much authentic, vintage stuff from that time. Where they had to recreate the costumes — for people for whom the sizing was off, or you had to change things up, or you had to make things to order — they had such beautiful things made.
And then small details, like on Lacey’s boots. The detail of her carving all the cities she had gone to on her way to Independence. They came to me and said, “We have this lovely idea of having her map something or write something on her boots. What do you think it could be?” I said, “How about all the cities she’s been through?” There was such a collaboration on that aspect.
The wardrobe was everything. It’s so wonderful. And it was such a beautiful and special relationship with the costume designers. May they continue on their journey with Little House because they enriched the show with the wardrobe. I’d never had that experience before. So yes, I’ll just say YES.
Because the show never addresses Lacey’s backstory explicitly, did you create one for her?
I wrote her a wonderful backstory. I didn’t discuss it with Rebecca, so I’m not certain that this would jive with what she had in mind for Lacey’s backstory, but what’s nice about Rebecca is that she and all of the writers write in a way that it doesn’t matter the details: it’s just what the person is coming with. It’s a very present-tense story.
But I wrote for her a story where she didn’t necessarily want to be married the first time. She was married in France, and you don’t really have a choice in the 1800s if you don’t have independent wealth, and even if you do. When her parents died, she had to marry.
The laws didn’t protect women until, literally, the 1980s. Even if she had been married to someone who was relatively kind, she’s a rebellious, adventurous, large character. That doesn’t work well as far as “wife,” you know? I really let that inform her… “stroke of luck.”
I thought about if she had perhaps played a part in her husband meeting his end. [laughs] But I think that that’s a quality that wouldn’t really match up with the tone of the show, so I left that behind.
“Happily widowed” was really a wonderful gift from the whole Little House team. If they don’t say “happily widowed,” it’s a very different story. Her independence is probably one of her more cherished attributes. To be able to have a business…
Taking Care of Business
Both Lacey and the other shop owner in the show, Emily, they’re the two store owners, and it’s so possible because of the way they wrapped around it. What I’m doing is illegal, then, sure, why not? It would be a woman. And what Emily is doing is a family business, so it’s possible that she’s running it.
I think it’s fantastic. I do think that as far as her card room and her store go, that is hers. She is the sole entrepreneur. Maybe she got the house from someone when she arrived at Independence.
I can see her going into an old home that belonged to an older person who she might’ve had a lovely relationship with. And then that person passed away, and she took over the place and made it into what it is.
It’s so beautiful. When I walked on that set and I saw the card room for the first time, it exploded what my imagination had even been able to muster. It was so full and rich and vibrant. And then the store… In the initial script that I got, she didn’t go into her back store; she went into her back room. It was a little bit of a sitting room.
When I got there that day, they told me, “No, you’re going into your back store.” So all of the guns, and the alcohol, and the equipment! It was so beautiful, I couldn’t believe it. And, of course, we check all firearms, whether they’re replicas or old firearms. We check every single one of them every time we do any kind of shooting.
So the person who was the gun wrangler had to come and show us — I don’t know how many — 50 beautiful old or replica guns to make sure that they were safe and all the things, and it was really like walking into the most beautiful antique store where you could touch things. It was cool.
Lacey forms a close relationship with Caroline Ingalls as Caroline settles into life in Independence. Lacey’s relationship with Mr. Edwards is also one of deep warmth and kindness. How do you think Lacey chooses who she opens up to and takes into her heart?
One of the things that’s funny about her is that she’s both very hard and very soft. If someone seems safe, even a part of them seems safe, she will give people the benefit of the doubt. Especially women. You can tell that Meegwun [Fairbrother]’s character was someone she was open to. She’s obviously not someone who thinks that the Osage should be treated differently than the settlers.
Children. You can tell she loves children right off the bat, with all of her interactions with Laura and Mary. She responds to integrity and kindness, no matter how buried.
I love the scene where she’s rejected in the town square by Caroline and Jemma, who is such a fantastic character as well. There’s such a rejection of her, and what I thought was really lovely is that she doesn’t hide that. She doesn’t become mean. She just accepts the way things are and… anybody can make anything right with Lacey. If you come correct, she’s willing. She’s open-minded. She doesn’t hold grudges.
Her warmth is innate. But Mr. Edwards [is a special case], being this wounded animal with such integrity, such kindness, such playfulness. He’s also someone who is not constrained by the norms or the obligations, even though for him it’s from a point of view of sadness and loss. He won’t necessarily conform. I really like that, and I really like that about her. I like that she’s with the underdogs.
Lacey Aubert has a distinctive posture and way of moving. What informed your visual presentation of her on-screen?
Part of the wardrobe that is really lovely is that she wears both feminine things and masculine things. Her whole comportment, her whole posture, is similar. She’s utilitarian. “If it doesn’t work for me, I’m not going to do it.”
She’s the only female character on the show who is not wearing a corset. They all wore corsets, including the girls, and layers of stuff. I was the only one who didn’t have to, because why would you?
That information about her decisions, about her posture… Again, she’s a woman who was brought up in France in the mid-1800s. I don’t think she was dirt poor. There’s no way she would be able to have the idea to open a store or the idea to change countries if she were dirt poor.
In that time period in France — this is during the Second Napoleon — it’s a pretty crazy time. If you’re dirt poor, you’re dirt poor. You’re not [thinking], “Okay, I’m going to America to make it happen.”
There has to be an idea of, “Oh, I can use money. This is what this costs. This is how it might look to own things, to run things.” The fact that she knows how to ride a horse. There’s so many aspects of who she is that had to be given to her as a young person.
She was brought up with some manners. Whether she chooses to use them or not. She’s brought up with posture. She knows she’s deciding against. It gave her a sense of grace that was forced on young women through lessons and expectation.
She’s one of the only people in the entire show that pulls a gun. Nobody else is pulling guns. It’s just her. It’s really, really fun to get this idea of her choices versus what she was given growing up. I made those decisions, and I brought the posture of someone who had been made to sit a certain way.
If you were to project Lacey’s story beyond the story of Season 1, how do you see her dealing with the changes in Independence?
I could see her going West, actually. Going west to a state that was more established but that had values that might reflect where she was coming from. The thing about Kansas is that, at the time, it wasn’t a state with any decisions made on it. It was just forming government.
It was in such an early time that anybody could do anything, but as we see in the story, those things change, and certain types of folks come in and make decisions for other people.
I could see her moving more to a San Francisco or to these places, these port places where you have people coming in and out, where things are not necessarily as they seem. But at the same time, she’s not a city girl.
I don’t know the history well enough of the San Francisco region at that time, but I do know that it was a really, really important city in the early 1900s for the West Coast. I don’t see her going East because that feels like going backwards. She would move on to live a life where her values are more reflected in the people around her.
Seeing as your natural speaking voice has no French accent, were you coached on how French Lacey should sound? You also get to speak French in some episodes. Was that fun for you?
In at least three episodes, [I speak French]. I insult Russell Kind in French. In the second episode, I speak to Meegwun’s character in French because he speaks French. That’s a really lovely way of showing his level of education. I really liked that.
I grew up in France. Since doing that show, I have done another show where I have a French accent, which is so fun because I always wondered, “Why aren’t I speaking French in shows?” All of the jobs I’ve gotten, except for one where I was on a French TV show, have been fully Anglophone. It’s so nice to be able to utilize my French.
I showed my parents some scenes. My father has a very thick French accent. My mother does not. But they were so stunned at the accent. I have a French aunt, and my mother’s like, “Oh, you’re channeling Agathe,” cause it’s such a very specific French-American accent. It was really fun to do.
So, a French-American accent versus a French-Canadian accent?
A French-Canadian accent is its own thing. French-Canadian is Québécois. It’s very fun and particular. French influenced by American is different than French influenced by British. Different accents. Even though I imagine when she learned English originally, if she did go to school — I believe she did have some schooling — she would’ve learned English from British teachers.
But then being in the United States for as long as she was — my guess is approximately five years — she would have adopted certain syntax, certain words, certain pronunciations that were far more American, making her more of the French-American.
The representation of diversity in this new version of Little House on the Prairie is really satisfying, though it may be initially jarring for those of us who did grow up watching the original series.
And it’s all factual. It’s funny because a lot of it is in the book. Dr. Tan is a real person. I love that TV is at a place where it’s far more important to be authentic to what happened. We’re all very lucky that Rebecca was at the helm because she, without tokenizing anything, brought us a real, beautiful, complete story.
Aside from Little House on the Prairie, where can our readers see you next?
I just finished shooting a really wonderful movie called The Bookie and the Bruiser. [S.] Craig Zahler is the director. He also directed Brawl in Cell Block 99 as well as Bone Tomahawk, which are some of his more famous movies. They’re very well-respected.
They’re extremely violent, so a complete 180 from Little House. This movie stars Vince Vaughn, Theo James, and Patrick Schwarzenegger. It is set in the late 50s in New York, so another period piece. It’s so fun. Until these two, I’d hardly done any. 10/10, very fun.
I again play a French widow. I am not part of the Craig Zahler’s beautiful, typical, hyper-violent, really action-packed part of the movie, but I really loved working with whole team. It was really wonderful.
Catch Rebecca Amzallag as Independence, Kansas’s happily widowed entrepreneur Lacey Aubert on Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie.
All eight episodes of Season 1 (filmed in and around Winnipeg!) are now streaming, and Season 2 has already been greenlit.
