The source material for Held the series is the novel by Edeet Ravel. The book has garnered both a Canadian and international following and has many active fans on GoodReads among other social platforms. Monika, a fan of the book was kind enough to give us some of her time to participate in a brief conversation with us.

Monika – What drew your attention to the novel “Held”? / Why did you choose the book to produce a web series?

marblemedia – Stockholm Syndrome, as a survival mechanism, can be hard to understand.  What makes someone align with their attacker?  How do they move from fear to intimacy?  How does that help them survive?  We felt author, Edeet Ravel, did a great job of making Chloe’s state of mind understandable as she reconciled with her captivity and succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome.  We’re excited to explore, in the full web series, what happens after Chloe gets out of captivity and how she is pulled out from Stockholm and back to full control.

Monika, what drew you to the novel?  And what are you most excited about seeing in the web series?

Monika – I can’t really remember, what exactly drew me to the novel, because it was quite a while ago. Maybe three years ago or so on. I think I saw the book in a bookshop in Germany and it got my attention because of the cover.

I guess what I am most excited about seeing in the web series is, how the relationship between Chloe and Damian grows and how this fact has an impact on Chloe’s psyche. But I am also excited to see more of the great environment of Canada. The landscape really impressed me when I saw the trailer. 

Why and how did you pick the two actors?

marblemedia – We held casting sessions and were delighted when Alanna and Kristopher came forward as we knew both of their work from other shows and were big fans.  Casting was a fun but challenging stage as we had several really great actors come out for the role and it was immensely difficult to chose.  Ultimately, we love the chemistry between Alanna and Kristopher, which is of paramount importance with such a complicated and complex relationship between them.

What did you like about these actors?  How different or similar are they to what you imagined when you read the novel?

Monika – To be honest the actors are very different from what I imagined when I read the novel. But I think this is always the case when it comes to bring a book to screen. For example I imagined the captor a lot different. 

Anyway, I really like them and I think they fit perfect into the project! I especially like that they are both very expressive and play with a lot of emotions. As far as I can judge especially Alanna is doing a great job. One can easily see the fear and the confusion in her eyes when she is acting.

What was the most enjoyable part during the process of making the series so far?

marblemedia – Working with our incredible team!!  From the screenwriter, Alison Bingeman who has amazing ideas for the bigger web series (the first 3 scripts are really exciting) to our wonderful cast and director, Megan Follows, to the super talented DP, Luc Montpellier and the rest of the Key Creative people.  It was so fun to work with such talented and committed people. 

Are there certain questions that you want to see answered in the series?  If so, what are they? 

Monika – I think in the novel we do not get to know a lot about the captor. We never figure out what his true motives were, how much he did on purpose to manipulate Chloe and how much he made up on the stories he told Chloe. Basically we never got to know the truth about the captor. 

So I would really like to see the answers to some of these questions in the series. But from what I have seen on the website in the character description I think we do get to know more about the characters than in the book. I would love that!