Ralph Amoussou used the works of his namesake to help build his role as Paul Kadjo in “Transatlantic,” a seven-part Netflix series premiering April 7.
“I had the chance to have such an amazing mother, who named me after Ralph Ellison,” said Amousso, 33, born in Paris and raised in West Africa. “I read ‘The Invisible Man’ I don’t know how many times. I also read WEB Du Bois and Ida B. Wells and got to inject those influences into my character.
“It was daunting to me but felt very natural.”
“Transatlantic,” premiering April 7, is based on Julie Orringer’s novel “The Flight Portofolio” and was created by Anna Winger (“Unorthodox”) and Daniel Hendler. It unfolds in 1940 following Germany’s invasion of France and tells the true story of Varian Fry (Cory Michael Smith), a US journalist, based in the port city of Marseille, who helped roughly 2,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees flee France under the auspices of the Emergency Rescue Committee — among them Marc Chagall, Max Ernst and Hannah Arendt.
The large ensemble cast features Gillian Jacobs as Chicago heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who’s gone rogue in Marseille and helps bankroll the cause — Lucas Englander, Corey Stoll, Amit Rahav and Deleila Piasko.
When we first meet Paul Kadjo (Amoussou) — a new character who wasn’t in Orringer’s novel — he’s working at The Splendide, a Marseille hotel that’s an ostensibly safe haven for the refugees. He’s been surreptitiously helping Fry et al. and eventually plays a much bigger role in the unfolding historical saga.
“Paul was a student before the war and when it started he joined the French Army but they lost the war very early on,” Amoussou said. “He finds himself in the South of France with his brother, managing a hotel, and he’s just trying to help the best he can.
“As the story evolves, he gets involved more and more because he cannot stand the German presence and the French collaborators. He joins forces with good people … and is someone who is ordinary but does extraordinary things. I see him as a ‘double-renegade,’ since he was born in an oppressed area in an oppressed country and that’s all he knew.
“He just longed for freedom 24/7 and he has that — but now, on top of that, there’s another war.”
“Transatlantic” was shot on location in Marseille which, Amoussou said, was “absolutely” a tremendous help to the entire cast.
“We had a sense of duty as well,” he said. “Every day we walked past [where Varian Fry lived] and it was like, ‘You cannot screw this up.’ We were all very much aware of the story and of its importance and the fact that it’s never been told before. Each and every one of us wanted to do right by all these heroes.”
“Transatlantic” is not Amoussou’s first appearance in a Netflix production — he co-starred in the 2019 French horror series “Marianne” — but said he is aware of the series’ expectations and the weight of its history.
“The show is coming out [April 7] and I’m not going to lie to you.” he said. “I am working out every day — not because I want to work out, but because I’m nervous.”