Back in 2016, screenwriter Eric Heiserer was doing the awards circuit for his hit film

arrival, and he wanted a good book to keep him company.

I reached out to a friend of mine and said, give me a book that I probably haven't heard

up before.

And he said, would you like to read Ocean's Eleven in a Game of Thrones universe?

And I said, put that in my eyeballs right now.

That book was a fantasy adventure series by Lee Barducco.

I really didn't want Eric or the writers to approach this fearfully.

You know, scared artists make bad art, and I wanted them to feel empowered to make

bold decisions with the plot.

Now it's the biggest new series from Netflix, Shadow and Bone.

Do you know the only thing more powerful than you or me, the two of us, together?

In this season of Behind the Scenes, we're entering the Shadow Fold and diving into

a world where people with magical abilities called Grisha can manipulate the elements.

A breeze becomes a tornado, a heartbeat becomes a heart attack, and one character, Alina

Starkoff, can bring forth the power of the sun.

Bring the light.

We'll meet Jesse May Lee, the actor who plays our hero, Alina.

For Alina, certainly, her journey is all about belonging.

And that's, you know, there are different facets to that as well, because it's about

her finding her place, but also her finding her place within herself, which are two things

that I think are really important to being happy as a person, as a human being.

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