Vladimir, the critically acclaimed, bestselling novel by Julia May Jonas, is coming to Netflix as an eight-episode limited series starring Rachel Weisz, John Slattery, and Leo Woodall. Get your first look at the twisty comedy-drama series, which comes out on March 5, and fall down the rabbit hole yourself with the explosive new trailer.
Vladimir follows an unnamed, middle-aged protagonist (Weisz) who is a writer, professor, wife, and mom. As her life unravels, she becomes obsessed with a captivating new colleague, the eponymous Vladimir, at the small liberal arts college where she’s worked for decades. Full of sexy secrets, dark humor, and complex characters, Vladimir is about what happens when a woman is hell-bent on turning her fantasies into reality.
Slattery plays the protagonist’s husband, who is also at a personal and professional stalemate. Woodall brings Vladimir, a fellow writer and professor as well as the object of the protagonist’s fixation, to life.
Vladimir is named after Woodall’s character, on whom the protagonist has a crush. The series’ title embodies how the show playfully flips the script. “It’s a nod to novels that name themselves after the young women whom the man is obsessed with,” says author Jonas, who serves as the show’s creator, writer, and executive producer. “This is the subject of fixation that we’re going to be talking about, and I wanted to flip the script and have it be coming from a woman’s perspective.”
Throughout the series, Weisz’s character speaks directly to the camera. For Jonas, this was a way to bring a deeply internalized narrator from the page to the screen. “We managed to make external a lot of those internalizations through the direct address and the fantasy and things like that,” the author says.
For Weisz, this presented a playful storytelling opportunity. “You have direct access to what the character is thinking and then also what she wants you to think,” says the actor. “What she wants you to think is a little distant from the total truth. The narrative she tells isn’t always accurate, but that seems like a very human trait — to adjust the truth for one’s audience when things are [getting] out of control.”
By speaking to the camera, the Oscar-winning actor also reveals a side of herself we rarely see: a silly and chaotic antihero. “It’s funny [when] she does a direct address,” Slattery says of his co-star. “She says one thing and then admits to another thing.”
Woodall adds, “When Rachel’s character breaks the fourth wall, we, the audience, are in on the joke, which makes it immersive and fun. But also, there’s a world in which she is justifying some of the actions that she takes, like we all do,” he says — “when you do or say something, and you immediately need to rationalize it. That makes her very relatable.”
Only Weisz could pull off this very human balance, Woodall says. “I have so much admiration for her. There’s a very natural, charming kookiness about Rachel that is perfect for the protagonist. You need the protagonist to be charming to be on her side.”
The novel — which topped NPR, Washington Post, People, Vulture, Guardian, Vox, Kirkus Reviews, Newsweek, LitHub, and New York Public Library book-of-the-year lists — was Jonas’s incisive debut.
“I had Julia’s novel, which I’d read prior to being offered the role, and I had her screenplays,” says Weisz. “Her writing is so superb. It’s so funny and mischievous and truthful, and slightly ridiculous. That’s what makes it funny.”
Woodall was impressed by how seamlessly Jonas brought her story to the screen. “She’s extraordinary,” says Woodall. “It was her first time working on a film set. It was the first time a novel of hers had been made into a TV show, her first time showrunning. She had a lot of responsibility.”
The actors found it helpful to have Jonas present while shooting the eight episodes to discuss the complicated characters they play: “She had so much on her plate, but she dealt with it wonderfully. She’s very flexible and collaborative,” Woodall adds. “There were so many points where she would have insight that was invaluable. When you are a leader of a set, and she was in very many ways our leader, you have to set the tone, and your energy bleeds out into a set. What she’s done is really remarkable.”
Vladimir comes to Netflix on March 5.
