Taylor Zakhar Perez Concerned by Joey King’s Weight Loss in ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’: ‘Are You OK?’
Joey King’s weight loss in We Were the Lucky Ones concerned her friend and former costar Taylor Zakhar Perez when he visited her on set.
“It was a heavy time,” Perez told King during their episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors. “I remember it was winter, January, just freezing, and thinking of you there was tough. But also the subject matter that you were in. When I showed up, I was like, ‘Jo, are you OK? Because you’ve lost a lot of weight.’”
Perez and King starred opposite each other in Netflix’s 2020 sequel, The Kissing Booth 2, and have been friends ever since. King most recently starred in Hulu’s miniseries We Were the Lucky Ones, which premiered all eight episodes on March 28.
“I got very, very, very thin for that show because my character is a Jewish woman passing as an Aryan woman,” she explained to Perez. “At the beginning of the war, they’re living off rations. And then the access to food is so limited.”
Based on the 2017 book of the same name by Georgia Hunter, inspired by the real-life story of her own family, We Were the Lucky Ones follows King as Halina Kurc, a young Jewish woman whose family has been torn apart at the start of World War II.
“We were trying to be as smart and safe about it as possible, but we were trying to be mindful that the responsibility we have to this story is so immense,” she said. “The least we can do is find discomfort where it’s necessary. We’re not actually going through the Holocaust; we’re portraying a family that is.”
She continued, “At the end of the day, we should feel uncomfortable when doing these scenes that require such heavy emotion. But filming the show was one of my proudest accomplishments. I’m just so honored that I got to portray this real-life woman, Halina Kurc, who’s just a miraculous human being.”
TV Shows Based on Best-Selling Books: From ‘Big Little Lies’ to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Along with King, the cast of We Were the Lucky Ones includes Logan Lerman, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Amit Rahav and Hadas Yaron as the Kurc siblings, with Lior Ashkenazi and Robin Weigert portraying their parents.
“She’s a hero. It’s a family of heroes,” Perez said of Halina and the Kurcs.
“It’s a family of heroes who didn’t see themselves that way,” King replied. “Who were just trying to fight for survival, to see each other again and to keep each other alive. It’s amazing.” She added, “I’m sitting here zooming out right now and looking at this, the fact that we’re here discussing the show. It’s exciting. I’m so grateful. I’m very, very proud.”
All eight episodes of We Were the Lucky Ones are available to stream on Hulu.
