Walking in Miep's Footsteps | A Small Light | National Geographic
[Music]
Meat Piece was Otto Frank's secretary, and she was a very close friend of the Frank family. They actually met in 1933. She was the first person he asked when he decided they needed to go and hide in the annex, and she immediately said yes. I knew the first thing I needed to do was come to Amsterdam in order to step into Meat's shoes because it's such an iconic city, and I needed to be here to really feel like her.
[Music]
I made sure that I went to the Anne Frank House; I'd actually never been before. I went there, I took a private tour. They actually took me into some places they don't allow everyone to go in. I got to go in Otto's office, which was heavy and has a very weighted feeling to it but was really kind of important and great for me to be able to feel that. I could literally sit at Meat's desk and look out the window, and she would have looked out of.
Our show runners, Tony and Joan, gave me a map of all of Meat's places that she lived and the routes that she would cycle. I went to her old apartment, I cycled her route to work, and I cycled the route that she took Margot through the checkpoint. I just cycled around this beautiful city and kind of soaked in the feeling of being here. It just allowed me to create a really good base for being this person.
Just existing in the place that she actually existed in was really, really useful to me. We're very lucky that we were able to actually film here for a month, which I thought was incredibly important because this is such an iconic city that operates in a very certain way. So it was just really important to us to get into the feeling of being here.
When we shot some of the exteriors in Amsterdam, in the middle of the shoot we actually shot outside of My Way to Plane, which is the Frank's last apartment before they moved into the annex. We need to get that before they open the checkpoint. It was a very heavy and intense day, but it also felt like a great honor, and we all had a very deep respect for the weight of history we had on our shoulders on that day.
It was pretty special to just feel that full circle. Of course, she was an incredible person; she had a very strong sense of what's right and what's wrong. It's not going to change anything; it will change you. She never wanted to be called a hero, which I think was important for me to remember. She wanted us all to see a bit of ourselves in her.
It really has meant a lot to me playing this role, and I really hope you watch and enjoy the series. If I don't try [Music] to live with myself. [Music]