The Making of 'Genius' | National Geographic

Genius is the first scripted series on Matt Gio. The first season of Genius is the story of Albert Einstein, which we're telling over the course of 10 episodes. We all know, uh, of his genius, his gifts, but Albert Einstein's private life is far more complicated and dramatic than certainly I ever realized. There's a very human story to be told here.

What most people know about Albert Einstein is he's got crazy hair and they know equals MC squared. But, in fact, Albert Einstein was a fascinating character with a fascinating personal life. He was totally dedicated to his work, and he sort of seemed to go through his life and his family relationships like a bull in a china shop. He was someone who followed his heart and a lover of life, but I don't think he ever saw the damage that it was causing.

What this series attempts to do is to tell the story of the man, and it really shows him warts and all—the really extraordinary aspects of his life and his work and also his flaws as a human being. I think the great thing about the series is that it really looks at his youth. My image of him was, as I'm sure a lot of people, just as a relatively old man. But I had no idea of the nature of the beast he was as a young man.

So, there's quite a lot about his formative years and domestic issues, the number of lovers, wives that I don't think people know so much about. We began thinking about how we would tell the story of Albert Einstein. First, it was Walter Isaacson's fantastic book, Noah Pink's wonderful screenplay for episode one, and the idea of taking this to National Geographic.

That Geo Channel was instantly interested, and really within a day or two, we said this could launch a series. Once SGEO decided they wanted to make this show, of course, now there's this problem. We see Einstein's entire life, and we knew for production reasons that it would be very, very difficult. Even if we could find the perfect actor who could believably play 17 and 67, we wouldn't be able to pull it off on a television schedule.

I suggested early on that perhaps we should be looking for two actors to play Einstein, and Jeffrey Rush, you know, instantly was at the top of our list of candidates who could play Albert Einstein from 40-something on through the end of his life. Jeffrey was actually quite interested in this role, but we had very big problems with the timing because Ron had a very tight schedule, and Jeffrey had a tight schedule.

So we ended up creating a really crazily inefficient, uh, somewhat nonsensical production schedule, but it ended up making the most sense of all because it allowed us to get Jeffrey. This is one of the great parts, and the scale of it is so big. So Ron was very excited by it and said, "Let's do this. This will be great." Then the question was, well, once we found out Jeffrey would be interested, who could we find who could we match him up with? Because that had to be remarkable.

We started pairing up photographs, and suddenly there was this photograph of this guy I didn't know but who looked at some of the bone structure and so forth of Jeffrey Rush. His name is Johnny Flynn. In normal life, I don't think you could find someone who looks less like Einstein, so I was confused when I got sent apart. We watched this young man audition, and I looked at Ron, and he looked at me, and we both knew that this guy was so much more interesting than any other actor that we had seen for the role.

But he has blonde hair and blue eyes; he looks nothing like Albert Einstein. And so, with our incredible hair and makeup team, we pulled off this, I think, pretty extraordinary transformation. The wonderful Deina and Fay, who have done all the makeup, worked in all these amazing kind of prosthetic pieces and dyed my hair, obviously. And I thankfully got out of having a perm, but they curl my hair or they use wigs for different ages.

And it's amazing what they do, and I think it kind of works. Having this material to really research is great, and the entire production office becomes kind of like a giant classroom, and everyone just immerses themselves and then feels a level of commitment to the subjects that we're trying to depict. Absolutely, authenticity is very important in a story like this because we are not telling something fictional—it's a true story, and it's about somebody who really made a difference and someone who's known all over the world.

Costume-wise, this was really exciting because the story starts in 1886 and carries on until 1955. Costume is amazing, and already those things, you know, lift you. You literally put on the costume, and it really does so much for you, and it's incredibly authentic. A lot of research went into it, and when I had to make the costume, I made sure we got real fabrics which were pure, which would match the period.

You know, we did not use anything that was modern. My favorite thing is the fittings and Mala's bows. When I put on one of her bows, I feel myself shifting into her. We've been very lucky being located in Prague because the whole city's become our backlot. Prague is, of course, a city that is very important in Einstein's life, pivotal in a lot of ways. It's also a great motion picture hub; a place where there's deep support both in front of and behind the cameras.

What's great about Prague is that it's a very much a Central European city, so we can use parts of the city to pass for Switzerland, for Germany, and obviously for Prague itself. It's so beautiful; it's a sort of place you could come and just walk around for days. It's amazing how many locations there are that are so pristine and authentic, and it's a pretty impressive setup here.

Every location we're using, and so many of the sets are practical, they're real, and it's just wonderful. We've had absolutely wonderful feedback from the actors; they've all seemed to respond very much to the period detail in all of the sets. You know, light switches and power sockets and every kind of little watch, pencil, pen that we give them has been very, very carefully thought about, and all that attention to detail seems to be paying off.

The idea very early on, the challenge from Nat Geo was, "We want a really bold cinematic look. We don't want this to look like a television show." And, of course, we had Ron Howard, who was going to direct this, and there was no way that Ron was going to do something that looked conventional. From the very first time I spoke to Ron about it, there was a strong emphasis on doing something that does the time period justice, at the same time that doesn't feel too piecemeal, dusty.

It was something we were very much intending to do something that has still a very current feel to it. It's stunning; it's amazing. Um, Matias, our director of photography, is incredible. He works so quickly; the lighting is beautiful. It works for multiple angles, the way it's shot, I just think is so dynamic. Ron found a very energetic style, a very youthful, vibrant, energetic way to shoot this show, so I think it feels very modern.

Particularly when we're with the young Einstein, it feels very youthful and sexy. This is a great moment to be able to tell the story of Albert Einstein, what he accomplished, the times he lived in, and having very ambitious partners like National Geographic is making it possible to tell this story in a much more cohesive and comprehensive way. And as a storyteller, it's incredibly exciting to be able to get at the details, the spirit, the soul of this amazing man. [Music]