A Body That Works delves into many issues: love, jealousy, desire, surrogacy, family relationships, social stratification, class and privilege, ethnicity; etc. What inspired you to create the series, is it based on some real story?
Shira: Ten years ago, almost to the day, my son was born by surrogacy process. So I went through a process that wasn’t at all similar to the one in the series – it was much more boring and less dramatic. But I did realize the dramatic potential in this triangle. And I kept thinking about it in the first years of his life, and at a certain point, I started developing an idea for a feature film. I wrote a first draft for the script, but I realized there was scope for a drama with several protagonists. And it was at this point Dror joined. We worked for four years on all sorts of detours, and almost two years before the series was filmed, we sort of settled on this version that we finally wrote that you see here now.

Dror: Shira and I were very good friends for many years, and I went through Shira’s surrogacy process with her as a friend. But later on, she was able to convince me there was so much potential in this triangle. And there are so many stories around this and parenthood. What are the prices you are willing to pay to become a parent? This situation really captures that as a dramatic capsule.

Let’s talk about the triangle – the three main characters – how do these characters help you explore the subject of parenthood?
Shira: We sort of learnt about Ellie as we wrote about her. She wants the world to be perfect, she’s a control freak – she wants everyone to be according to her idea of how things should be working. The most primal, obvious thing a woman should be able to do is not working for her. And then this sends her into a journey of pain and losing control, of her world, of her emotions and her relationships. I think she blames herself.

Dror: Ido, Ellie’s partner, all during the attempts to get pregnant, he was in a way her partner. He was standing by her side, he had to contain her, he had to be her support. Now that they are pregnant, during these nine months, he allows himself to feel his own emotions for the first time, his feelings about being a parent and more. And Chen – we all love her very much – she’s a younger woman, she’s less accomplished than Ellie and Ido, but she has a feeling that she can be. But something prevented her from accomplishing what she could have accomplished until now. Meeting Ellie, who is so accomplished in certain fields, and Ido, that’s made her look at herself and think that maybe she could be where they are.

Shira: Chen is a single mom, she has a 10-year-old child. In a way the reason why she goes into surrogacy is for financial reasons. She can’t give him the home that she wants him to have. She wants to build a proper home for her child, but in the process she finds herself caring for someone else’s child, while she’s not succeeding with her own son. She sort of loses herself along the way. That is one of her main conflicts.

Dror: Chen is looking for someone to rescue her, and when she meets Ido, instantly this is the man who will take care of her. Then he starts to take care of her, she’s a complete woman for him – Ellie isn’t needed any more. For the first time in Ellie’s life, she’s left without anyone to help / support her.

Rotem, Yehuda and Lior, you are probably the three most famous actors in Israel right now. What attracted you to A Body That Works? What did you think when you first read the script?
Rotem: I was blown away when I read the script for the first time. I thought Ellie played such an important story, the kind of role we don’t get to see much on Israeli TV. So, I knew that if I took this role on, it felt a great responsibility to tell her story because it’s the story of so many women around the world that are struggling to have kids. So, for me, it was a no brainer. I read it and I was like “Sign me up! I’m in!”

Yehuda: I got into this project two weeks before, because I wasn’t supposed to do it - I had a production which was delayed. I knew Shay (the director) – he really, really wanted me to do the part. So, I just jumped into it. The subject matter really interested me. Surrogacy is something that hasn’t been dealt with on Israeli TV, and it is a universal subject that is about relationships in the end, and the psychological mindf**k of not having a spontaneous pregnancy. Lots of humans feel if they can’t have a pregnancy in a spontaneous way, they’re a failure. But there is a way to do it – and this series shows people that they don’t need not be ashamed about it. In the end, it’s about relationships.



Lior: I didn’t want to do it in the beginning, I refused. Really. And then I read the scripts. They are amazing. Every day, I’m reading a lot of scripts, not just for me but also for my production company. And when I read the script for this series, I thought it was one of the best scripts ever written. But I didn’t know if I could do it, if I’d have time. I was busy shooting a show in New York. And then I met Shira and Dror and Shay, in a coffee shop in Israel and we started talking about the character, and they convinced me – because there is a similarity between me and Tomer in a way. Shira said that every time she wrote this character, she wrote about me. So, it was very easy for them to convince me! And to work with these two amazing actors, the best two actors in Israel, it was a blessing – I really wanted to do it.

Yehuda, in A Body That Works you step away from your usual heartthrob characters to play the role of a more buttoned-down, dedicated husband to Rotem Sela. Is this your first time working together?
Yehuda: As you know, Rotem is the biggest star in Israel. She has so many hats, she is so talented, and she hosts so many shows in Israel. We worked with each other a long time ago, and finally, here came the right project, and we became a couple! Because I came on board so late, we needed to connect really quickly. I really wanted to tell the story of Ido, I really to tell his point of view. And we needed to bring their relationship to the table in a really, really speedy way. We had so many emotions and debates while we were shooting. We just “plugged in and played”. Sometimes you have to just take a leap of faith! We had a lot of fun!

Rotem, you are most well-known for your role in the romcom The Beauty and The Baker, one of the highest-rated scripted series ever in Israel. How did you prepare for the role of Ellie? Did you do a lot of research?
Rotem: Nowadays, we are surrounded by people who have shared the same struggles as Ido and Ellie. Most of my best friends at some point have struggled to have babies, to get pregnant. And I have a couple of gay friends who went through the process of surrogacy. So it wasn’t new to me. So, when I got Ellie’s role, I sat down with some of them and asked me to take me to specific moments, specific emotions and how it really felt. And that was my research.

Rotem, what was it like working with newcomer Gal Malka, who played your surrogate Chen and shared your Best Actress award at Series Mania with you?
Rotem: She’s super talented and she’s so young. To see her working on set was an experience for me. For me, at her age, I wasn’t able to do half of what she’s done.

Yehuda: She has good instincts, and this role was like a glove to her hand. We were all amazed by her. She really stands out in this series and she’s a great person.

Rotem: And this is just the beginning for her. There was one scene from the last episode, and I don’t want to make a spoiler, but it was super emotional for her. And there was a moment before we started filming, that I saw her crying.

What was it like working with director Shay Capon?
Rotem: Shay is amazing. He is just a gift for actors. He’s a huge presence for all of us.
Yehuda: He was an actor himself once. So he knows the everything, he knows the actors’ gestures. He’s deep and philosophical. He whispers to the horses, right? He gives you the right whispers.

Lior, you are one of the most-popular Israeli actors, the creator and star of Fauda. In A Body That Works you play the role of an arrogant star director trying to write his first book for Ellie’s publishing house, who is humbled and upset by Elli’s criticism. What was that like for you?
Lior: This series is like real life, you know? Sometimes you write something for years, something you think is amazing - and then people tell you that it’s not good at all! It’s painful! I had this experience myself with Fauda. I wrote it for a long time. I went from broadcaster to broadcaster, and nobody wanted it. I was like “Wow! It’s probably a bad idea, it’s a bad script.” And I started to believe that the editors, that those people who were reading my scripts, were better than me. But here, in this series, Ellie was better than my character Tomer, because she helped Tomer improve his book. I find in my work now, when I put my ego aside and I listen to people giving me notes, most of the time they are right. But you have to listen carefully.

This series has been a phenomenal success is Israel. What’s that been like for you all?
Dror: What I love about the reaction to the show, is that it almost forces people watching it to take sides. After every episode, my 13-year-old keeps changing her mind – first she’s on Ellie’s side, then Chen’s, then Ido’s. It forces you to take a side in the conflict. Normally when Israeli shows are succeeding around the world, they succeed because they show another reality that the British, French viewer shows something that they only know through the news. But this show is very different – these fights are the same fights being fought in Stockholm, London and this is the appeal of this show.

Rotem: I’ve been getting thousands of messages every day from women that are so happy that we are sharing their stories and their struggles and letting people around them get a better of sense of what they are going through.

What is it about Israeli dramas that makes them so successful?
Lior: Israel is like a start-up nation because of how hard it is to create and produce content. You have to improvise, to make the best of yourself, and to be very precise with what you are doing. Now Israel is a huge hub for talent and talented people. And I think the difference between American writers and Israeli writers, most of the Israeli writers are writing their own stories. And American writers are writing stories about someone else. Shira wrote her own story, this is why it’s so good. Because she knows the characters, she knows the pain, she knows everything that’s happening. She wrote from her own heart. And the same for me with Fauda, I wrote about my life. And I think this why it’s been so successful.