New Netflix sci-fi thriller The OA is based on a real-life encounter, says star and creator Brit Marling
Online streaming series about a blind woman who resurfaces after a seven-year disappearance with the ability to see is a mystery thriller like Netflix’s earlier smash hit, Stranger Things
It’s not every night you go to a party and bring home a TV character.
But that’s essentially what happened to The OA’s Brit Marling a few years ago, when she met an uncanny young woman who said she had died and come back to life.
“I saw her from across the room, and she just seemed to be operating at a different frequency,” Marling says. “So when she told me she had this near-death experience – and described leaving her body and what she felt inside herself on the return – you understand why she felt like a person who was both apart from the world, but also more deeply in it. The idea of a character like that became really appealing.”
The encounter provided a springboard for Netflix’s eight-part series The OA, which the streaming giant surprise-announced on December 12 and released on December 16. The sci-fi thriller was created by Marling and Zal Batmanglij, who were eager to try an ongoing series after writing mind-bending films Sound of My Voice and The East (both of which also starred Marling).
Like Netflix’s similarly twisty phenomenon Stranger Things, The OA is a “layered mystery; there are lots of clues everywhere,” says Batmanglij, who directed all eight episodes. “I think watching it slowly has its advantages, but (binge-watching) it as an eight-hour film is also amazing.”