Are cruel people cool people?
That’s the big question with the reboot of “Cruel Intentions” premiering Thursday on Prime Video.
Adapted from “Les Liaisons Dangereuse,” the classic French novel about manipulative mind games and the destruction of innocence, which became a Broadway hit, an Oscar-winning picture, then morphed into the 1999 teen-centric film version with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon, this new “Cruel Intentions” unfolds in a Washington, DC, college where fraternity and sorority status is everything.
Dominant are the twisted, ruthless step-siblings with their inappropriate relationship, the bad but beautiful Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Cook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess).
“I would say cruel people are cool people for the sake of our show,” Cook, 29, said in a joint Zoom interview. “I cannot agree more,” added Aussie native Burgess, 22.
A major career break for both, “I started with the voice. I was a bit worried at the beginning because of how young I was, just 20 when we filmed,” Burgess recalled. “And how high pitched my voice was.
“Also, the accent. It’s difficult coming from Australia, stepping into shoes that required a pretty flawless American accent. But that’s where I began.”
“I started actually,” Cook said, “in my callback session with our show runners and then our pilot director, Adam Arkin. They were really having a hard time finding girls.
“We all kept trying to do Sarah Michelle Gellar. They were like, ‘No. No. No! We’re not trying to copy that.’
“So I brought what I thought was the character. And they helped me, gave me all the notes they needed to give me, and we just built her together.”
After the first take, “We all went, ‘That’s the girl. That’s her.’ It was who Caroline is. Her essence.
“They didn’t want me to lean into this snarky, almost camp vibe. They wanted her to be very grounded, very human. Not so obviously a mean girl. They were really trying to stay away from that.
“Ultimately, it came to her just being this quiet observer. Anytime someone’s speaking to her, she’s just assessing whatever is going on — then thinking 10 steps ahead of them.
“It was almost like she’s bored by everyone. They’re not able to keep up with her. She’s like a jungle cat, a cougar who’s stalking her prey very quietly.”
“Waiting,” Burgess added, “for the moment she has her shot.”
Burgess’s Lucien is, “Very, very complex. He has some pretty haunting traumas that really did shape where he is now.
“He’s sexy, he’s cool. He’s cunning, deceiving, with this little playfulness about him.”
All 8 episodes of “Cruel Intentions” premiere on Prime Video Nov. 21
