A meet-cute it ain’t. When brilliant, arrogant chemist Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman) first encounters brilliant, guarded lab tech Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) in “Lessons in Chemistry,” the sparks are practically toxic. But when he sees her again at a work event, and then starts vomiting at her feet from an allergic reaction to another guest’s perfume, she takes him home and cares for him, and both their wary hearts start to crack open.
He teaches her to row. She feeds him exquisite meals. They work on a theory of abiogenesis together, as couples do. Life is bliss, until — spoiler — he is cruelly snatched away. But in the Apple TV+ limited series, based on the book by Bonnie Garmus, their love story continues to permeate her life long after he has left this plane of existence, due in no small part to Pullman’s indelible performance.
“In some ways the lesson of ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ is about staying open to things that are outside of your life’s plan,” says director Sarah Adina Smith.
Series creator Lee Eisenberg, who was writing and shooting almost simultaneously, recalls watching the actor’s dailies. “When you see Lewis, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m seeing a once-in-a-generation talent, and if anyone feels a fraction of what I feel watching this, he is going to take the world by storm.’ I went back up into the writers’ room and said, ‘How can we find ways of keeping Calvin alive in a way that doesn’t feel like a cheat?’”
First they had Calvin appear to Elizabeth in moments of deep need, not as a ghost so much as a physical manifestation of her grief. “It was great to do those scenes because I got to experience brief flashes of what Calvin’s existence would’ve looked like had he not passed,” Pullman says, sitting in an otherwise empty patio at a spot in Silver Lake.
Then they wrote an entire episode in which Calvin’s Dickensian background is revealed. “I was definitely surprised and really, really grateful when Lee came to me and said that he wanted to expand Calvin’s story, because I was already having such a good and creatively fulfilling time on this project,” Pullman says. “For them to invite me in for a little more time was very meaningful, and for me to get to spend more time fleshing out Calvin with this group of creatives was huge.”
Calvin’s brief visitations “allow the audience to care about what that relationship means to Elizabeth without it feeling like they’re being derailed too much into a different story. Because so many of my favorite parts of this whole series are watching Elizabeth’s story after Calvin,” adds Pullman, son of actor Bill Pullman.
He’s played good guys and he’s played bad guys. David Lynch sees something in his eyes that could be trouble.
Pullman, who made an impression as Bob in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” hasn’t played a romantic lead as such before, but he didn’t even read the role with Larson before he was offered the part. “It does feel like a bold move to not have a chemistry test on something that is called ‘Lessons in Chemistry,’” Pullman notes wryly. He credits Sarah Adina Smith, who directed the show’s first two episodes, with helping him find his way to Calvin’s heart. “Initially, I came in playing Calvin a lot more outwardly prickly. She was like, ‘I think that once he falls in love with Elizabeth, something settles inside of him, and there’s a sense of calm and of purpose and of confidence that fills him,’ and she was absolutely right. That helped me have someplace to go.”
Mastering the other type of chemistry was harder. Originally, he tried to understand Calvin’s area of expertise, “and rapidly realized that I would need a lifetime of education to really be able to wrap my head around it.” So he learned the essentials and turned to the show’s technical advisors to coach him on how to say the lines authoritatively.
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He was in awe of Larson’s grasp of her many jargon-filled monologues: “I think she actually understood what she was talking about.” She was also a crack student at rowing, a hobby of Calvin’s that he shares with Elizabeth. “If there ever was a sport where, as an actor, you’re worried about little gives that are going to make you like a blaring, obvious fraud, it would be rowing,” he says. But he wanted to get it right, especially for the book’s fans. “And also, I wanted to at least look like I was as good as Brie was, otherwise it wouldn’t play.” Here again, a coach helped.
He felt lucky to work opposite Larson, who was also an executive producer of the limited series. “She led the whole operation stoically,” he says. “And she would still bring this very bright and warm light into the whole set, which makes everybody want to do an even better job, because it feels like you’re really doing it with your friends and your family, and you want to bring your best self to that.” Even when it’s not in corporeal form.
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