Growing up, Thomas Kail—the Tony award-winning and Emmy-nominated director—loved It’s A Wonderful Life. “We were this Jewish family living in Northern Virginia and my mother loved Jimmy Stewart. That movie was always on,” Kail told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed over Zoom. Though he was unaware that directing was even a job at the time, Kail’s discovery of who made the film—Frank Capra—sent him on a journey to discover what else Capra made, and who inspired him to make films. “It was definitely a gateway,” said Kail.

Since finding his passion for theater in his early twenties, Kail has become a prominent stage director, helming musicals like In the Heights, Sweeney Todd, and Hamilton (for which he won a Tony). He’s also directed countless plays, and has broken into television, directing episodes of 2 Broke Girls, Up Here, and the special Grease Live. He also created Fosse/Verdon, which stars his wife Michelle Williams.

His latest project—the Hulu limited series We Were the Lucky Ones, tells the incredible true story of the Kurcs, a Jewish family who defied the odds by surviving the events of the Holocaust. Kail served as executive producer, and directed the series premiere and finale, which is now available to stream. The series has received critical acclaim, and even screened at the United Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. “It was a night that will be held in our hearts and never forgotten,” Kail said.

With the full series now out, Kail spoke to us about his approach to directing, the decades-long process of bringing We Were the Lucky Ones to the screen, and the most challenging scenes to film of the heartbreaking and heartwarming finale.

Logan Lerman, Robin Weigert, and Thomas Kail

Growing up, Kail loved soccer. He played throughout high school but realized around age 12 that he didn’t have what it took to be a professional athlete. However, he found a connection between sports and theater that set him on a path that would lead to his eventual career. “When I played sports, I was unaware of the passage of time. There are a lot of themes that recur in the stuff that I make, and running out of time is a big one for me. I found that when I would make theater with my friends, time would disappear,” Kail said.

When speaking of creating, specifically directing, Kail hones in on the importance of the community over the individual. “I spent a lot of my life trying to dismantle this idea of the lone genius—which was what Fosse/Verdon is about—and also this idea that acrimony creates greatness. That has not been my experience. Every time we have harmony within a production and make something of high quality, we're knocking down that mythology,” Kail explained.

That harmony was essential for navigating the darkness required for a story........

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