Deep in Love premiered in October in Türkiye and has been continuing its run with strong ratings. Starring Deniz Baysal and Ulaş Tuna Astepe, the series draws viewers in with its emotional depth and Black Sea atmosphere. We sat down with its director, Çağrı Bayrak, creators, Ayşe Ferda Eryılmaz and Nehir Erdem, and leading stars, Aytek Şayan, Erdem Şanlı, Deniz Zeynep Atılgan, and Onur Dilber to talk about the story’s emotional journey and what makes Deep in Love connect with audiences around the world.
“When I read a story, if I can put myself in its setting and watch people, if I can place myself there, I mean, if, when a character says, “It’s cold,” and I can feel that cold, I can believe something a character says, that story captures my interest. To be honest, that was what drew me in with our series. As I was reading, I found myself in this geography, under these conditions, watching and listening to these people.
Alongside the Black Sea region’s natural beauty and the harsh conflicts that such a beautiful geography brings, our two families have conflicts happening between them and I believed the necessity of these in the world our writers built ever since I first read the script. I was able to identify the reasons; I’m saying this for both sides. Characters intrigued me; not just the leads, but I was able to feel the necessity, sincerity and reality of all the words they said, all the things they did for every named character. A world formed inside my head and it drew me in; this was very impressive for me.”
Deep in Love tells the story of two well-established families and individuals who are enemies of one another. You are playing the leader, Şerif, of one of these families, Furtunas. We would like to hear about Şerif from you.
Aytek Şayan: Of course, I’ll try to explain as much as I know. I think we should start explaining every character starting with the environment, the geography, the culture they live in. Şerif, as a child, grew up in a blood feud and a geography as beautiful as it is brutal. When we look at his close social circle, we see he has relationships shaped by this blood feud and most of these relationships are formed and shaped through conflicts of interest.
Şerif has been subjected to these since childhood, and likely carries multiple psychological issues. And for the strongest part of his character, I think we can say he is a narcissistic manipulator. That’s why, like I said, he has multiple psychological problems, you know, to get out of the conditions he is in or to survive within a life shaped by these conditions.
We also have to talk about Esme when discussing Şerif. Not just Esme, but all the female figures around him and his way of forming relationships with them. I think he is filling the gap of love inside him with other emotions. For this, his relationship with his mother and his aunt and his relationship with Esme are very important and interesting.
We see that he is very much in love with Esme and that is the biggest motivation in his life, but talking about or even asking whether he is really in love with Esme or if this feeling is because of his animosity towards Adil, and trying to portray these conflicts is much more enjoyable for me as an actor.
I think what he describes as love is an obsession born from the emptiness emerging from the lovelessness within and unfortunately, from his psychological problems, and he doesn’t know what love is, he has never experienced it.
Many years ago, Şerif forced Esme to get married, he cut Eleni off from her real family, he is in a hard war with Adil Koçari. We are currently watching him as the “villain” of the story and the big obstacle against Adil and Esme’s love story. Do you think, as episodes progress, we are going to have moments where we will empathize with him?
Aytek Şayan: We’re filming weekly and happily, it’s going great and we may continue with the series for one or two more years. We’re airing two-hour episodes each week. So the way we tell the stories is shaped within the constraints of these time limits, so we see many different sides of all characters. Of course, we are going to have moments where we will empathize with Şerif.
I try to layer Şerif with normal human reactions during casual events with the help of our writers. Agreeing on this with our directors and writers within scenes and being able to talk about what kind of character we would like to create together and develop this idea together help me a lot in that sense.
For one, as an actor you have to somehow understand the character you are playing so that it is possible to see the parts you are unable to understand, you have to show the parts that are like you and that aren’t like you. That is why, I try to empathize with the character. I don’t just look at Şerif, we see a lot of examples of this character in many literature works, songs, poems, or films.
And by empathizing with Şerif, I think it would be enough to show the audience why Şerif does the things he does. And this is a TV show, there are fictional characters, so I think at certain points we shouldn’t take it too seriously.
What did you feel when you first read the Deep in Love project? What affected you the most when you read Şerif, the general stories and other characters? How did you prepare for Şerif?
Aytek Şayan: When I read a story, if I can put myself in its setting and watch people, if I can place myself there, I mean, if, when a character says, “It’s cold,” and I can feel that cold, I can believe something a character says, that story captures my interest. To be honest, that was what drew me in with our series. As I was reading, I found myself in this geography, under these conditions, watching and listening to these people.
Alongside the Black Sea region’s natural beauty and the harsh conflicts that such a beautiful geography brings, our two families have conflicts happening between them and I believed the necessity of these in the world our writers built ever since I first read the script. I was able to identify the reasons; I’m saying this for both sides. Characters intrigued me; not just the leads, but I was able to feel the necessity, sincerity and reality of all the words they said, all the things they did for every named character. A world formed inside my head and it drew me in; this was very impressive for me.
When I read Şerif, I was also provided with a character analysis that made me feel the work would be very helpful, very fun, very delicious by our writers. In the first three episodes, we only see Şerif’s anger and hatred in prison, but the scene between him and Oruç in the fourth episode really affected me, I think that’s when I truly understood Şerif. Instead of hiding a grave crime he committed, his willingness to admit it and trying to reason with it made me think it’d be very fun to play him as an actor. I generally look at how much a character offers.
The preparation for a character doesn’t completely end before the series begins shooting, the character grows and takes shape in our hands as we film for weeks. Being able to communicate with our writer and directors before and while filming really facilitated the preparation. I am grateful to them. With the data they provided, I first tried to understand what the story is about, where is Şerif positioned in the story, why do we need him, what is his role, what’s he trying to tell or what’s the color he has in the story.
So of course, many of the things I’ve read so far must have helped me, but I did research a couple of psychological disorders especially for Şerif. I try to fit my research into episodes and scenes when I can, turning my findings into physical material to lift and create a character. I hope it’s been fun to watch for all of you.
The series is filmed in Trabzon, which contributes a lot to the story visually. How did you find Trabzon? What do you think being in a different city together with the entire team adds to the story? What can you tell us about the set?
Aytek Şayan: Being in Trabzon adds so much to the story. I can give an example for this: What you see or encounter when you walk on a street shapes your mood when you get home. So, considering how what we see affects us, we can say being here contributes greatly to the story. I have never been to Trabzon before, but going to a different city/country for a project, especially if that is where the story takes place, is a great advantage for the actor. So I’m very happy to have come to Trabzon for such beautiful work and seeing it.
Of course, I had my reservations coming here since it is still a different city and you’re starting a new process, meeting new people but something I’ve observed among my friends as well is that we are all very happy to be here, to tell this story here and draw inspiration from here. What really defeated my reservations was that the advantage of great friends/team; having some common human values with the cast and crew is our biggest advantage; I am especially happy being here with these people, I am thankful to them all.
We’re interviewing you for our Content Americas issue, the series’ international journey began quickly. With which qualities do you think Deep in Love will affect viewers from different cultures the most?
Aytek Şayan: The fact that the story is told within this geography and culture and people well-versed in them setting out to tell the story is what I think will affect them the most. We are trying to help tell the story by drawing inspiration from them. We all know right now Turkish series are very popular around the world. They are airing on many TVs and digital platforms abroad. I think this shows our very old, very rich and multicultural geography drawing a ton of interest from other countries. Our cultural variety is also an advantage.
As someone from İzmir, the Aegean region, I would also love to have a series emerging there and being internationally acclaimed. I really like how as we get curious about other cultures and are able to watch them, people from other countries can now watch us as well. I hope we can tell this as deliciously as we can and convey the joy our multicultural nature bring to them, that’s my only wish.
