East of Eden is currently the No. 1 show on Netflix, but did you know creator Zoe Kazan has a surprising family connection to the 1955 film adaptation?
Zoe, who is also the showrunner and a writer on the historical drama miniseries starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, and Mike Faist, is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, the director of the 1955 film of the same name starring James Dean.
Elia, who is best known for directing Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire, was a good friend of author John Steinbeck when he directed the first adaptation of the iconic novel. In fact, Elia’s name appears in journals Steinbeck kept while writing East of Eden.
At the time of the film’s 1955 release, it received rave reviews from critics, with Elia and Dean earning nominations for Best Director and Best Actor, respectively, at the 1956 Academy Awards.
In an interview with New York Magazine, Zoe revealed that she first read the 1952 novel when she was just 15 and immediately felt a sense of ownership over the story.
“Long before I ever started the process of adapting this … I was like, That one belongs to me,” she said.
Shortly after discovering East of Eden and Steinbeck’s other novels, Zoe’s parents gifted her a trip up the California coast, including a stop at Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, where the majority of East of Eden takes place.
“It’s concrete. You know, it’s a town very changed by time,” she said, noting that the town was different from what she had imagined based on the book’s description.
Zoe also recalled watching her father listen to recordings of Steinbeck’s voice in the museum dedicated to the author and being moved by how much the experience meant to her family.
Years later, she read about another East of Eden project in the works—a film version with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star—that never came to fruition.
“Oh, it’s not how I would do it,” Zoe recalls telling her partner, actor Paul Dano, noting that she had always envisioned the story as a series.
She then wrote to her agents, “Ugh. This is so annoying, but, like, if the rights to East of Eden ever come up, can you let me know? I’d really like to pitch on it.”
That dream came true in 2019, when her agent texted her that a production company had the rights to the book and needed someone to adapt it into a show that would focus more on Pugh’s character, Cathy Ames.
“You interested?” her agent wrote.
She texted back, “YES YES YES YES YES. THIS IS MY DREAM. LET ME DO THIS. THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK.”
East of Eden is currently streaming on Netflix.
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