Felix Mallard Compares His ‘Ginny & Georgia’ & ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ Characters
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Felix Mallard has played the brooding and sensitive Marcus Baker on Ginny & Georgia for two seasons now. As fans eagerly await Season 3, Mallard has joined the world of John Green. He stars as Davis in the film adaptation of Green’s novel Turtles All the Way Down, out May 2.
While Marcus and Davis come from different worlds, Mallard has found ways the characters resemble each other beyond just being love interests. “I see a similarity within those two characters in that they both have this love and this support for other people,” Mallard tells TV Insider. “So it wasn’t necessarily stepping from one character where you’re afflicted to another character where you’re not.”
The Australian actor is drawn to roles that inspire him, like Marcus and Davis. He stresses that he never wants “to do the same character twice. I always really want to put a different stamp on things.”
Felix Mallard and Antonia Gentry in ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Season 2. (Amanda Matlovich / Netflix)
The nuances of Marcus and Davis’ similarities have allowed Mallard to flex different emotional muscles. “Both Marcus and Davis have very, very severe struggles of their own,” he says. “Davis is a very, very, very lonely — very rich — but very lonely, sad boy. He doesn’t have any parents, and Marcus is just a train wreck. But both of them really desperately need to be loved as much as they love the other person. I think that’s really universal. That’s certainly how I feel in the world, so it’s a joy to be able to bring those things to light.”
When it comes to his Ginny & Georgia character, Mallard says that Marcus is a “deeply wounded person, but I certainly think the only thing that gets him through is his love for Ginny. She is the light in his world. She is the person who he’s kind of really living for her in a lot of regards.”
In Turtles All the Way Down, Davis navigates a relationship with Aza (Isabela Merced), a teenager battling obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. “Davis loves Aza so much, and he sees her for who she is, rather than just her anxiety or compulsions,” Mallard explains.
However, Mallard adds that Davis challenges Aza to “be the person that she wants to be. I don’t think she has been given that avenue before. I certainly think he kind of steps into her world with the understanding of knowing her from a very small age, but also not really knowing her world and kind of inviting her to go ask herself what she wants, which is something that I think she needs. Sometimes you need someone to go, well, you are not your thoughts. You are not these aspersions that are cast on you, so I think that’s really how he challenges her.”
Turtles All the Way Down, May 2, Max
