Everyone’s doing TV these days, and we couldn’t be more pleased to see Annette Bening join in on the fun.
The Oscar nominee stars in Peacock‘s Apples Never Fall (premiering March 14), which joins Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers on the list of Liane Moriarty book-to-screen adaptations. The seven-part limited series centers on the seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family. Former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Bening) have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. Everything changes when a wounded young woman (Georgia Flood) knocks on Joy and Stan’s door, bringing the excitement they’ve been missing. But when Joy suddenly disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ so-called perfect marriage as their family’s darkest secrets begin to surface.
Bening and Neill play parents to co-stars Alison Brie, Jake Lacy, Conor Merrigan-Turner, and Essie Randles. The series marks the first time Bening and Neill have acted together, and it’s Bening’s first-ever lead role in a TV series. Why now? Why this show? Bening tells TV Insider that “it just came at the right time.”
Nyad, the film that landed Bening her fifth Oscar nomination (co-star Jodie Foster also scored a nod), was filmed about one year before Apples Never Fall. Bening plays a dedicated athlete in both of these titles. She underwent intense swimming training for the Netflix movie, and the Peacock drama had her taking tennis lessons. After the “very physically demanding” adventure that was Nyad, Bening says she was seeking a change of pace. Nyad‘s small cast also made her desire a bigger ensemble on her next job.
“This family [is] delicious,” she says of the Delaneys. “I just keep saying delicious because there’s something delicious about the writing, and I was in the mood for that. Something entertaining, a great story with an ensemble, which is the most fun when you’re in this pool of people together, each with their own character arc. And then the people we ended up getting to play all the members of the family, we’re so lucky. We had a hell of a lot of fun making it.”
(L-R) Conor Merrigan-Turner as Logan, Essie Randles as Brooke, Sam Neill as Stan, Annette Bening as Joy, Alison Brie as Amy, Jake Lacy as Troy in Apples Never Fall
Filming took place on Australia’s gold coast (the series is set in West Palm Beach, Florida) over five months (the strikes made those months non-consecutive). Being, Neill, and their “children” became a tight-knit group during the process. Neill hosted “mini Annette Bening film festivals,” as he previously told TV Insider, with the Delaney cast. And his co-stars then insisted that they have a Neill movie marathon as well. While the series’ setting is sunny and the cast bond is strong, there’s still that mysterious “darkness” to it.
The central mystery in Apples Never Fall — Joy’s sudden disappearance — unfolds in two timelines. There’s the “then” and the “now,” which function to show the events leading up to Joy’s departure and the family’s unraveling after as they fear the worst. Bening says “there’s an edge” to the story that she can’t get enough of.
“I like a little like dark,” she says. “I’ve been drawn to many, many stories that sort of have the darkness, but there’s something ultimately just kind of juicy and entertaining about it.”
Series creator, showrunner, and writer Melanie Marnich‘s vision is what made Bening know that taking the leap over to TV would be creatively stimulating.
“She was the one who was going to take the book and deconstruct it and run it through her own brain and her own heart and soul,” Bening explains. “She was so articulate about all of that. I was like, ‘Wow, this sounds cool.’ So I just said, yeah, let’s try it.”
Working with Neill was also a huge draw. “He’s one of my favorite actors, so when he agreed to do it, I was just thrilled,” the American Beauty alum shares. She “very quickly started having conversations with him that were really good, really personal, really very much about the work, but also about our own lives.” Bening says she was “so taken with him” throughout filming. “He’s so open, wants to be part of the ensemble, wanted to have a good time.”
By all accounts, it seems that Bening’s first TV leading role was a fulfilling one. Will she be back for more?
“It’s about the people always. Well, it’s about the writing, because the writing is the writing, but then it’s about the people,” she explains. “And for me now, I feel kind of free in my life. I just do things because I love them. If you tell me, so-and-so’s going to be in the room with me, or maybe they’re going to be in the room with me, and the writing’s really interesting, then this is the joy. It’s getting to work with these kinds of people, spend lots of time with them, explore the story, try to get as much out of it as we can. That’s a lot of fun.”
See Bening dive into this “juicy” and “fun” role when Apples Never Fall premieres with all seven episodes on March 14.
Apples Never Fall, Series Premiere, Thursday, March 14, Peacock