“I have read so many of Liane's books, but I hadn't read this book before reading the first three episodes,” revealed Alison Brie about Apples Never Fall, Peacock’s series adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel (Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers). Alison plays Amy Delaney in the seven-part murder mystery, and during the TCA Winter Press Tour, she shared that she was attracted to the role not only because of the source material but also the cast. “I could picture these amazing actors while I was reading the first three episodes… This story is a thrilling mystery, but it's really grounded in the arcs of the characters, what they're going through, and what they're revealing about themselves. The way that Melanie [Marnich, showrunner] has written the show, I found extremely compelling, and especially because each character really gets their own episode to dig deep.”
(Todd Williamson/Peacock)
Apples Never Fall follows the Delaney family – tennis superstars Stan and Joy, and their four adult children, played by Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles, and Jake Lacy. “When I was in school, we had this mask class with this incredible teacher,” Jake Lacy reminisced about an old assignment he got to complete through the series. His teacher said that Jake’s characters always seemed isolated, and he had a hard time breaking out of that. “Chris [Sweeney, director] said part of what he thought was so great about this family was that all of the men think that they're crushing masculinity. And I just started laughing because as I was reading it, I was like, Troy is crushing masculinity. It was like nice cars, cool watch, hot girlfriend. This is amazing. This guy is just killing it and has no access to his own pain and insecurity. Joy's disappearing fractures that. The ability to keep this false narrative he has for himself of being an island falls apart pretty quickly. That is what attracted me to it. I know very well the guy who's the first one. And me as a person is trying to get to the second, as is Troy.”
“It was really fun for me because I had never done something over so many episodes,” revealed Oscar-winner Annette Benning, who plays Joy Delaney and also serves as an executive producer. “As we were working, we were talking and changing, and it was because of Melanie. She established this atmosphere where we were all in it together and pitching in. You can have an idea in the middle of the night. You can come in and say it and then sometimes that’s not the idea that is the good one, but it’s the idea that comes from that idea that’s the good one. That was just a joy for me and to play such a rich character, it was such fun.”
“We had to make some changes to make it work for television,” showrunner, writer, and executive producer Melanie Marnich said of adapting the source material. “The big change we made was relocating the story from Australia to South Florida, West Palm Beach, which is the seat of so much professional tennis training. That was a really fun change. We changed some of the characters, some of their intentions, some of the relationships, but really stayed pretty true to [Liane’s] beautiful book.” While there are some changes for this adaptation, fans of the novel should still expect an exciting match as the mystery of Joy’s disappearance unfolds. “When you're a family of deeply competitive people raised by deeply competitive people, it's in the blood, it's in the DNA, and, to me, that amps up all the mystery. It amps up what could have been possible, what these people could do to each other in the name of competition, in the name of competing for love. Tennis, I find, just a dynamic, sexy, wonderful sport, and in south Florida where I set it, it would give this family a certain stature in that community, and given what happens to the family, i.e. they get taken down a notch, that stature was very important.”
Understandably, the series carries its own sense of stature through its impressive cast. “He had made his illness public right as we were starting,” Annette Bening revealed about costar Sam Neill, who was absent from the press conference. “He is just a wonderful human being and was energized by the fact that he was working, quite frankly. And we were all in awe of him, we were in awe of how he carried on.” Annette Bening also shared that Sam Neill was great at uniting the actors and arranging dinners and get-togethers away from the set. “I just can't say enough about the guy. He's a fantastic person. He wrote a book right at the time we were starting to work. So, it was like his entire history is right there. So that made things easy.”
All 7 episodes of Apples Never Fall are now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
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