“It’s a story about resilience and the power of the human spirit, and the fact that people, under these extraordinary, very difficult circumstances, are redefining themselves and finding their own power,” executive producer Jason Katims said of his new Apple TV+ series, Dear Edward. A series adaptation of the novel by Ann Napolitano, the series follows the lone survivor of a plane crash, a 12-year-old boy who becomes a lightning rod for people who lost loved ones in the crash. “When you get to tell stories like this, you have to open yourself up emotionally. The most embarrassing thing for me has been being in editing rooms, watching cuts of the show, and starting to feel emotional in front of the editor. And then I try not to cry because it’s ridiculous to cry over the words that you wrote, you know? And so I’m trying not to cry. And in trying not to cry, these weird, suppressed noises come out of me, so that’s happened to me quite a bit.” The series creator was joined by four members of the cast during a recent TCA press conference.
(Apple TV+)
It’s difficult not to get emotional over the material. “I showed up on set that day just to watch,” Anna Uzele said of the plane crash scene. Anna plays Adriana, the granddaughter of a politician who was on Edward’s flight. “I was just looking at the monitors, and I was weeping. There was a guy behind me being like, ‘Okay, lightning, more lightning. Okay, more turbulence, less turbulence. Okay, that was good.’ Meanwhile, this entire scene is unfolding. It was so moving.” Despite seeing how the faked plane crash was filmed, the scene was still hard to get through.
“We talked about [survivor’s guilt],” young Colin O’Brien revealed about his earliest meetings with Jason Katims when he was auditioning to play Edward. “Before scenes, I remember I would sometimes just put my head down. I would just think things through. I would close my eyes and take a drink of water, and then I would just try and imagine this. For example, during the pandemic, we lost our grandpa on my dad's side. And we couldn't really have a funeral for him at the time. And so, I kind of just used things like that to try and help me bring life to this character and bring life to these things the character would express and try and make it seem more real.”
Having just lost his immediate family, Edward gets sent to live with his aunt Lacey, played by Taylor Schilling. “What I loved about the script was discussing the journey to motherhood and through motherhood,” Taylor shared about her character’s arc. “The notion of a woman processing miscarriages and what mothering means. I don’t know if anyone is really ready for motherhood. But certainly, I felt so much compassion for Lacey navigating and parenting an adolescent with all the other things that were layered through her life.” As for how Taylor and Colin would break the tension between scenes, the actress revealed that they bonded over Colin’s science lessons about rocks and crystals, with the actress even buying her costar a malachite rock.
“I always wanted to work with Jason again,” Connie Britton revealed about reuniting with the creator of Friday Night Lights. “It's almost like you have to let time pass, you know? You really do have to get to that right moment. And so, I was so excited to hear from [him]. And every moment playing this role was a joy. I felt like that was because we have the history that we have, and we both were able to have this exhilarating conversation about who this character could be. And it was a really fun, new adventure for me.” Connie plays Dee Dee, a wife and mother who becomes a widow following Edward’s plane crash. “I always look at every character that I play as this kind of every woman, even though the circumstances are so unique with every character, so individual. But we do all share the same world, and so this idea of discovering that you actually haven’t been living your own life because you’ve never really thought about it or looked at it in the way that you needed to was fascinating to me.”
“We would love to do future seasons,” concluded Jason Katims about the longterm goal for Dear Edward. “I wanted to explore the story in such a way that would set itself up to continue, to expand and grow, which is why, when we first optioned the book, I talked to Ann Napolitano, who wrote the beautiful book that the story is inspired by, we talked about the fact that we would take some liberties with the book and add more characters that weren’t in the book. Like Anna’s character and Connie’s character and others, so that it would set up a situation where you would have a story that would continue these lives that we would want to know more about. The story begins with this event that’s very dramatic, but I feel like what the story is ultimately about are these characters, and these people, and the relationships that have been formed. Unexpected relationships with people who never would have known each other, who have become deeply connected through circumstance. You’ve always got to ask, is there more that I want to know about these characters? Is there more story to tell? And I definitely feel that way.”
The first 3 episodes of Dear Edward are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes will debut on Fridays.
(Please note this article contains affiliate links. Your purchase will support LaughingPlace by providing us a small commission, but will not affect your pricing or user experience. Thank you.)