Sam Neill Hosted Annette Bening Film Festival for ‘Apples Never Fall’ Cast
Apples Never Fall marks the first time Sam Neill and Annette Bening have ever worked together. The Jurassic Park star admires her work so much, he was determined to make sure the actors playing the Delaney family in the Peacock limited series understood the talent they were working with. The actor tells TV Insider that while filming Apples Never Fall for five months on Australia’s Gold Coast, he hosted a three-week “Annette Bening film festival” with the Oscar nominee in attendance.
“Because we were all on location, none of us were living out of home, I decided to have on Sunday nights a mini Annette Bening film festival,” Neill tells TV Insider. “I’d bring my wine (I’m also a wine maker). We’d watch an Annette Bening movie and then discuss with the star.”
The “mini” festivals, as Neill describes them, were attended by Neill, Bening, and the actors playing their four adult children in the latest Liane Moriarty TV adaptation, Alison Brie, Jake Lacy, Conor Merrigan-Turner, and Essie Randles. They watched American Beauty, The Grifters, and The American President.
“I think of those ones, American Beauty was my favorite,” Neill says. Bening scored her second Oscar nomination for that performance, her first for The Grifters. The Apples Never Fall cast was thrilled for their co-star when she received her fifth Oscar nom for Nyad, which was filmed about one year apart from the Peacock series, premiering with all of its seven episodes on March 14.
“She’s such a great actor,” Neill says. “We have a chat room, the whole family, and we’re all looking forward to the Oscars. I think she was just extraordinary in Nyad, and I hope she scores.”
In Apples Never Fall, Neill and Bening play Stan and Joy Delaney, a married couple retiring from their long careers as the owners of a successful tennis academy. While they look forward to spending time with their four adult children during what’s meant to 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.
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.
Apples Never Fall also stars Jeanine Serralles and Dylan Thuraisingham, with guest stars Katrina Lenk, Timm Sharp, Nate Mann, Paula Andrea Placido, Pooja Shah, and Quentin Plair. Melanie Marnich serves as writer, showrunner, and executive producer.
Apples Never Fall, Series Premiere Thursday, March 14, Peacock
