When Jake Gyllenhaal received to the top of the primary episode of Presumed Harmless, he discovered himself reacting very like viewers of the Apple TV+ restricted sequence hopefully would. He wished to know what occurred subsequent.
“Like an viewers member, I believe I used to be simply drawn into the story in the identical means,” the actor informed The Hollywood Reporter of studying the pilot script for the challenge that may function his first ongoing small-screen position.
Gyllenhaal was additionally drawn to the prospect of working with each David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams, who each govt produce the present, with Kelley serving as showrunner, and approached Gyllenhaal, who additionally govt produces the sequence, concerning the challenge.
“The mixture of two of them collectively was so fascinating to me,” he mentioned. “I simply thought what an fascinating factor to collaborate with individuals like them.”
And discovering the story because it unfolded, in a brand new medium, have been contemporary experiences for the Oscar nominee, who’d beforehand labored principally in movie and theater.
“I had by no means been concerned in a artistic course of like that, that means not simply the size of a present and that it was going to be eight hours but in addition that it was going to be revealed to me as we went alongside,” Gyllenhaal mentioned. “I like the chance of various mediums. I like what it does, the questions it asks. As a performer, it’s so fascinating to be in a unique medium and see the way it feels.”
However Gyllenhaal wasn’t the one one studying how the story would unfold over the course of filming. All the castmembers THR spoke to on the sequence’ Tribeca Pageant world premiere earlier this month mentioned they didn’t know the way the homicide thriller on the heart of the drama could be resolved as they have been making the sequence.
“David E. Kelley had written the primary couple of episodes and as we have been capturing, he would proceed writing,” Kingston Rumi Southwick, who performs Gyllenhaal’s character’s son, mentioned. “As we have been capturing, we have been studying what was occurring subsequent, so what was good about that was I believe none of us knew what was going to occur on the finish or who these sure issues have been going to occur to, so it was very thrilling for us and really thrilling for the viewers.”
O-T Fagbenle, who performs a rival prosecutor within the district lawyer’s workplace, recalled the thrill when the ending was revealed.
“I bear in mind the day the information got here out, there was an actual buzz on the set,” he mentioned. “There was even discuss of doubtless capturing two endings. I discovered with everybody else.”
Not realizing the top once they began, the actors say, allowed them to be extra current whereas filming.
“Most of us are theater individuals. We all know the top of the play earlier than we begin,” Nana Mensah, who performs detective Alana Rodriguez, mentioned. “This was not that. We have been getting scripts as they have been being written, so all we may do was play the stakes of the second. We couldn’t forecast something, so we simply received to be within the second with what we had on the web page in entrance of us, which is definitely type of liberating.”
She added, “We weren’t telegraphing something. Every thing that you just’re seeing and the whole lot that you just’re witnessing is as we have been filming it, not exhibiting something that was coming down the pike.”
And Kelley says even those that’ve learn the 1987 Scott Turow guide on which the sequence relies or seen the 1990 movie adaptation of the guide, starring Harrison Ford, received’t know what occurs.
“They’ll be guessing like all people else,” Kelley informed THR.
Nonetheless, director and govt producer Greg Yaitanes says all of the clues are there to a “watchful eye.”
“I believe one hundred pc we stick the touchdown of this sequence, and it’s truthful to the viewers as a result of it’s there the entire time,” Yaitanes mentioned.
Kelley added of his tackle the variation, “I cherished the guide, and I believe what we have been capable of do with the miniseries was simply go deeper into among the character stuff. There are some plot departures as properly, updating with among the proof gathering as a result of the science is so completely different.”
Although the castmembers remained at midnight about their characters’ fates, they labored collectively to attempt to perceive their characters’ previous dynamics.
To be able to perceive this historical past, significantly throughout the Chicago district lawyer’s workplace the place Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich works, Mensah and James Hiroyuki Liao, who performs health worker Herbert Kumagai, mentioned discussions throughout the solid and rehearsal have been key.
“We received a couple of days of rehearsal earlier than we began and that’s uncommon,” Mensah mentioned. “Not all sequence do this. However I believe as a result of we have now plenty of theater individuals in our solid, and so they understood that we would have liked a little bit extra of a holistic understanding of the stakes earlier than the viewers launched into this journey with us, we simply talked it out.”
Liao added, “There’s plenty of historical past. We talked about it and what that was. And for me, I got here up with my very own inside justifications to justify plenty of the actions that occur in a while to create that actual battle for me. I simply labored on it about what my historical past was with these individuals and particularly what they did with my proof. If we misplaced a case or we received a case or my testimony ended up wanting dangerous, it was by no means about me. It was about how these legal professionals tousled my proof or how they introduced my proof, and that was within the pot for me. Additionally being felt such as you’re undermined and underappreciated and undervalued, that’s how I used to be taking a look at it. These guys assume they’re such hotshots — the prosecutors, the district lawyer’s workplace — and so they don’t actually admire the legwork that the health worker’s workplace does. They take it as a right that we do what we do after which they blame us when one thing goes incorrect. That’s the best way I used to be approaching that, and I attempted to make it for me as particular as attainable.”
Rusty and rival prosecutors Nico Della Guardia (Fagbenle) and Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) appear to have probably the most drama, which simmers beneath the floor because the case on the heart of the sequence performs out.
“I believe the non-public historical past type of at all times complicates issues,” Fagbenle mentioned. “I believe for Nico, Tommy’s private historical past is so loud within the room that the majority of Nico’s power is attempting to drag that again.”
New episodes of Presumed Harmless can be found to stream on Apple TV+ every Wednesday by way of July 24.