Annette Bening is known as one of cinema's most reliably great and enduring figures, with a whopping five Oscar nominations under her belt. She most recently scored a Best Actress nod this year for her work as the determined distance swimmer Diane Nyad in the Netflix biopic film Nyad. And while she's better known for her film roles like American Beauty's Carolyn Burnham, The Kids Are All Right's Nic Allgood, Captain Marvel's The Supreme Intelligence and Mike Mills' mom in 20th Century Women, Bening is stepping into the world of streaming with her new TV series, Apples Never Fall.
The limited series streaming to Peacock subscribers marks the movie star's first television project in nearly two decades, since her Emmy-nominated work as convicted murderer Jean Harris in the 2005 HBO movie Mrs. Harris. So what exactly was it about the show—which stars Bening as Joy Delaney, a Palm Beach retiree whose sudden disappearance sends her family (Sam Neill plays husband Stan, with Alison Brie and Jake Lacy as her adult children) into a tailspin—that made Bening want to dip a toe back into TV? The actress summed it up to TV Insider:
It just came at the right time.
After the strenuous physicality required of her for Nyad, the 65-year-old actress told the outlet that she was seeking a change of pace. She found that in the large ensemble of Apples Never Fall, citing the "deliciousness" of both the onscreen Delaney family, as well as the group of performers cast to portray them.
She revealed that the opportunity to act opposite Sam Neill—whom she calls "one of [her] favorite actors"—was a huge draw for why she signed onto the seven-episode series, which required her to move to Australia's Gold Coast (serving as Florida's West Palm Beach) for more than five months.
This family [is] delicious. 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.
Given that Bening seemingly had a very positive experience in her long-awaited return to the small screen, would she do more TV work in her future? The actress said that though "it's about the writing," she does feel "kind of free" nowadays when it comes to a chosen medium:
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. 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.
We'll be seated and ready for Annette Bening's big TV comeback in Apples Never Fall. All seven episodes hit Peacock on Thursday, March 14 on the 2024 TV premiere schedule.
