[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Apples Never Fall.]

The Big Picture

In the Peacock limited series ‘Apples Never Fall,’ the Delaney family is forced to reassess their history after matriarch Joy disappears.
Family patriarch Stan Delaney is complex, demanding, and harbors many secrets.
The series ends on an optimistic note, focusing on love and the ability to express it.

Based on the Liane Moriarty (Big Little Liars) novel, the seven-episode Peacock series Apples Never Fall is centered around the Delaney family, made up of former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) and their four adult children (Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Connor Merrigan-Turner and Essie Randles). But a seemingly idyllic life is rarely ever that, especially once you uncover the secrets and sins hidden underneath.

Family patriarch Stan Delaney is a very demanding tennis coach and equally demanding husband and father, with a temper that has caused tension to build over the years. When a young woman (Georgia Flood) unexpectedly shows up at Joy and Stan’s home claiming to need help, she forms a bond with Joy and shakes things up a bit within the family dynamic. And then, Joy goes missing and suddenly everyone is a suspect, including the mystery woman who seems to have secrets of her own.

During this interview with Collider, Neill talked about the page-turner scripts, wanting audiences to feel ambivalent about his character, playing someone with so much anger, pulling off the tennis scenes, the admiration he has for co-star Bening, why you shouldn’t hold grudges, his thoughts on the way the season ends, and leaving things on an optimistic note. He also talked about how much the original Jurassic Park movie changed his life, and finding balance between acting and farm life in New Zealand.

Apples Never Fall The Delaney family seems happy but Joy disappears, forcing her husband and four adult children to reassess their family history.Release Date March 14, 2024 Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Creator(s) Melanie Marnich Number of Episodes 7 Network NBC

Collider: Watching the finished product, it’s easy to see all the reasons you’d want to do this. There are so many layers to play, but you don’t necessarily know how all of that is going to work when you agree to do it. What was the initial enticement for you? Was it to do a piece of Liane Moriarty’s work? Was it something specific about this character? What was the first thing that grabbed you?

SAM NEILL: First of all, Annette [Bening] was already on it and that’s probably reason enough, in itself. She’s a living legend. There were seven scripts, and you know you’re onto something if you really need to read the next script to see what intrigue and what twists and turns are coming up. I found that was what was happening to me. I couldn’t put these things down.

Related Where To Watch ‘Apples Never Fall’: The Latest Adaptation From the ‘Big Little Lies’ Author Oscar-nominee Annette Bening and Sam Neill star in the mystery series.

Did you have all seven of these scripts before you started shooting?

NEILL: I’m not entirely clear about that. I know the whole thing took about nine months because we were on strike in the middle of it, and that gave some time for a little reflection and refinement when it came to the last two episodes. I think it’s effectively what was always the answer to these various mysteries, but there may have been some refinement and a little tuning when we came back to work.

Sam Neill Wants People to Actively Dislike His ‘Apples Never Fall’ Character
Image via Peacock

How many times did you wonder if your character was responsible for what ultimately happened?

NEILL: I wanted people to feel ambivalent. He’s not a lovable character. I could have made him cute. I could have made him silly old dad and adorable, and all that sort of thing, but I wanted people to actively dislike him a lot of the time. He hasn’t been good with his children. He’s meant well, but there’s no such thing as a perfect father. Stan is certainly not one of those. The more we got into it, the more we realized this is like so many families. They’re close. They genuinely love each other, but it’s far from a perfect family. Then again, I’ve never come across a perfect family. But it was important to feel that Stan is capable of anything. At the end, it’s interesting, how people do harbor secrets. There’s no need for your children to know everything. Why burden them with even more pain?

When you’re playing someone like this, who we’re supposed to wonder whether he’s capable of whatever ultimately happened, how much do you use everything you know, the whole way through? Did you want to build him from the ground up and take everything into account the whole way through, or do you prefer to just break it down and focus on what you’re doing each day? How do you approach figuring out somebody like this?

NEILL: I always thought, in the back of my mind, that Stan was capable of anything. While he, generally speaking, means well, he’s a man that’s capable of very bad mistakes and harbors quite a bit of damage and anger. He’s angry a lot of the time, and that can be misinterpreted. Perhaps it’s that very anger that has led people to conclusions that may or may not be correct.

You play some tennis in this, not just with family members in it, but also you have some moments playing tennis by yourself. Did you have previous tennis experience? How challenging is it to shoot something like that on camera?

NEILL: I’ve always played a little bit of tennis, but never very convincingly. The challenge here was to look not just convincing, but utterly terrifying on the tennis court. That took some work, and I got some help. I watched the first five episodes a few weeks ago, and I’m glad to say I was impressed with my own tennis playing. I thought, “Oh, my God, I’ve not just got away with this, I think I really look rather good.”

Sam Neill Believes ‘Apples Never Fall’ Co-Star Annette Bening is One of the Great Screen Actors of Our Time

Acting is one of the few professions where you can grow up watching other actors and admire them, and then become an actor and find yourself in roles, sharing scenes with those same actors that you watched. When I spoke to her for this, Annette Betting told me that one of her favorite movies of all time is My Brilliant Career and how that made her so excited to work with you. What was it like to work with her, and what’s it like to share moments like that with another actor whose work you’re familiar with and who you also might admire?

NEILL: Not just admire, but admire immensely. It’s daunting. On day one, you don’t really know what sort of person you’re dealing with. Clearly, you’re going to be working with one of the great screen actors of our time, and that’s a slightly daunting idea. But as soon as we met, she’s such a warm and open person, and so collaborative and so damn funny, I knew this would be a great pleasure, from beginning to end, and indeed it was. She’s the glue that keeps us all together in a fictional sense, as well as in life. We’ve become [something of] a family. We’re all in a chat box, a lot of which is unrepeatable. We were all on location, and we hung out together. Some of the funniest people I’ve ever worked with were on this. It was really something to partake in. I’m so pleased that I did it.

Does it also help to have that trust and a sense of playfulness when you’re doing the moments that are more tense or intense?

NEILL: Definitely. The characters have dark days, that’s for sure, but also hilarious days, and Stan is no exception to that. He’s quite a dark character. You have to believe that he is capable of anything. That is how he is. He’s the big dog in the yard, and he’s raised his children along these slightly fanatical tennis coaching lines that I don’t recommend to anybody. I can’t think of a more damaging upbringing. All the kids are slightly traumatized, and they all fall out with my character, at some point or another, and that’s extremely hurtful. The thing about Stan is that he’s a complex character that’s dark as hell, but also goofy and stupid and does things that are just utterly laughable. That’s the great glory of long-form television. It gives you the time and room to maneuver and develop a character with so many layers.

Related 11 Essential Sam Neill Performances, From ‘Jurassic Park’ to ‘The Piano’ He’s done more than just battle dinosaurs over his fifty year career.

There are so many relatable aspects of this family dynamic. There probably aren’t very many families where the father gets accused of murdering the mother, but tension can happen, and family members can end up not talking for long periods of time. Just admitting that maybe you weren’t right about something can certainly change things.

NEILL: Yeah. The thing about Stan is that he’s a complex character. He also can be quite funny. People that get things wrong, I find inherently funny, and I’m one of those people. I get things wrong all the time. If you can maintain your sense of humor, then you’ll get through that stuff. But Stan doesn’t really have a very well-developed sense of humor. He takes a lot of things far too seriously, and that’s never a good idea. God forbid, you should poke fun at him. He’ll have that grudge for a long time.

There’s an interesting moment when Joy says that something broke between her and Stan, and she’s noticed and is acknowledging that. Do you think he noticed that, at all? Has he even had a realization that things aren’t good and that he could do something to make them better?

NEILL: He’s very blinkered. He very much sees things from his point of view. Her misbehavior, once upon a time, is never, ever forgiven. Bearing a grudge is about the worst thing you can do. That’s never a good idea.

Which Particularly Tense ‘Apples Never Fall’ Moment Did Sam Neill and Annette Bening Have to Revisit?
Image via Peacock

There’s that scene in the final episode between you and Annette Bening where you guys are arguing. He brings up her affairs, she calls him a coward, and then you begin tearing up the room. What was that moment like to shoot? Did you have to do a lot of rehearsals for that?

NEILL: That took a lot of work. And we revisited it, at least twice. We worked out what the dynamics were, how dangerous things would get, where stunts became involved, and how scary it would be. There were a whole bunch of issues there. It was a very interesting scene to film. It’s ungovernable rage that’s really provoked. Joy is not an angel. The stuff she says to him is horrible, and the stuff she’s done is hard to swallow it. There are no cut-and-dry good guys in this story.

Do you think these two will have a better relationship with their family and with each other? Do you feel like you left them in a good place? Does it feel like a new path for them, or do you think they’ll fall back into old habits?

NEILL: It ends on a very optimistic note, but like life, there are no certainties, and a lot of damage has been done. One of the great themes of the story is love and people finally being able to express that love. It’s a very cathartic thing. I think there are grounds for optimism. I see a future.

Related Why Annette Bening Made the Jump to TV With Her New Miniseries, ‘Apples Never Fall’ Bening also talks about why she’s excited to be a part of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie, ‘The Bride!’ (of Frankenstein, in case you were wondering).

There’s something freeing and refreshing and just honest about when somebody can say, “I fucked up,” and you feel they mean it when they say that.

NEILL: Yeah. I told Annette, at one point, “I so love working with you, but there are times when I want to actually just stand and watch what you do because it’s so interesting.” In that last episode, she is extraordinary. What she does, I could watch it all day. You never know what’s going to happen next. I love that about her. She’s like quicksilver.

‘Jurassic Park’ Changed Sam Neill’s Life and Career
Image via Universal Studios

You’ve done some memorable roles in some great projects, but people are always going to come back to Jurassic Park and love that and remember it. It launched a huge franchise, and it changed what cinema could be. When anyone tells a story with dinosaurs, they have to live up to that precedent. What’s it like, as an actor, to know that is part of your resume?

NEILL: It means I do get asked about it a lot. I’m very grateful for the whole thing. The franchise has been very good to me. It gave me the opportunity to work with Steven [Spielberg], which is an honor for any actor, really. Jeff [Goldblum] and Laura [Dern] became very close friends. I look back on all that with a great deal of fondness and remember it with great clarity. We were on location for Apple Never Falls, which is always a good thing because it brings actors together. You’re not just going home at night and it’s not just a day job. And on that first Jurassic, we were all hunkered down on Kauai when this tremendously forceful hurricane came through and we got away with our lives, just. It wasn’t just a film that changed my career to an extent, it’s also changed my life in quite a profound way.

Do you know what your next acting project is? Do you have the next thing lined up?

NEILL: We haven’t negotiated it yet, but there is something I want to do with a director that I’ve worked with previously. It’s all between agents now. Last year, I worked very, very hard. This series must have taken five or six months to make. And I did another series that was an Australian series. It was a big year for me, and I promised myself I’d work a little less this year. I’m actually on my farm in New Zealand, which is the other thing I do. I’ve got my animals here, and I’m growing wine and doing all the other stuff that I like to do. I want to do a bit more of that this year and a bit less acting.

Apples Never Fall is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Peacock