[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Long Bright River.]

Summary

‘Long Bright River’ explores the impact of the opioid crisis on a Philadelphia community through a suspenseful murder mystery.

Amanda Seyfried, also an executive producer on the series, emphasizes the emotional depth of the addiction storyline.

New York City authentically portrays Philly with collaboration from local Philly residents and immersive production design.

The Peacock series Long Bright River, based on the book by Liz Moore who also worked as a writer and EP, is a suspense thriller that follows a Philadelphia police officer’s hunt for her missing sister. Mickey (Amanda Seyfried) works patrolling streets that have been greatly impacted by the opioid crisis that she feels personally connected to, allowing her to humanize addicts, sex workers and the unhoused in ways that others don’t. When a series of murders start to happen, Mickey begins to fear the worst about her sister Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings) and won’t give up until she tracks her down.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Seyfried, who’s also an executive producer on the series, talked about how many people are touched by addition, how she views her role as an executive producer, the extensive research she did to prepare for the project, creating an authentic Philly vibe on the streets of New York City, and Mickey’s emotional breakdown at the end of the season. She also said she’s 100% optimistic that Mamma Mia! 3 will happen and discussed her experience on the colonial musical Ann Lee.
Amanda Seyfried Believes It’s Essential To Create Compassion with Storytelling

“No one’s ever really brought me into this kind of neighborhood before, in this way.”

Image via Peacock

Collider: There is a lot going on in this series, but the addiction storyline is very emotional.
AMANDA SEYFRIED: If you know anyone or have grown up with anyone who’s suffered or is suffering from any kind of addiction, it hits home immediately. It’s essential, if you don’t know anybody, to understand what that is and to create a level of compassion with storytelling. It hits everybody. It’s a universal thing. What I appreciated about the book is that Liz [Moore] was able to turn the lens around a little bit with a 90-degree turn on how we’ve seen the opioid epidemic on TV or in film. I haven’t really seen it in this way. No one’s ever really brought me into this kind of neighborhood before, in this way, in a long time.

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What did being an executive producer on this mean to you? Since it’s a title that can mean so many different things, what are you finding that you like to do with it? Where do you like to get more involved?
SEYFRIED: I actually let whoever is producing it tell me what exactly it is that they need. The only executive producer credit that I truly feel that I’ve earned would be something I’ve been in development with for a long time. And neither of the shows that I did was executive producer on, I was involved in for longer than four months. That said, for this specific role, I let them know that I was willing to talk to anybody and be a part of anything. They didn’t need me as much as I felt useful on The Dropout, and that was fine because I had a lot to contend with. I had a lot on my plate already.
Liz Moore and Nikki Toscano had been working on the show for so long. They were writing it together. Nikki Toscano was the showrunner and creator and Liz Moore wrote the novel, and they had this very unique relationship, in the fact that they get along very well. And you can tell because it’s so female-driven. Not to say anything about the other sex, but everything is written with a sensitive, graceful hand and a responsible and respectful hand. They had researched all these things before me. And then, they brought me in and took me in to Kensington and set me up for my ride along and brought me to all these places that Liz had volunteered at for years while she was writing the book, like harm reduction programs and organizations in and around Kensington who serve the Kensington community, with meals and wound care and an office for medicine and showers with the people who support and volunteer and service the community.
I felt like I was part of the team then, not only as an actor, but as a producer. I felt like I was helping create the show and being brought into the same realm as them. But when it came to the day-to-day on set, I just had one job and one job only, and that was just focusing on doing eight scenes a day and going from location to location in the cold. It was fucking brutal, but I had so much fun. It’s a weird thing to say because you can’t ignore the fact that all this is so real and it’s happening all the time, but I almost felt like I was celebrating the levity in the moments that I had. I felt like we were doing something that could be impactful, and be as impactful as the book.
Amanda Seyfried Gets Emotional Over How Everyone Came Together To Create Philly in NYC for ‘Long Bright River’

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this.”

I can’t believe that you shot this in New York. What was the most challenging aspect of giving New York an accurate and authentic Philly vibe?
SEYFRIED: The production designer, the art directors, the background actors, the props people, and everybody was working on the same level. They were working together in a way that the collaboration was intense and it was a lot of work because New York is so New York, and Philly is so Philly. So, when they found like the train tracks, there’s a very specific train in Bensonhurst. We worked in that neighborhood for most of the show. The only difference that you could feel was the color of the structure underneath the tracks. I was driving through Kensington, and we have a lot of footage in the driving stuff where we would go on a stage and put it on all these screens. In watching the pilot back, that was so effective. It really works so well. Technology is incredible. The drone shots are obviously Philly. We found all these places that just felt like Philly. They were geniuses. Someone should win an award for creating Philly in New York. The beautiful thing about this project, and one of the coolest parts of shooting it, was that so many Philly locals came to play background actors. A lot of our background actors who were playing people with substance use issues and the unhoused people and the sex workers went to these movement classes together and they all moved together like an organism. To be with each other every day, the commitment was so beautiful. I’ve just never been a part of anything like this.
A really famous Philly rapper, OT The Real, plays Dock McClatchie, which is one of the most important parts. And we have Malik [Joe], who’s this comedian in Philly with an amazing Instagram. It’s his acting debut, and he plays the role beautifully. And then, the mural art and specifically all of the graffiti is all Philly. We were able to take murals and paint them on wallpaper and put it up on the walls of the side of buildings. Everything is Philly. Everything is authentic. We masked this area in Bensonhurst. It’s insane, the amount of work people put into it. At the end of the day, this place is Philly. This show couldn’t be more Philly, except if it had shot in Philly.

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I found Mickey’s emotional breakdown at the end of this to be so moving. Do you feel like that was just a moment of her finally being able to feel everything and release it all because she’s so driven and focused for so long?
SEYFRIED: I think that’s supposed to be cathartic to the audience too because it shows that Mickey is finally able to let all that responsibility and all that weight fall off her shoulders. Part of the reason she’s so stiff and protective is because she doesn’t feel like she can break down. She doesn’t feel like she can be vulnerable because she won’t be safe that way, and that the only way to protect her child and her sister and the people in her life is to be hard and strong. Seeing that the people she was trying to protect are actually okay gave her permission to let it go. I think a lot of people can relate to that. She thinks, “If I break down, I won’t be able to wipe my tears and keep going on.” There are so many people who are like, “I’m not a crier.” You should be. It’s good for you.

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Are you always going to hold out hope that Mamma Mia! 3 will happen? Do you get to a point where you’re so realistic about the business that you don’t want to think about it anymore, or do you always feel optimistic that it’s going to get made and that it’s just a matter of when it will happen?
SEYFRIED: I’m 100% optimistic. I think the second one proves that there’s always a need or a desire. I’m holding out hope. I’m not holding my breath for it to happen at any specific point, but I do believe, in my heart of hearts, that we’re all going to band together to make it happen. I do. Because there’s just a desire from us, from the creators too, and when there’s enough of a desire, it usually takes place, especially if it’s so positive. I can’t wait. I don’t know what my life was like at that point, but it’s just time to go back to Greece. We haven’t been to Greece since 2008. I also am 100% positive we’ll do it in Greece to bring home. Croatia was great. Don’t get me wrong, Croatia is an amazing place. But it’s set in Greece, so let’s just go back to Greece.
Amanda Seyfried Says the Colonial Times Musical ‘Ann Lee’ Pushed Her out of Her Comfort Zone

“When Mona [Fastvold] asked me to do it, I was very intimidated.”

Image via 20th Century Fox

In the meantime, you’ve done a musical set in colonial times, called Ann Lee. With all the attention now on Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold after The Brutalist, what was that experience like? With Mona having directed that and doing an episode of Long Bright River, what do you like about working with her as a director?
SEYFRIED: I started working with Mona back on The Crowded Room, and Brady did that too. I love working with her because she’s got a very maternal presence. Specifically, with this movie, it’s been a passion project of hers and she’s been working on it for a really long time. She’s been writing it for a really long time, and she is a beautiful writer, but she’s also a beautiful director. She knows how she wants things to be shot. She sees beauty in a way that I don’t, and I strive for that. I also think she really pushes me. She’s unafraid of a lot of things, and she makes me feel really bold and brave. She asked a lot of me in this, and I think I met her and it feels really nice to say that. She’s another really talented artist. The Brutalist is a masterpiece, and Brady deserves all the attention and the respect for that, but they’ve been doing this for years. They’ve been making their own art out of their own pockets for years. When he says something like, “We didn’t make anything for The Brutalist,” it’s true. It’s 100% fact.
When you go into a project with them, you know you’re gonna come out with something completely unprecedented and something that was made with just a very brave set of capable hands. And so, when Mona asked me to do it, it was very intimidating. I was absolutely out of my comfort zone, 100%. But she’s also really good at getting people to do what she wants them to do and she’s good at getting what she strives for. She’s good at challenging people. That’s just the epitome of a good director. She’s one of the best, and she’s a dear friend too. It’ll be exciting to see it. Everything that I’ve done recently has been so drastically different from the last project. Ann Lee was the opposite of Long Bright River, and The Housemaid was the opposite of Ann Lee. It’s amazing how much work I’ve been able to put in, in seven months of my life, but every single project was worth it. It cost me a lot, but it also gave me a lot. I’m excited to talk about each one.

Long Bright River

Release Date

March 13, 2025

Network

Peacock

Directors

Hagar Ben-Asher

Cast

Nicholas Pinnock

Truman Dawes

Long Bright River is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the trailer: