The Big Picture

Franklin
explores Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic gamble during the Revolutionary War, securing French support for the U.S. against Britain.
Michael Douglas’s portrayal of Franklin in Apple TV+’s miniseries adds depth to the Founding Father’s lesser-known diplomatic efforts.
Filming on-location in France with stunning historical accuracy elevated
Franklin
to a spy intrigue story with award-winning potential.

As one of the U.S.’s notable Founding Fathers (and the face on the front of the $100 bill), Benjamin Franklin’s exploits are both widely known and less understood than you might think. While most people associate the statesman, writer, and inventor with his studies around things like electricity, or his skill with words, few are more familiar with the efforts he made to secure French support during the Revolutionary War. Apple TV+’s Franklin, the latest in the streamer’s impressive list of high-budget period dramas, seeks to shine more of a light on the true story of its titular subject’s nine-year span as the U.S. ambassador to France, where he made critical strides in securing a valuable military ally in America’s battle for independence from England.

Michael Douglas plays Benjamin Franklin, and while the award-winning actor already has countless impressive roles under his belt, this miniseries was his first experience dipping a toe into the period drama genre. As Franklin, Douglas is paired opposite up-and-coming actor Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place), who plays the Founding Father’s grandson, Temple, who accompanied him as secretary during his tenure in France. The two men are plunged into a foreign landscape and must walk the tightrope of diplomacy, especially when the future of America’s independence hangs in the balance. Ahead of Franklin’s premiere on Apple TV+ this week, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Douglas about his experience on the miniseries. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Douglas discusses how he first joined the project, the arduous process of operating a real printing press, how filming on-location in France made all the difference, working with Jupe as a scene partner, and more.

Franklin (2024) Explores the story of one of the greatest gambles of Franklin’s career. At age 70, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies and French informers while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778.Release Date April 12, 2024 Seasons 1 Creator(s) Kirk Ellis Writers Kirk Ellis , Howard Korder

COLLIDER: I spoke with Noah [Jupe] and [director] Tim [Van Patten] and they said, when it came to joining this project, all they had to hear was that Apple was doing a Benjamin Franklin show with Michael Douglas leading. That was all they needed. But for you, how did you first come to be involved with this project?

MICHAEL DOUGLAS: Richard Plepler, one of the producers, used to run HBO for 20 years. I did a show, Behind the Candelabra, where I played Liberace, so I knew Richard, and we had a good experience on that. It won a lot of awards. He came to me and said, “You want to do this?” They had just the first script, and, you know, Ben Franklin? Whoa! First of all, I’d never done a period picture at all in my 50-plus years in the biz, so I thought, “Well, that’s interesting.” And then gradually did more and more homework about that. I read Stacy Schiff’s book, A Great Improvisation. I knew Tim, in terms of his work, and it was very good, and knew Noah, also. So I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” Eight months in Paris, you know, it could be a lot of fun. And off we went. So, you throw your dice in there. The script was still uncertain, where we were going to go, but I felt with the team that we had that we would be able to work it all out.

‘Franklin’ Only Built Two Sets — The Rest of the Series Was Shot On Location in France
Image via Apple TV

The scope of this show would not be nearly as effective without Paris itself as the backdrop. How did being able to film in these gorgeous locations really add to the scenes?

DOUGLAS: We only had two sets in eight hour-long episodes. Everything else was practical — practical for the 1780s. It made all the difference in the world. Because not only was it the locations, shooting at Versailles every Monday, but it was just the environment of being in France. The extras were spectacular. All the extras were wonderful actors. They were just great. You find yourself, when you watch the show, just looking at each one, each four or five-hundred of them, incredible with the wigs — and looking not historical, but just like it was part of the environment. You’re there in Paris, in France, at these real locations, and these people are wearing the gowns. Olivier [Bériot], our costumer, gave them almost a worn look sometimes. It wasn’t all like it was brand new and fresh. The combination of all those things was a very important part and separated it from being just this historical pedestal into a real-life spy intrigue story.

Related ‘Franklin’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Stars in Apple TV+’s Ben Franklin Series? We’ve put together a quick history lesson ahead of Apple TV+’s newest miniseries.

Speaking of intrigue, we hear Franklin say several times that his efforts in essentially wooing the French over to America’s side in the war are supposed to be a seduction. Was that also part of the appeal of this, getting to play someone who is a bit of a charmer?

DOUGLAS: Oh, absolutely. The amount that I knew about Franklin pretty much from high school history classes and everything else, and all of the incredible things that he created, I never really knew about this particular chapter. It’s extraordinary because we signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, and six weeks later, they’re telling him, “You gotta go over to France.”

When you think about it, we were in dire straits. We didn’t have a real army, we didn’t have a military, we didn’t have financing. So they say, “You gotta go over to France to get their support,” because the French and the English rulers were fighting. The idea that this brand-new democracy was going to go over to one of the oldest monarchies in the world to get their support was extraordinary. It was a big gamble, a tremendous risk. If we failed, we would not have the United States of America as we know it. It wouldn’t have been there. The British would have won, and we’d be another colony. You think, “How is this guy going to wind his way through?” He had very basic, limited French. He’d never really been a diplomat with all the things that he’d done in his life. So the setup was great for an intriguing story.

Michael Douglas Had to Rehearse Operating a Printing Press
Image via Apple TV+

It feels like this role brought many firsts with it. Was that the first time that you’d ever had to operate a real printing press, and how strenuous was that? It looks very physical, the entire process.

DOUGLAS: Thank you. That’s all my good acting. You take about 15 to 20 minutes before, they show you, and then, like a fight scene, you rehearse and work on it, and count on the different cuts that they’re going to have. But I was talking to Walter Isaacson earlier, and he reminded me that it was the tool that Franklin used. He translated Richard’s Almanac into French, and having this ability, once again, to have the printed word is what he used to create part of his seduction and to share the information with everybody. Besides that, he didn’t represent royalty. He represented the common man. He dressed like a common person. He was really the beginning of the middle class in the world as we know it today. That was the beginning. But all of these were affectations which he used to be more effective in his seduction.

Michael Douglas Praises Noah Jupe’s “Vulnerability” as a Scene Partner

Franklin and Temple’s relationship goes through so many ups and downs, but it really proves to be the core and the heart of the show. Was there anything that Noah Jupe brought to his performance as a young actor that you found yourself surprised by, or maybe even found yourself taking away from what he brought to those scenes?

DOUGLAS: I knew his acting from The Quiet Place before, and I knew he was a wonderful actor. The show covered eight or nine years, and he really goes 16 to 24. We do what’s called block shooting, which means that all the scenes that are in one room that maybe cover over seven or eight episodes, they’re all shot at the same time for cost efficiency. As I watched him, I realized that even though he was actually closer to the age of 17 at the beginning with the kind of vulnerability he was acting, he could pick those scenes up where you could see how he’d grown, and his confidence had grown and his influence.

It was very impressive to see a guy who’s well-trained, and he is gonna have a wonderful career, I think. He has the discipline and the concentration and the ambition. So, he was a treat. It was a wonderful parallel as Temple comes over with Franklin to France, and I’m dealing in these political areas, negotiating, and he immerses himself with Lafayette and some other young studs in Paris at the time, this whole other intrigue of the world. We kind of vicariously lived off the stories off-camera that he and his buddies were having in Paris at the bars at night getting to know each other.

It sounds like it was a wonderful experience for everyone involved.

DOUGLAS: It was the best production I’ve ever been involved with in terms of the joy of the production. It was really great.

Franklin premieres April 12 on Apple TV+.

Watch on Apple TV+