This Friday will see the first season of Apple TV+’s psychological thriller Before come to an end, and while it will bring with it some fulfilling answers, fans will likely also be left with some lingering curiosities. Showrunner Sarah Thorp and star Judith Light spoke with ComicBook ahead of the premiere of the series, sharing their excitement about using an intense and mysterious narrative to tell some truly human stories. They also both expressed their admiration for Billy Crystal’s lead performance, especially given how he’s so well known for his comedic efforts, while Before offered him the opportunity to showcase even more of his talents. The season finale of Before debuts on Apple TV+ on Friday, December 20th.
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“He really wanted to take on something like that. There’s no challenge that Billy Crystal does not want to take on. That’s just his M.O. So it was very cool developing it and seeing that we could keep going further with it,” Thorp expressed of the actor. “One of the scenes that’s a good example was the opening scene. There’s a dream sequence and that used to be tonally very different. It was actually a lot lighter, and Billy was the one who’s like, ‘No, no, no, we should we should go all the way with this. We should see broken limbs and that kind of stuff.”
She added, “So he really set the tone for, ‘Oh, okay. Well, now I know what we should do with this, knowing that’s where you want to go. That was an example, but he did that a bunch of times, which was really great.”
Light went on to explain, “We were friends and we’ve known each other for a long, long time. It’s funny, I always had a feeling that I was going to work with Billy. I didn’t know what it was going to be on, but I always wanted to. But I also had a feeling that we would work together, and so this was the one.”
Before stars Crystal as Eli, a child psychiatrist who, after recently losing his wife, Lynn (Judith Light), encounters a troubled young boy, Noah (Jacobi Jupe), who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli’s past. As Eli attempts to help Noah, their mysterious bond deepens, sparking haunting memories and unearthing unsettling secrets about the past. The ensemble cast also includes Rosie Perez, Maria Dizzia, and Ava Lalezarzadeh.
[RELATED – Comedy Legend Billy Crystal Stars in Trailer for Apple TV+ Psychological Thriller Before]
Light had the challenging experience of playing both a real person but also an echo of that individual’s existence, which offered the performer some interesting opportunities.
“They’re one in the same, so there’s really there’s really no difference,” the actor detailed of how she approached different versions of her character. “And I wouldn’t say that she is haunting him; he is having memories of her that are so visceral and so true that the experience for him is that it is real. And I think that some of what the audience will see, as well, it might look like it’s haunting, but it’s not if you look at it from his perspective. He almost calls her into him.”
Even though fans are mostly familiar with Crystal’s comedic work, Thorp drew inspiration from iconic psychological thrillers to make sure that there was no mistaking Before for a lighthearted romp.
“It’s funny because it wasn’t an early on reference at all, but once we got into production and we were enjoying sort of the second half of the season, as Billy’s character unravels, we started thinking a bit about The Shining,” Thorp confirmed. “And then we ended up having some little — there’s little things here and there in the filming that you’ll see if you’re paying attention and you’re looking for it, you’ll see some Shining references in there later on.”
She continued, “Jacob’s Ladder was something we talked about a lot, really looking for those psychological thrillers where you’re really inside of the subjective experience of someone who’s world is coming apart. That was really our intention of being able to go on that journey with Eli. It’s really rooted in an emotion in the personal struggle and trauma that he’s dealing with and being inside of that journey.”
The season finale of Before lands on Apple TV+ on Friday, December 20th.
