EXCLUSIVE | Home Before Dark's Jim Sturgess praises Brooklynn Prince's 'raw gift' as he teases 'bigger' Season 2
There's being precocious and then there's being Hilde Lisko on Apple TV+ adaptation of the real-life journalistic prodigy Hilde Lysiak who broke a local woman's murder at the age of nine, thus earning her neighbors' harsh criticism. Dramatizing her life, the show's Hilde is pretty much walks the fine line before precocious topples into annoying and there's no bigger fan of Brooklynn Prince's portrayal of the character than her on-screen father, Jim Sturgess.
The British actor and musician claims it was finding out that the 'young girl from The Florida Project' was going to appear on the show that drew him to the series before anything else. And even though the townie-noir of sorts delves into darker elements of trauma, child abuse, bullying, racism and even wrongful incarceration, Sturgess can't help but insist that it was the varied child cast for the series that kept things magical. Probably what also helps make the already greenlit second season 'get bigger', in his words.
In a casual chat with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Sturgess talks about how Prince and 'Crazy Rich Asians' director John Chu's involvement drew him into the project at first. "I didn’t find out until later that it was based on a real story and that the family existed. That this little girl and her voice actually existed. The voice of youth feels more important than ever right now – all those things combined really drew me in," Sturgess tells us of little Hilde and her trials and tribulations with the media who just couldn't accept that a little kid would have the balls to call out a local death for what it really is: murder.
The show's driving force is, however, a child kidnapping story that Hilde comes across when she moves to the quaint town of Eerie Harbour with her family after her father, Matt Lisko (Sturgess) loses his job as a reporter. Once she publishes the local woman's 'murder' in her self-run newspaper, she and her family go through innumerable bias as outsiders trying to dig up the dark secrets of the town. And soon it becomes clear what they are all hiding: her father's best friend Richie Fife's mysterious kidnapping 31 years ago. Matt is still troubled and traumatized after witnessing Richie get kidnapped in front of his eyes, never to be heard of or found and Hilde makes it her mission to solve the case - be it by teaming up with local cops or running off into the wild with escaped convicts - just to 'fix dad'.
But in all of this borderline precociousness, Sturgess will have you believe what a treat it is to behold the story unfold as they come together to portray a 'real family' on television - all thanks to Prince and her fellow child castmates. "It’s a really powerful dynamic – a father and a daughter – because Hilde is a young version of Matt and he sees a lot of himself in her," he tells us, adding: "I loved the show for not looking down on kids, but instead giving them a real and honorable voice. I genuinely loved working with all the young actors and particularly getting to work so closely with Brooklynn. I loved watching her grow. She was such a raw gift before she started the show. I watched this raw energy get honed in and transform - she genuinely became a fully-fledged and brilliant actress by the end of the six months. It was amazing to have a front-row seat in her early career. It’s great to work with veteran actors who you’ve looked up to your whole life, but it’s equally as amazing to watch an actor or actress from the beginning, firsthand."
That said, the story by Dara Resnik and Dana Ross does take ample creative liberty with the story based on Lysiak's real-life accomplishments. Sturgess spills that it wasn't just him immersing himself in real-life child abduction mysteries and unsolved cases to prepare for the role, but the rest of them also sat down with the Lysiaks to borrow their personal elements for the screen. Perhaps that is what worked the charm, for the most part, drawing viewers in to be so intrigued by the mystery of what exactly happened to Richie after the van he was abducted in drowns in the lake nearby, but there's nobody to be found when the van is finally discovered years later.
But if Sturgess is to be believed, it is the magic weaved by the child actors, which albeit distracting at times, is also what kept things light and joyful enough for the plot's darkness to not consume the atmosphere. "It was definitely a challenge, more for the adults than the kids," Sturgess spills about striking that balance on set. "As actors, you, of course, take the work very seriously. If you do have something traumatic to go through you try to find what that might feel like, that can sort of hang on your heart. But then you get on set and the kids want to jump on your back and play games and make up songs and invent crazy handshakes. At first, I thought ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this because I can’t concentrate on what I’m supposed to be going through’, but then I realized that this was the best connection I could find with the character because that is parenting – having to do both and be on top of both."
Gushing about Prince's 'raw gift', Sturgess further adds how "She’d go to some really interesting and emotional places and then the minute the cameras cut she was able to just walk away from it. She’d be back to showing me some crazy stuff on her phone or carry on with the song we were making up before the take. I was totally in awe of that. As adults, you stew on it a lot more. It was part of the challenge but definitely the joy of working with kids. The kids brought joyful energy to the set too – all the crew – the cameramen, the lighting team – everyone had to get on board with this playful energy so that the kids had a good time. I think that was at the forefront of everyone’s mind – let’s make sure the kids were enjoying themselves because they were working really hard. It definitely brought out a brighter side to the whole set that you don’t always get when making a film."
Hanging on to this very joyful yet intense essence of the show, it's no secret that the audience wants more. A second season is much needed to explain Richie's aftermath, and with Apple TV+ already having greenlit the sophomore run, this lockdown causing stalled production becomes more unbearable for fans. Worry not, Sturgess dropped just enough hints to tease what's to come in the second run. "I can’t say much about what happens in season two, mostly because we’re along for the ride with everybody else. We got to episode three whilst we were filming before we were put on hiatus and shut down due to the coronavirus situation, so none of us know what happened to Richie. It’s as frustrating for me as anyone else," he quipped, adding: "All I know is that it gets bigger. We spend more time with the family and learn more of the intricacies of their dynamics - you grow with the family. The Richie story expands and takes them off on all different paths. Matt finds his passion for investigative journalism again. I hope that the story expands and gets bigger, and Matt and Hilde come together to figure it out."
Mid-quarantine, Sturgess has been mostly working on his music, but if you're not as prolific in the arts, 'Home Before Dark' comes as a worthy binge to curl up with your family and teach your little ones about the importance of drawing boundaries, while also teach yourself it's not always that necessary to clip their wings. Why? As Sturgess explained, "The fact that (the show) was shot through the eyes of a young child - a young child who is able to find the truth in ways that adults are not. An innocent and untainted sort of look at the world where everything is potentially simplified because the lies, deceit, agendas and complications that come into your adult life haven’t infiltrated their lives yet. The simple act of wanting to find out what really happened becomes necessary and important. In any other crime show you never see an eight-year-old girl running around with her backpack and scooter getting to the bottom of things. It’s fun to watch her stir things up!"
'Home Before Dark' premiered on April 3 with all 10 episodes only on Apple TV+.