HOME BEFORE DARK Co-Creator Dara Resnik on the New Apple TV+ Series

In a time when it feels like the world can use a hero, Apple TV+’s HOME BEFORE DARK is arriving at exactly the right time. No, it’s not about any kind of traditional superhero: It follows a young investigative reporter, Hilde (Brooklynn Prince), who finds herself embroiled in the biggest mystery of her life when her family moves back to the town where her father grew up.

Even better? It was inspired by a real (incredible) young woman.

The series is balanced with Hilde’s family and her friend group, which meant that finding the right pieces for each ensemble was key—and especially delicate considering how many young actors would be in play.

“[Executive producer] Joy Gorman had seen THE FLORIDA PROJECT, and had been screaming from the rooftops [Hilde] has to be Brooklynn Prince super early,” Dara Resnik, who co-created the series with Dana Fox, recalls. “She told me to watch [the film and] I did; I knew she was right. I fell absolutely in love with her. It was obvious that it was her. And she breaks your heart in this series. Then it was easy to build a family around her.”

“Kylie Rogers had actually auditioned to be Hilde, but we knew she was going to be too old,” she continues. “We loved her audition so much, we brought her back in [for the role of Izzy]. And [she and Brooklynn] had such incredible chemistry. The youngest sister was really hard to find. We hired her 30 seconds before we started shooting, and she is incredible.”

To find Hilde’s school friends, the producers looked everywhere from “Nickelodeon to the new HALLOWEEN films.” “We searched high and low for Jibrail [Nantambu] and Deric [McCabe] and they just nailed it,” Resnik says. “And because we had Brooklynn, it was so easy to figure out what the chemistry was going to be because we could see how she was playing off these people.”

The real Hilde Lysiak—and her family—were actively a part of the project, too.

“[Hilde’s parents] Matt and Bridget had become dear friends of mine; I could not have asked for a better, more open, generous creative partner in this,” Resnik says. “They were consultants on this series. They consulted on journalism questions. They felt like they were gifting us this story and that they trusted us to do with their life what we saw fit. I could not be more grateful to them for what they’ve done.”

“They are incredible parents who encourage each of their children to be exactly who they are, whatever that is,” she continues. “And that was what was really helpful when we were dealing with family issues [on] the show. We would call the real Matt and Bridget and we would ask, ‘How would you have handled this situation?’ Sometimes we would handle it the same way in the show, and sometimes we wouldn’t, but it was always really helpful to have that grounded real response.”

Prince and Jim Sturgess (who plays Matt) got to meet their real-life counterparts and it was “amazing,” Resnik gushes. “It was sort of magical, actually, because I do think that Jim and Brooklynn both embody something that’s very real, that we were attracted to with telling this story. All four of them had this combination of fearlessness and heart, which is what I think makes this series so great and makes it run. And since they all had that, there was this immediate connection between them—in a way, they were family.”

HOME BEFORE DARK, Now Streaming, Apple TV+

RELATED:

• HOME BEFORE DARK: Apple TV Reveals First Trailer for Drama Inspired by Young Journalist Hilde Lysiak
• Apple TV+ Renews HOME BEFORE DARK

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