“Long Bright River”: Amanda Seyfried, Liz Moore when adapting the book

New York – Amanda Seyfried’s face crosses the grimace.

I just asked Liz Moore, the author “Long bright river“The novel on which the new Seyfried program is based on how it is to have an actor that revive a character whose voice she had in her head for so long.

Seyfried does almost cartoon expression with huge eyes and expressive lips, which were tools for her in everything, from “mean girls” to “Rejection. ” What is it about?

“I just don’t think we can ever do what was in your head,” he says to Moore, sitting next to her in a New York hotel room. “What exists in your imagination makes you such a great writer. So yes, I don’t know if anyone could do justice. “

“It’s so funny,” says Moore. “I am so moved by what you brought to the role and it is completely different than what I wrote, but that’s good.”

For Seyfried, the Peacock Limited series, the premiere Thursday, offered a rare opportunity to play a character adapted from the book, while working closely with its author. Moore, who co -created the series from Showrunner Nikki Toscano, brought her a wealth of knowledge, not only about the internal life of Mickey Seyfried, a cop of Philadelphia, but also a world he occupies. “Long Bright River” takes place in Kensington, the vicinity of the city known for being Opioid Epidemic Centerand a place where Moore has both studied and a volunteer for years.

“I just felt that if you were happy, we did it well,” says Seyfried, who is also an executive producer. “Not to have a barometer, it would be much more difficult.”

Amanda Seyfried as Mickey in “Long Bright River”.

(Matt Infante / Peacock)

“Long Bright River” follows Mickey, who meets a secret that hits the house. Her sister Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings), addicted, who spent time as a sex worker, is missing when many other women like her are found the dead. As Mickey, an unlikely (and sometimes not very fluent) officer, hunts the killer, whom he is also looking for his sister, leading her to struggle with his own role in the community as someone who also feels like an outsider.

The program has the same general contours of the novel. The story came out of Moore’s attachment to Kensington, which she visited for the first time in 2009 shortly after moving to the region. She was assigned to write the accompanying text on the photographic essay about the area and “very nerdy” about its history.

“I also felt very moved, talking to many people who experienced addiction there, and in some cases of sexual work in order to support disorders related to the use of substances,” he says. “I have a very long family history of addiction, so I also felt personally associated with the community in an intangible manner and eventually returned to the area to perform volunteering.” This work included leading community writing workshops in a women’s shelter.

Moore never thought the “long light river” that ended Barack Obama’s favorite books from 2020 The list would become a series while writing – this idea, he says, would be “the death of my fiction.” In the case of television adaptation, it was paired with Toscano, whose previous loans include the main video series “Hunters”.

Amanda Seyfried, Front and Liz Moore, author of “Long Bright River” and co -creator of the series.

(Victoria Will / For the Times)

After they both wrote the first three episodes, they offered the main role of Seyfried.

“I think there is something really harsh and sensitive in a unique way, which in our opinion will serve the character of Mickey,” explains Toscano in a separate interview.

Seyfried listened to the book-“I can’t read and crochet at the same time,” he says-she discovered that she had fulfilled her special desire: she really wanted to play the cop.

“It’s a literal uniform and I didn’t know how it was,” he says. “As a child, I have always been impressed by cops and firefighters and service and I have always seen them as heroes, although (now) he is very, very dark.” She also notes that her friend Jennifer Carpenter, the star “Dexter”, always plays the cops; Seyfried wanted to leave.

Seyfried, dressed in a pink jacket and wrapping the fighting feet around the chair, explains that she usually looks for differences among herself and the characters she played. Mickey, he says, was confrontational in a way she wouldn’t. But there was also a personal attraction of history. Seyfried grew up in Allentown, PA. And, like Mickey and Moore, it comes from a family where she was surrounded by addiction.

“I think there is a certain mode in which Mickey and I can use, not to completely ignore reality, but to separate from reality,” says Amanda Seyfried.

(Victoria Will / For the Times)

“I think there is a certain mode in which Mickey and I can use, not to completely ignore reality, but to separate from reality,” he says. “When you can be perfect with something, it makes the whole aspect of this character made.” He adds that Mickey was almost like a friend.

Seyfried and Moore shared the details of how they experienced second -hand addiction. But Moore is also delicate in how it positions himself by telling these narratives.

“I think we both try to understand because we are a loved one with addiction; I speak for myself, I should not tell their stories, but I can talk about how it is growing up, knowing what addiction from birth, “he says.

Similarly, both she and Seyfried are from the outside for Kensington. Despite growing up nearby, Seyfried never heard of it about the “long bright river”.

Just over a year ago, Seyfried, Moore and Toscano took a trip to Philadelphia and visited Kensington, where they met with community leaders, including father Michael Duffa St. Francis InnOrganization of gastronomic services, in which Moore led writing workshops, as well as Johanna Berrigan and Mary Beth Appel of the Free Clinic Catholic employee. (The program was largely shot in New York, although they brought graffiti artists from Kensington to mark the set.)

Moore explains that during the visit she recognized that although she is attached to the life of the Kensington community, she also knows that seeing sadness that exists on its streets for the first time can be shocking.

“I had to leave the place so that everyone could have their own natural response to a place that I love very much, but it can be shocking to see for the first time,” he says.

Seyfried recognized this “surreal” experience to see people under the influence of Kensington Avenue.

“I had to leave the place so that everyone could have their own natural response to a place that I love very much, but it can be annoying to see for the first time,” says Liz Moore about Kensington.

(Victoria Will / For the Times)

“I read the scripts and listened to the book and I had all this information, but only then I was there and it was grounded in a way that of course had to be grounded,” he says. “It is difficult to tell such a story. You don’t want to hurt anyone, but you also want people to know so that they can have compassion, so that they can support and respect, not try to fix. “

Seyfried fought with a stomach worm, which in her opinion took away from being around the cows while filming the trailer to convince financiers to finance “Ann Lee”, the latest project “with” “Z”Brutalist“The creators of Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet. (Seyfried, who lives on a farm, notes that these cows were not her; she performs in a musical drama, directed by Fastvold, who wrapped the production at the end of last year.) Still, after the beginning of her Prilosec, she went to a ride with a local woman. “I thought: Oh, it’s a bit boring, and then the day passed quite quickly,” he says.

As a small woman, Seyfried talked to her hosts on how to use her size at work. This resulted in a mickey game with an attitude that works like an invisible shield. It was new for Moore.

“One thing that Amanda brought a role that I did not anticipate, but immediately struck me that when you put a camera on someone, you play this role with some durability, which I think in my opinion existed on the site,” says Moore, focusing on Seyfried Midstentence. “This is absolutely necessary after seeing physical things, which she asked as Mickey, there is more external shell.”

Mickey was difficult for Seyfried, and the end of exhaustion, in which she was away from her children, and the fight against more stomach problems was surprisingly emotional. She realized that she had to release the pair rarely.

“I cried at a party,” he says. “I never go to parties, but I went to a party. We closed the party and went to another party. We were so drunk. ” Seyfried’s voice becomes conspiracy. Moore interferes: “No, chopped.”