On this edition of THE INTERVUE, Apple TV+ is gearing up for the sophomore season of the amazing series “Home Before Dark”. In season two, when a mysterious explosion hits a local farm, reporter Hilde Lisko begins an investigation that will lead her to fight a powerful and influential corporation – with the health of her family and Erie Harbor in the balance. I recently sat down with Brooklyn Prince who plays Hilde and Co-creator & writer Dana Fox to discuss their favorite moments of Season One and what can they audience expect for Season Two which starts Friday June 11th.
We began our interview with actress Brooklyn Prince who plays journalist Hilde Lisko on the show.
When the show came your way, what were you told about it and what piqued your interest in the role of Hilde?
BP: Well, they were like there’s this character they want you to audition for in this TV show. I was like “Ok!?! TV Show, Movie I really don’t care. As long as I got to do work, I love it.” So, my mom had me read the script that they sent. I absolutely loved it. Hilde is a character that I’ve never seen, never played. In truth, the first strong character that represented really big aside from “Moonee”. I worked on the sides. My mom had to work. So, I was out there in the living room, giving it my all. In fact, I was so ready when I did my audition and they were like “You got it!” I was so excited! I still feel like playing Hilde is a very empowering character to play. With kid roles, you are not going to luck out with kid roles like Hilde all the time. Hilde is a character that’s strong and stands up for kid empowerment that you almost never find in a character. I felt like when they offered me the part, I said “Oh heck Yes!”
I am so glad to hear it. What have you enjoyed about digging deeper into Hilde for this upcoming second season?
Returning to Hilde was like returning to your best friend. I know Hilde inside and out now. I know what she’s like and I get into her. I go to sets and I feel the magic. Its almost like going to Disneyland. Its so fun, so amazing. Its what I enjoy about playing Hilde especially in this season that’s her learning about the world and her aging kind of with me. I can put my feelings into her and all that stuff especially as I get older.
What were some of your favorite moments of Season 1?
My favorite parts of the first season is that I love when she goes off with Sam because she’s so funny and I love Sam & the guy who plays Sam. I really like when she tells the sheriff and points at him and gets teary eyed. I love when Hilde gets “Trip” (Aziza Scott) elected for sheriff because Trip deserves that. Trip should be that because she going to bring the right aspects to the job. There’s just so many moments that I would probably be here for two hours and tell you the whole season. I love every second of it.
Now you and Jim Sturgess who plays your father have such amazing chemistry that its so adorable especially in the first couple of episodes in Season 2. What struck you most about working with Jim?
Well, the fact that he is a kid in a man’s body. He’s such a good scene partner. I’ve always said this, and I forever will be that he is always there for you even if he’s on the camera or off. He’s always really in the moment. He leads us into the scene and the fact that he’s my very best friend. I would love for him to live next door to me so I can go over to his house everyday and drink tea at four for I heard that’s teatime in Britain.
After playing a reporter for a couple of seasons on HBD, would you like to be one?
I have a lot of respect for journalists for their job is super hard. They must follow the clues. They must do this; they must do that. There are so many steps. Then you get to finally write the article. I know there are some people who are like trolling you about it. I’m like “That’s so wrong” but I would not be a journalist because the world does not deserve me as journalist because I would be horrible. I do feel though that I have a lot of respect.
What can fans of the show expect for this upcoming season?
You can expect a whole new mystery and with that mystery you have the case but you have the Lisko family. You have all the other characters dealing with their life. There’s laughing, there’s crying. There’s everything in between. All the emotions. It’s this big batch of amazingness!
Next we talk to co-creator & writer for HBD, Dana Fox! How did you come to know the story of Hilde Lysiak?
She’s really extraordinary! You know, I have to give all the credit to my producing partner, Joy Gorman. She was at the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards ceremony and a bunch of people were accepting their awards. Then this little girl got up and it was (mic feedback) on the microphone. She just stood up there and was so poised and was talking about what she believed in the truth and how the truth has to matter because if it doesn’t matter then nothing ever will. All these things that Joy feel like this girl was so extraordinary and she found herself sitting next to her parents. She sort of made a joke to them saying “Oh, I have a daughter. Can you move into my house with me and raise my daughter for your daughter is incredible?” And they got to talking and you know that Joy got that Hilde’s story would be an incredible show. So, she started to chase Hilde’s life rights and at that point everybody had kind of heard of her and heard the true story of how she moved back to her father’s hometown and kind of scooped the local paper and a murder. So, everybody thought that this was an incredible story.
So there were a lot of people chasing the rights. It got very competitive and got really difficult. All these other brilliant producers were going for it. And ultimately, they chose Joy and after the fact we were talking to the real Matt & Hilde and I asked them why they went with Joy. I know why I would went with Joy for she’s incredible, she’s so talented but why did you went with Joy. They said “You know, she was the only person that spoke directly to Hilde. Everybody else talked to us. They asked us what we wanted to do with the show. What we thought about this? Not one person asked Hilde a direct question except for Joy who only talked to Hilde. It was just for them that’s what they wanted to work with people who understands that their daughter wanted to be taken seriously and they saw Joy do that and knew how that the partnership should go. We’ve been so lucky to have them onboard because they are truly fascinating people. We have learned so much from knowing them.
You are so lucky indeed! At its core, HBD is about the relentless pursuit of the truth. Now, how does this play into the world we live in today from your perspective?
I think all of us, everyone working on the show, were a little bit terrified to see how much fake news has taken off in the world and how much it felt like it was ruining Earth. It was like “Oh, we’re doomed.” So that was sort of an existential crisis for all of us. We wanted to fundamentally make a show where a character was saying the truth is knowable because at a certain point people kept saying “Well, there’s no way to know because media says this and journalists can lie and clickbait, this that and the other” but that doesn’t mean there is a difference between the truth and a lie. So we wanted to try to bring back the intention on good journalism and how it mattered to people. There is such a thing as the truth and that telling the truth is meaningful. So part of the development of the mystery was about showing what happens when you don’t tell the truth. How damaging it can be to generations if you constantly try to hide secrets especially in a family.
I think it was very inspiring to work with all these younger people to sort of see that they understood what it was like to be in houses where people were telling them that everything was okay all the time. Kids these days know that its not okay. They see it all and they know everything. We wanted to make a show that was respectful and says “Yes, the world is scary and there are scary stuff going on” but we can empower people to kind of be brave by basically saying lying, hiding and creating fake news is not the answer. The answer is to bring more truth out to the front. We can disagree. We don’t have to agree on all things but there has to be some bar for the truth.
As a fellow journalist, I am glad that you brought that great feeling back especially on television.
I hope that you feel the profound respect that we all have for journalists coming through in the show because for us, its so important that we want to show how meaningful it is and how much we care about it
Indeed, you have. Now that we are getting ready to go for Season 2, what were your favorite moments of the first season?
Oh my gosh, so I hope everyone binges the first season in anticipation of watching the second season. I would say some of my favorite moments of the first season were honestly watching Brooklynn’s face. For example, in the pilot, her dad yells at her and she gets upset but she hugs her dad instead of running away and being angry and that felt so emotionally truthful for me. I grew up in house where my dad is wonderful, and I loved him, but he had a temper. When he would yell at me, I would immediately knew how upset he was that he had just yelled at me and I always knew that I had to make him okay. So, I would hug him and tell him that it’s okay rather than the other way around. So I think that was a moment that really brought me a lot of emotion because now know what its like to be a parent and to get frustrated and I understand Matt’s position in that scene and I’m Hilde in that scene. So that was a meaningful moment for me.
Another big moment for me is I got to tell you that the finale where the twist happened and think its ending one way and go completely in the opposite direction. I just remembered the first time that I saw that cut and that Rolling Stones song came on, I just jumped out of my seat and did a karate kick because I was so excited! And of course, I knew that it was going to happen since I wrote, and we all did it together. The writers and I all knew the answer. It still knocks my socks off. So, that was incredibly inspiring. I got the performances that were given by the entire cast. It was truly extraordinary in season one. I was proud of the lot of mystery plot points that our incredible writers were able to figure out that also felt like they had emotional significance. So anytime discovered a clue, it wasn’t just a clue. It wasn’t just like a little bread crumb; it was something emotional.
Yes, that twist really had me on the edge of my seat. What can fans except for the upcoming season?
I think the cliffhanger was really compelling to a lot of people that we made sure that every juicy crazy question that you had left over from season one will be answered in a way that you might not expect. Also, you will be experiencing a totally new mystery that makes you see this whole town in a completely different light that feels bigger and more intense that season one.
Be sure to be home for the sophomore season of Apple TV+ Home Before Dark PREMIERING TODAY!!
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