Like a dark horse quietly gaining ground, Apple TV has become a platform known for popular series (think of the Ted Lasso phenomenon) but, above all, for cult favorites. This year, its productions earned a total of 89 Emmy nominations, awarded by the Television Academy in the United States, putting it within striking distance of giants such as Netflix (111 nominations) and HBO (122), much to the delight of its executives. Even its top boss, Apple CEO Tim Cook, made an appearance at the Los Angeles premiere of Ted Lasso and posed with its cast.
Timing means that Lasso and company will not be competing at this year’s Emmys, but they are expected to feature in the next edition, as will likely be the cast of another of the platform’s seasonal successes, Cape Fear, a television adaptation of the classic thriller of the same name.
Javier Bardem, sporting one eye of each color, stars as the villain, a character whose mere presence and menacing smile torment and captivate the screen whenever he appears. However, the Spanish actor is not taking part in this round of interviews organized by Apple TV in Los Angeles, which EL PAÍS attended as a guest of the technology company. Instead, the conversations feature the series’ creator, Nick Antosca, and actresses Amy Adams, who plays attorney Anna Bowden, and Juliette Lewis, the unsettling Crystal. One topic they refuse to discuss is whether the series will have a second season. “No comment,” Antosca, who also serves as writer and executive producer, laughs.
But they have no trouble talking about Bardem. During both the formal interviews and the more informal conversations that follow, questions about the actor, the central figure of the series, are inevitable. For Spanish-speaking journalists in particular, he was invariably the main topic of conversation.
“You can ask about him as muuuuch as you want,” Antosca jokes later, after the interview round has ended.
Even before that, everyone makes it clear that they are fans of the Oscar winner, the true face of fear at the heart of this Cape Fear.
“He is the fear,” the creator agrees in the interview.
In this new version, Max Cady has become Maximiliano Cady and, as he explains early in the series, he has Spanish roots, a departure from the portrayals by his predecessors, Robert De Niro in 1991 and Robert Mitchum in 1962.
“I was writing [the script] and thinking of him. I didn’t know that we would get him for sure, but I met with him around the time that I was writing it. We talked about the character,” Antosca explains. “So we didn’t make it be the backstory that he was half Spanish and half American until he signed on, but I had it in mind and had a plan. And then once he came on board, we shaped the character and some of the backstory together.”
“In terms of what it was like working with him, he’s a teddy bear,” adds Antosca, prompting laughter from the actresses, while Amy Adams agrees from behind. “He’s a really nice guy. And you guys can speak to that, the direct experience. But it was lovely. And it’s very remarkable to see him go from the sweet dad that he is to this terrifying, mercurial predator.”
Adams readily agrees. “He’s fantastic to work with. He’s so much fun and then just so committed,” says the six-time Oscar nominee. She recalls filming the final scenes, when they went through “an intense week.” “He had to yell the whole time, and I remember him starting to lose his voice. And he’s just so committed, and he cares so much about the details, and he is a joy to work with.”
Filming was not easy. The production faced long, demanding days and difficult weather conditions, with heavy rain and lightning storms in the state of Georgia. As the actresses recall, some scenes had to be halted because of the thunderstorms.
“I’ve shot in Georgia a number of times, so I’m used to the insanity of the lightning, but sometimes it was particularly intense,” says Antosca.
The show’s creator wanted to preserve certain elements of the original in a format that expands the story from a couple of hours to nearly 10, one per episode. “The two previous films are so different because they each absorb the ideas and the fears of their time, and I was very interested creatively in what a Cape Fear in the present day would feel like, absorbing the fears and cultural atmosphere, the moral confusion and paranoia of 2026,” he reflects.
More tangibly, he also wanted to preserve the score by Bernard Herrmann, who composed the music for classics such as Vertigo, Psycho, Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver, as well as the original films. “That was also something that Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg [executive producers of the series] said from the beginning; however we place it, we should use the music and make it a character in the show.”
There is one more connection to Scorsese’s 1991 film starring Robert De Niro: Juliette Lewis, who played the lawyers’ daughter in that version and now appears as a kind of counterpoint to Max Cady.
In the interview, Lewis recalls that she does not, in fact, still have her script from that 1991 production, but says that the role, which earned her an Oscar nomination, remains “one of the most important things” that has ever happened to her.
“I was 18 when I made Cape Fear. It’s my creative birthplace, if you will, and I attribute that to Martin Scorsese validating my instincts,” the actress and singer recalls. “There were things I knew intuitively even though I didn’t really know what they were. And he told me to keep going, which led to so many beautiful moments in that film. So here we are; when Nick invited me to be a part of this project, it was a full-circle moment for me. It was so meaningful, and when I kept seeing Cape Fear, the font, when I first came to set, it was so nostalgic. So it was quite something to see the characters’ names.”
Since then, Lewis has not stopped working, although she has also kept one foot in her music career. She continues to move between films and television projects as opportunities arise, much like everyone else in the industry’s notoriously unpredictable landscape. “When you’ve been working for 35 years, you get used to the unemployment, the employment, the unemployment. When I was younger, it was more nerve-wracking. And now, it’s just part of the process,” she admits.
Adams agrees with a laugh, saying: “I currently do not have a job.”
“It’s a strange business in that way,“ adds Lewis. ”But there’s a good ebb and flow to it, and it’s nice when you form relationships and get to work with people again.”
And if that meant working with Javier Bardem again, everyone would be delighted.
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