While Liane Moriarty’s original novel Apples Never Fall is set in her native Australia (as they all are), the limited series adapted by Melanie March for Peacock is set in West Palm Beach Florida. That detail may seem innocuous to the casual viewer, but for production designer Tony Fanning, the task was not without its challenges.
There are similarities between the two locations, which helped Fanning and team orient the actors within the limited series world of West Palm Beach, but there were some key differences that needed to be addressed to avoid disorienting viewers.
“Palm Beach, Florida, has a similar development as the Gold Coast in Australia. They’re both on the shoreline, and what they did in Gold Coast was they started building housing by making canals out of the surrounding areas that are close to the waterfront, which is similar to what’s in Palm Beach, Florida. So, the layout and feel of it is the same,” Fanning explained. “The big difference is that most of the architecture in Palm Beach was developed in the late 1910s or 1920s. Housing on the Gold Coast really didn’t come around until the 1960s, so what we didn’t have access to was that older, stately look that Palm Beach, Florida actually does have. We also had obvious issues with making sure things didn’t look explicitly Australian: driving on the left side of the road, all the paper products are different sizes, the lighting, fixtures, the plugs, the outlets, etc. We had to make sure all of that was in line with an American sensibility and details.”
Once the world was established, Fanning and team needed to great individual locations for each member of the Delaney family. In the limited series, the Delaneys are a once-great tennis dynasty in which the Delaney children have left the nest and have messed up lives all on their own. When their mother Joy (Annette Bening) goes missing, they are faced with the increasing certainty that their father Stan (Sam Neill) may have been responsible for her disappearance.
So, each character needs their own location, which in turn infers a great deal about their individual characteristics and helps the audience understand who they are. As they are a sports-focused family, the Delaneys’ various locations often have an earthy, outdoors focused, open-concept feel. Most of the children’s locations have a color pattern, texture, or structural similarity to their parent’s home. So, in this case, the production design underscores the connections and relationships of the characters involved in the drama.
Amy Delaney
Alison Brie‘s Amy, the oldest child, is the spiritual, crystal-loving bohemian of the family. As such, her environment is less structured, more thrown-together than that of her parents or siblings. Fanning considers Amy a bird-like character, one who almost flutters from one thing to the next. Amy’s color patterns and fabrics were more along the “bo-ho chic” trajectory than anything else in the series.
Her shared apartment, in which clutter and organization becomes a major plot point between Amy and her roommate / boyfriend, is also located near water. The idea, according to Fanning, was that Amy would appreciate the calming sounds and invigoration associated with a body of water.
In terms of connecting Amy’s apartment back to her parent’s home, the color combinations served as the critical link.
“The color combination is reflected from her childhood bedroom in her current bedroom. Those patterns are the same, but it is all comes down to the natural textures in fabrics and finishes that are always similar to the parents.”
Troy Delaney
Jake Lacy‘s Troy, the oldest son, emerges as the polar opposite of Amy. Gone are the hints of “bo-ho chic” and comforting, soothing fabrics and color patterns. What replaces them are trappings of wealth that reflect Troy’s financial status. Since Troy was the most successful tennis player of the four siblings, he would have been more world-traveled and would have had more financial means than the others.
“He’s more educated in terms of art and design and aesthetics than the rest of the siblings. We basically approached his house as if it was going to be a piece of art, and everything that was put in it was very bespoke, one of a kind pieces,” Fanning commented. “His interior/exterior related to the water, related to a skyline. We really emphasized all the natural fabrics: his bedding is all linen, rich cottons, and beautiful textural fabrics. We tried to bring that earthiness again to him even though it’s a more slick point of view.”
Also, Troy’s modern-styled house boasts a large amount of open-air glass windows. That design echoes the Delaney family room, which also has an array of sliding glass doors overlooking the back yard and tennis court.
Brooke Delaney
Youngest sister Brooke (Essie Randles) is engaged to Gina (Paula Andrea Placido) a successful chef. Fanning’s idea for Brooke’s home is less tied to the Delaney home. Instead, Brooke and Gina’s shared home is more associated with the LatinX community with Gina’s cultural background bringing strong influence into the space. Perhaps they even live closer to a Latin neighborhood or to the restaurant in which Gina is head chef.
Fanning’s other concept for the space has stronger ties to Moriarty’s original novel. Omitted from the limited series, Brooke suffers from intense migraines, so Fanning imagined the space as something tranquil that would soothe her ailment.
“We wanted it to have a very protected quality because, in the book, Brooke has trouble with migraines. My my idea behind that location was that it was an oasis for her,” Fanning said. “She could go home and could be surrounded by lush foliage and her fiance and be protected in this space. So we made that more of a womb-like space, but one that was also heavily influenced by the fiance’s upbringing.”
Logan Delaney
The last Delaney child is Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner), the metaphorically and literally adrift Delaney child. Logan lives on a houseboat in the marina where he works. The setting fits the lack of grounding within his personal life. He no longer plays tennis, has no strong career goals, and recently separated with his long-time girlfriend. Fanning revealed that the houseboat scenes were filmed on an actual houseboat due to the necessity of filming connecting interior and exterior scenes.
Fanning and team found a boat that fit the size and scope of what they needed for Logan’s space. However, the boat had been remodeled in a more modern fashion. They managed to convince the owner to allow for a remodel that would thematically link Logan to his father.
“We woodgrained the whole inside of it and resurfaced most of the interior so that it had more natural materials. There’s the wood that’s in Stan’s home office, which we were trying to relate a to Logan. Again, the fabrics and the textures were also linked to Logan’s childhood bedroom. Each of [the kids] has a color that relates to their childhood bedrooms.”
Stan and Joy Delaney
One of the themes of the limited series is the disconnection Joy feels from her children. As many parents can relate, Joy’s life seemed to have stopped once the kids reached their active teen years. As such, the Delaney household appears to have stopped aesthetically maturing around that same time. Plus, Stan Delaney would have funneled most of their available funds into the tennis academy before retiring, so there likely wouldn’t have been much budget for extensive home renovations.
Given the busy schedules of the family and the eventual empty nest, the house has a “stuck in time quality,” according to Fanning.
“We wanted to have that stuck in time quality so that it told more of the story, more of the history, of the family. We did the same thing with the kids bedroom. The only one of the children that returned several times and really lives between the parent’s house and her own home is Amy. Amy has maybe the most updated stuff in her bedroom, but the other two bedrooms are really stuck in time and in the teen years.”
Apples Never Falls streams exclusively on Peacock.
