Annette Bening Exudes Dark Comedy Excellence in Peacock’s ‘Apples Never Fall’

Understanding the balance between dark comedy and mystery is a unique quality of Annette Bening, which she puts to good use in Peacock’s limited series Apples Never Fall (March 14), based on Liane Moriarty’s book. “Everybody has a secret, and that’s fun.” Bening plays Joy Delaney, the matriarch of a seemingly perfect family who suddenly disappears. “Even in the best comedies, there’s a deep dis-ease inside of people that we’re trying to dramatize.” In typical Bening style, she’s able to show this dance between genres with such subtlety. “A lot of times in film, the moments that we remember characters are often quiet [ones].” Describing the story as “juicy,” Bening says, “right now we all need a certain amount of entertainment.” Recently she did just that in the film Nyad, playing the real-life Diana Nyad, who broke records swimming from Cuba to Florida coached by her friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster). The role earned her an Academy Award nomination. “This idea of chosen family is very familiar to [queer] people. And it’s just important that people see that.” Visit Newsweek.com to learn more about the podcasts we offer and to catch up on the latest news. While you’re there, subscribe to Newsweek’s ‘For the Culture newsletter. Follow H. Alan Scott on everything at @HAlanScott. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.