INDIANAPOLIS — Can we really know the people we love?
In "The Last Thing He Told Me," Jennifer Garner ("Alias," "13 Going on 30") stars as a woman who forms an unexpected relationship with her teenage stepdaughter (Angourie Rice) to find answers after her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) mysteriously disappears.
Laura Dave, writer of the New York Times bestselling novel the series is based on, and Josh Singer, Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay ("Spotlight"), co-created the Apple TV+ limited series — the married couple's first project together.
"I'm used to working on true-life stories where you really have to do a lot of research and figure out what exactly is gonna make your story move," Singer said when asked about the collaboration. "Here, there was this incredible book, which not only had a wonderful, twisty-turny mystery at the heart of it, which was procedurally and incredibly laid out, but also had this unique emotional wisdom that Laura brings to all of her work."
Actress Aisha Tyler ("Archer," "Criminal Minds") plays Jules, the lead character's childhood best friend and seemingly voice of reason on the lengths she'll go in uncovering her husband's disappearance.
"As you get older, what you really value are the friends that are gonna tell you the truth, even if it hurts, and Jules is the kind of person that (says), 'Listen, I'm gonna help you here, but you really need to know what's going on,'" Tyler said.
And faithful fans of the novel will be pleased with the small screen adaptation, according to Dave.
"When we started working on this, something that mattered a lot to me was that I thought I was writing one love story, but I was really writing another love story, and that was the love story between Hannah and Bailey," Dave said. "What I feel so grateful for in how this book has been given a second life is how beautiful, nuanced and carefully that second love story has been tended to."
"The Last Thing He Told Me" begins streaming Friday, April 14 on Apple TV+.