“It was a great beginning and great end,” All Her Fault EP and Emmy winner Nigel Marchant said about what attracted him to Andrea Mara’s novel; which upon reading he promptly sent to Meghan Gallagher to adapt.
All Her Fault hits the never of every parent’s fear: What happens when their child is kidnapped? The series begins promptly with Sarah Snook’s Marissa Irvine arriving at a house where her little boy, Milo, is suppose to be having a playdate — but the woman at the house has no idea what she’s talking about. Starring Michael Pena (Detective Alcatraz), Jake Lacy (husband and father Peter Irvine), Dakota Fanning (Jenny), Daniel Monks (Brian Irvine), Abby Elliot (Lia Irvine), Sophia Lillis (Carrie Finch), and Jay Ellis (Colin Dobbs), All Her Fault sets up a mystery whereby you never know who the real culprit is.
For EP and director of episodes 101-104, Minkie Spiro, “the first five minutes were key” when it came to grabbing the audience’s attention and setting the tone that plays out over eight episodes.
“Because if I messed that up, then I was worried we’d lose the audience because those first five minutes is what I wanted audiences to feel: the utter panic and the gravity of what it’s like to potentially lose your child; that fear, dread and everything in between had to feel so visceral that you couldn’t turn away.”
“You were going to stay and live through this with Marissa,” adds Spiro.
In making everyone a suspect, what was key was capturing extra coverage of the actors.
Said Spiro, “Megan and I had, a conversation with Sarah Snook and we were talking about, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could play the audience so that if they watched it, and God willing, they will watch it a second time? Those looks which seem so innocuous and throwaway on the first watch, when you watch it again, you’re like ‘Oh, I see it now.’”
While some TV creators on some cliffhanger series, avoid prepping the actors and actresses with their full storyline, when it came to playing the nuances of suspicion on All Her Fault, “they need to know their full stories,” Spiro adds. Funny enough, Lacy wasn’t acquainted with this until late in pre-production.
But more than a mystery, All Her Fault delves into the plight of working moms, and the stresses and responsibilities they feel when leading the family.
“This felt universal,” Gallagher tells us, “Unfortunately women are stretched thin in many countries.”
On today’s Crew Call Live, the trio discuss adapting a novel, which was set in Ireland, for America, specifically Chicago, and then shooting Sydney Australia as a stand-in for the Windy City with a murderer’s row cast.
