‘The Boroughs’ cast jokes about aging and staying active
Alfred Molina Bill Pullman and Alfre Woodard joke about aging and staying active on set of “The Boroughs”
Warning: This story contains spoilers from “The Boroughs,” currently streaming on Netflix.
If Jack’s death on the premiere of “The Boroughs” broke your heart, you’re not alone.
Alfre Woodard, who plays the astute retired reporter Judy Daniels on Netflix’s sci-fi mystery (now streaming), tells USA TODAY she and her castmates reacted “like sullen children” to the demise of their charming cul-de-sac neighbor Jack, portrayed by Bill Pullman.
“We read it. We knew it was going to happen, but we resisted it, then we resented it, and then we balked and whined,” says Woodard, 73. “It was like, ‘Wait, he can’t leave the cul-de-sac. You guys are making a mistake!’”
Pullman “is a light and a grounded person at the same time,” she says. “What he gives to us as a fellow actor, it was tough.”
Episode 1 of “The Boroughs” introduces Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina), a former engineer who is begrudgingly moving into the retirement community after the death of his wife Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek). He’s quickly embraced by neighbors, like Judy’s husband Art Daniels (Clarke Peters); Renee Joyce (Geena Davis) and Wally Baker (Denis O’Hare).
Near the end of the season opener, Sam is awoken by an alarm emanating from Jack’s house. Sam knocks on the door, but Jack doesn’t answer, so he shatters a glass pane on Jack’s door and lets himself in.
When he opens Jack’s bedroom doors, he finds a creature feeding from his friend’s parted lips. The removal of Jack’s CPAP mask triggered the machine’s alarm. With hammer in hand, Sam musters the courage to move toward the beast. A misstep unplugs Jack’s headphones, and blaring music alerts the monster to Sam’s presence. It lunges at Sam. He strikes it with the hammer, and it flees. By the start of Episode 2, Jack is confirmed dead.
Pullman, 72, says he greatly admires series creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, and their choice.
“They have a clear conviction of what they want to do with the series,” Pullman says. “And mine was just one of many things that people would say, ‘Let’s see some movement on this. Maybe change your mind. Do something different. Well, how about this?’ And they would stick to their guns, because they really believed in certain solid cornerstones for the series.”
According to Addiss, Jack had to die “because Sam needed a reason to stay in The Boroughs. He needed something to fight for, that you rooted for him. And you love Jack, and you want justice for Jack.”
“When Sam moves to The Boroughs, all you want is for him to become friends with Jack, and then Jack dies,” Addiss adds, “and all you want is for Sam to stay and figure out what happened and get justice for Jack.”
Clarifying any further mystery around Jack’s death, Addiss and Matthews say the misplaced mask is to blame − and not the creature.
“It was a mistake,” Matthews says. “The creatures don’t intend to kill. They probably don’t even really intend to feed on humans.”
However, the Boroughs owners, Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese Shaw (Alice Kremelberg), who long to be young forever, “drive them to.”
Still, Addiss gives a sliver of hope that if Netflix greenlights a second season, Jack could potentially return.
“He’s definitely dead,” Addiss says. “I definitely know that we love Bill Pullman. I definitely know that the cast might turn on us if we don’t find some kind of a way [to bring him back]. And amazing things happen in The Boroughs… We’ll see what we can do.”
