‘Presumed Innocent’ Director Teases ‘Surprising Turns’ in Season 1’s Finale
It’s almost time to finally (hopefully?) find out who killed Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinseive) when Presumed Innocent‘s Season 1 finale, “The Verdict,” arrives on Apple TV+ this Wednesday (July 24).
The legal drama has already been chock full of shocking twists throughout its first seven episodes — so much so that there are several bona fide suspects, even if only Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is on trial for her murder.
Ahead of the finale’s debut, TV Insider caught up with Anne Sewitsky, the director of Episode 8 (who also directed Episodes 1 and 2), to find out how this engaging show came to be and what’s ahead for the finale and Season 2.
Broadly, what drew you to this project, and how did you want to differentiate it from the movie and book?
Anne Sewitsky: Well, I had, of course, seen the movie. I had not read the book — and I did that eventually, and loved that — and I really just loved the thought of modernizing the story. It still felt really relevant in so many ways. Also, I was especially drawn to how David E. Kelley focused on the complexity within the family in the scripts. He’s kind of king of legal shows, and being part of it, his writing, and knowing the potential of the original story made this quite impossible to resist. Also, I think seeing the story through the lens of a female director, I hope that maybe showed some different perspectives. We wanted to elevate the female characters in this show that felt different from the original.
Speaking of the family element, that goes off-camera as well: Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal are brothers-in-law but play mortal enemies in the show. What was that dynamic like to direct?
Well, of course, them knowing each other so well, they had a shorthand to everything. So it’s just very playful. We did a lot of improv and had fun, even though there are dark scenes… I think since so much of this story, the core of the story takes place within a family and those intimate relationships and surroundings around that, I kind of wanted to explore that the most, both visually and between the actors — observing them, camera-wise, but also making them feel trapped.
And me and Daniel Voldheim, who is a [director of photography], who I’ve worked with on several movies and shows before, he’s also Norwegian, we early on, decided on an eclectic style of bringing forward that makes a grounded closeness to the family, but also and normality. I think that with Peter and Jake, that normality that they already had within their relationship, was just kind of bringing that more in more in front of the camera.
Both me and Daniel’s approach is quite intuitive and natural when we collaborate. So I think [instead] of those big courtroom dramas, and this show was going to be that intimate family drama. I don’t know that many many shows [that do that]. Me and Daniel, coming from a small Norwegian country, we felt like we were bringing our own plan into this larger American drama maybe in an interesting way, or maybe not.
It definitely does, and another element of the story that works very well, is all of the actors have a duplicitous air. Even when they’re being portrayed in a good light, they have a sneaky element to them. What kind of direction did you give the cast as far as making them all seem suspicious?
Well, first of all, there was the focus of this being about a family tragedy, so always being truthful to the emotions. And at the same time, it was quite difficult because we didn’t always know who the killer was — we knew, and we didn’t, and we hid it — so it’s kind of, I tried opening it up so that we played things in different ways. We did the lighter version. We did the darker version. We did the improvised version.
That can be difficult, but I think we have a really good cast and a very safe cast to trust in each other and were very open to that. I would do takes where we took out all the dialogue, not necessarily because it wasn’t supposed to be there, but because it was about the camera searching and kind of creeping in on that insecurity — or the opposite — so that in the edits, it was a lot of kind of finding that tone and playing with those opposites the whole time. That was our agenda. Also, for each scene, we tried doing a long zoom or staging the cameras behind the actors’ heads, so it wasn’t going to play toward the camera.
Apple TV+
Have you been keeping tabs on the fan theories that have been popping up and, what have you thought about the interactiveness of the show?
Well, I think it has been absolutely insane in a fun way. This is kind of what we hoped for, that people would be guessing and be nail-biting and going through the thrills of all twists and turns and seeing people root for different people, but also be emotionally connected to them. So I think it’s been really amazing to watch and follow.
What can you tease about the finale?
I think you can look forward to some surprising turns. I think you also can look forward to some emotional turns. What can I say? Well, I think it will be equally even more exciting than people expect.
The show was recently renewed for Season 2. I’ve heard that this first season is conclusive. But have you started thinking about Season 2 and how you might continue this story in a different direction?
Yeah, there’s different thoughts on that. And, well, I can’t really reveal that much, but I think it’s in the same scope, and I think people will enjoy the next season really well as well.
Presumed Innocent, Season 1 finale, July 24, Apple TV+
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