The Apple TV+ series Before ended its run today, Dec. 20, 2024, with the back half of the supernatural thriller becoming increasingly intense. Billy Crystal gives a great dramatic performance as a widowed child psychiatrist who becomes dangerously obsessed with the strange case of a young foster child (Jacobi Jupe) and the many creepy coincidences and connections between them. In many ways, Before became a different show (and arguably a much better one) than many people expected after the first two episodes of the series. But as Crystal told MovieWeb, the whole series was almost completely different. “It really started as a whole different show,” said Crystal in our interview, explaining:

“It started out as a show called Death Bed, which was about a 100-year-old guy who was working with a gerontologist aid, and he gives him a list of people that he wants to see, and the people then come in and out of his life. And it would be these memories that he had, and it would be like 10 decades of his life, like a romance novel kind of thing.”

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“Then I got a book that was called Life Before Life, about kids who present with past life experiences,” continued Crystal. “And in the writing meeting, I said, ‘Well, wait a second, what if he’s not 100? What if he’s eight and he has these same experiences? And we went, ‘Now, we got something.'”
“Then my partner, Eric Roth, who is a great screenwriter, suggested Sarah Thorpe. He said she could write this. And Sarah came in, we told her the basic idea, which was this child psychiatrist, tortured himself, dealing with this troubled young kid. And she said, ‘Give me a couple of weeks. Let me think about it.’ And she came in, pitched this whole world of Dr. Eli Adler and young Noah Sawyer and where this could go, and the surreal nature of it.”

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Billy Crystal Wasn’t Going to Star in the Series Until…

Before the show was Before, Crystal had no intentions of actually starring in the series. But after hearing the pitch from Sarah Thorpe (2019’s Jacob’s Ladder), Crystal became convinced that he wanted to dive into the headspace of the main character, Eli. Crystal told us about his revelation while hearing Thorpe’s pitch:

In the middle of it, I said, ‘Well, hold on, I’ll do it. I want to do that.’ And I had not intended to play it until Sarah had this vision. And then that brings us to today, five years later, you know, the show is done. I’m thrilled with it, and excited to be part of this crazy world that Eli lives in.

So why did the very funny Crystal want to play the very troubled Eli? “Because it was such a full plate. There was his own trauma. There was guilt, there was regret, there was integrity, there was this pursuit of the truth. There was this detective quality in him, this ‘I’ll break every rule I have to, as long as I can get this kid home.’ You know, I love that about it,” the actor told us. And we love that about him. Before is streaming on Apple TV+ through the link below:
Watch Before

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A grieving child psychiatrist, Eli Adler, finds his life taking a supernatural turn when he encounters a young boy, Noah, with a mysterious connection to his own past. As Eli tries to help the boy, their bond deepens, unveiling dark memories and unsettling secrets that challenge reality and push psychological boundaries.

Release Date

October 24, 2024

Creator(s)

Sarah Thorp