The Big Picture

The cast of Presumed Innocent had no idea of the outcome while filming, keeping the suspense alive.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ruth Negga lead this intriguing and broody legal thriller.
Working without knowing the ending was a treat for the actors, embracing the spontaneity of the moment.

The cast of Apple TV+’s new scandalous legal thriller, Presumed Innocent, had no idea what the outcome of their show would be while filming. Creator Richard E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) kept the scripts close to his chest throughout production, allowing cast members like Nana Mensah (The Chair) and O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) the freedom to play in the moment. This, its powerhouse leads Jake Gyllenhaal (Road House), Peter Sarsgaard (The Batman), and Ruth Negga (Good Grief), and its “delightful and broody” tones make this yet another Apple series to add to your must-watch list.

Presumed Innocent is based on Scott Turow’s 1987 novel, which was later adapted into the Sydney Pollack film starring Harrison Ford. The series, according to our own Emma Kiely, “updates the story for a modern audience,” weaving an intricate web of lies and suspicions when lawyer Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) is murdered, and chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal) becomes the number one suspect after his illicit affair with the victim comes to light.

In the show, Mensah and Fagbenle play colleagues and opponents of Rusty’s, respectively. In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, the duo talks about working alongside Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard, why the latter is such an “extraordinary” scene partner, and how they handled developing their characters without knowing the story’s ending. They discuss memorable scenes, working with Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon director Greg Yaitanes, and tons more.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

Presumed Innocent (2024) It tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime.Cast Jake Gyllenhaal , Tate Birchmore , Kingston Rumi Southwick , Roberta Bassin Main Genre Drama Seasons 1

COLLIDER: I like throwing some fun questions in at the beginning of every interview, and I like researching the people I’m going to speak with. Do you both feel like you post too much on Instagram?

NANA MENSAH: [Laughs] That’s so crazy because I actually just did an Instagram detox and redownloaded it on my phone yesterday. So, the answer for me is no.

O-T FAGBENLE: Yeah, actually, I haven’t posted in over a year.

I noticed this information. That’s the reason why I was making fun of you guys.

FAGBENLE: Oh, right. [Laughs] It was ironic.

MENSAH: My B!

FAGBENLE: So, we need to step up.

MENSAH: Yeah, we gotta step up our game. Sorry, Steve. We’re in!

Not at all, because I have this conversation with actors about how much you want to share of yourself on social media and how much you sort of want to avoid it. How much are you both thinking about that as how much you want to put out there?

MENSAH: We both have families, and we’re both kind of somewhat private. I think the vibe is like, if it’s about work I want to share my work with people. I’m proud of it, and I want to invite people into that. But I think personal, personal, we’ll save that for close friends or just offline.

FAGBENLE: It’s tough, though, because on the other hand, the representation matters, and getting to see families in real life has its use. So I guess there’s always just a balance of kind of figuring out what fundamentally do you want to achieve through this social media thing, and what do you want to keep?

Besides this project, if someone has never seen anything you’ve done before, what is the first thing you’d like them to watch and why?

FAGBENLE: I’d say Maxxx, which you can find on Hulu. I wrote and directed that, and so I’d want them to see that because there are lots of people I love who are in it, but also it’s a riot.

MENSAH: I, unfortunately, have to follow suit and say Queen of Glory [on Starz], which is the film that I wrote, directed, and starred in, just because it was a labor of love and nearly killed me, and I want people to watch it.

Donald Trump Made Audiences Hungry for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Image via Hulu

I’m curious about The Handmaid’s Tale and when you realized it was going to be something special that really resonated.

FAGBENLE: We had a screening of it, and I remember watching and thinking, “This is really good,” but honestly, I thought, “This is too dark. I don’t think enough people are gonna [watch it]. There’ll be a cult following.” But I think when “The Donald” got elected and everything, there was a huge cohort that resonated with lots of the storylines that were going on. So, it wasn’t until it came out that I was like, “Oh no, no. People have an appetite for this darkness.”

The ‘Presumed Innocent’ Cast Had No Idea What Was Coming Next

I spoke to Jake [Gyllenhaal] and Peter [Sarsgaard], and something that they alluded to, and I didn’t realize is, did you guys have the scripts for the future episodes or were you filming and getting scripts as you went and learning what was going to be happening?

MENSAH: What did they say? [Laughs]

I’ve interviewed both of them a bunch and the way they made it sound to me was they did not know what was coming in the next episode.

MENSAH: We did not know what was coming in the next episode. We both signed on to the project with two scripts written and then after that, it was dealer’s choice.

FAGBENLE: A drip feed.

First of all, that is crazy, amazing, and unusual. As actors, what is that like? You could really only play the scene with what’s on the page. You really don’t know where it’s going.

MENSAH: That’s it, and that is always a treat. There’s a treat to that of just being able to be in the moment and not have to forecast what’s coming. You can only work with what you know.

FAGBENLE: Right. But I would just like to recommend any filmmakers out there, just give me all of it. You can give her piecemeal. You could just give me the whole thing because I can’t take the stress of not knowing.

MENSAH: It was a little stressful.

I can’t imagine.

Peter Sarsgaard Keeps His Costars on Their Toes on Set

When you think back on the shooting schedule, was there a scene or sequence that you just loved filming, something that really stood out for you? Was there something that really was memorable about the filming?

FAGBENLE: For me, every scene with Peter was just so memorable for me because he’s extraordinary. He’s one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with. You’ll read the scene, and you’ll think, “Okay, this is what’s going on in the scene. He’s doing this, and I’m doing that,” and you’ve got that in your head. You go in, and then he’ll just do something completely different, and you’re like, “Whoa, whoa. Okay. Alright. Catch up!” It’s really exciting and thrilling to work with someone who’s so creative.

MENSAH: He’s so creative. For me, it’s a small scene, actually, and I don’t even know how much dialogue there is, but there’s a scene where Jake and I are going to a prison for the first time. I’ve never, as a person, been in a prison before, and so all of the life around getting into a prison was happening — this was the first episode — while we are having a conversation. Because our characters go to prisons all the time, we don’t even bat an eyelash, and so having to talk to him, give my ID, there’s a dog sniffing for drugs and bombs around me, all this stuff was happening, and we just have to stay the course and be in this conversation, that was fun. That was a good day.

Image via Apple TV+

Before filming something like this where you really need to know your characters, and, as you said, everything needs to just be second-hand, how much is the preparation process for a role like this different from a previous role? Is there anything unique that you’re doing for something like this?

MENSAH: No, I don’t think, because I think, ultimately, everything that you or any audience member wants to see are people’s stakes in a relationship. So, ultimately, what you have to be investigating is the relationship. The other stuff you can sort out on the day, or leading up to, like how I unholstered my gun. That stuff is fine. We’ll get into that. But what needs to be crystal, crystal clear is what this other person means to me and, therefore, what the stakes are. So, I think it’s the same across the board for me. I don’t know about you.

FAGBENLE: I found it interesting understanding the relationship because I don’t think we, in England, have DAs in the same way they do in the States. The top prosecutor isn’t an elected person, that I know of. So it was interesting learning about how that happens, and one of the conflicts of interest when a person who’s prosecuting the law is also subject to being elected.

The series is eight episodes. Do you have a favorite episode of the eight and why?

MENSAH: I love the first episode because I think it’s just such an awesome pilot, as a writer. I was reading it, and I was just like, “Bow down. Bow down, David E. Kelly, Sharr White, Miki Johnson.” It is just so propulsive. You’re setting everything up, and you think you understand what it’s going to be and then slowly it gets chipped away at. It’s brilliant. I think it’s really, really strong.

FAGBENLE: Yeah. Don’t make me choose my children. I like all of the episodes. It’s so annoying because, just like you say, you get to the end of every episode, and you’re like, “Yeah, okay. I get what’s going on now,” and then there’s a U-turn, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?” It’s really exciting, so I don’t know. I couldn’t pick, but I’m gonna say Episode 8.

I really can’t wait to see it.

‘Presumed Innocent’ and ‘House of the Dragon’ Share This in Common
Image via Apple TV+

I love learning about the behind-the-scenes of the making of shows and movies, things you don’t read on Wikipedia or the press notes. Is there anything that you think might surprise soon-to-be fans of the series to learn about the making of the series?

FAGBENLE: We had two really dynamic directors who come from very different traditions, and I was so curious to see how it would feel, the arc of the show, given those two authorial voices, and it works so well. One’s come from doing Game of Thrones and big TV, and the other one has come from…

MENSAH: Indie Scandinavian cinema.

FAGBENLE: Yeah, indie Scandinavian cinema. So, that was really fascinating to watch.

MENSAH: I think that’s it. That’s exactly it. That was so wild to watch. I did a deep dive on Anne [Sewitsky’s] work before was cast, and I was just like, “What is she going to do with David E. Kelly’s words? How is this going to take shape?” And it was delightful. It was so broody, and that Scandinavian-ness just jumped out. I thought it was really good.

Presumed Innocent streams on Apple TV+ with subsequent episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Watch on Apple TV