Apple TV+ has expanded its catalog by adapting a more contemporary Stephen King title, Lisey’s Story, as written by King and directed by Pablo Larraín. Following the titular Lisey Landon (Julianne Moore) after the death of her husband, famous author Scott Landon (Clive Owen), this psychological horror series focuses on Scott’s unpublished works, the impact he had on readers and the mystery he leaves behind for Lisey, who’s still dealing with her grief.
Along with that, there are plenty of people itching to get their hands on Scott’s manuscripts, including Dane DeHaan’s Jim Dooley and Ron Cephas Jones’ Professor Dashiel, with both having drastically different approaches to how they handle Lisey. In an interview with CBR, Jones discussed how he approached his character’s dynamic with Lisey, what stood out to him about Dashiel and the show as a whole.
CBR: I wanted to talk to you about your dynamic with Julianne Moore. You’re introduced as an antagonistic force. What was the most fun thing about exploring that dynamic for you?
Ron Cephas Jones: I guess that’s two-fold. Working with Julianne Moore, number one, she’s very personable and open and beautiful, and, you know, the character is one thing, and then having her… To be able to meet her on a personal basis and very open and warm, and what I’m trying to find is easy. She helps you make it easy to work with her, not very standoffish or anything like that.
Now once inside, then it becomes about challenging as a craftsman and an artist and knowing that you’re working with the cream of the crop, right? That’s what every actor wants, to be able to meet that challenge, so that was the beautiful part about working in that dynamic. Now with the character, then it becomes the excitement of knowing that you have Stephen King’s words that are specifically coming directly from him. It’s his interpretation of his words, and so that was the other challenge, but also the excitement and the dynamic of being in that particular project, specifically as you asked working with Julianne Moore, who is, you know, the best of the best.
When it comes to your character, what about him stood out to you, especially when there are so many other Stephen King characters out there?
I guess the ambiguity of him. You know, you think antagonistic, and at the same time you find him to be in the beginning hopefully honorable, but I think he’s driven by this power thing of that dangling of the gold that he gets hypnotized by, and he’s driven by trying to grab on to this material that he feels will enrich his life and enrich his status. So there’s this power struggle that goes on within himself, but then there’s a force that comes into it that he thinks is going to help him with that, but that force becomes very dangerous and somewhat evil in that way. So there’s that ambiguity of this character that’s just wonderfully written, and it’s one of the big challenges that every actor, I know for myself, that’s the kind of character you want to get a hold to.
What do you hope people take away from Lisey’s Story?
Wow, there’s a lot of things you could take away from this story, right? I think what I like about it is the human, unconscious, dreamlike ideas that we all have in our daily life when we miss someone and how we deal with loss, whether it be fearfully or we go toward it and embrace it, or how we go through the process of loss, I think. I hope that’s one of the things that is going to attract people from it, and they’ll take away from it. I think it’ll be very much a dynamic that people are going to identify with right away, you know, loss and how we deal with loss in an unconscious and dreamlike state, which sometimes can be scary and other times, you know, depending on the individual.
Written by Stephen King and directed by Pablo Larraín, Lisey’s Story stars Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joan Allen, Dane DeHaan, Ron Cephas Jones and Sung Kang. The first two episodes arrive on Apple TV+ on Friday, June 4, with additional episodes streaming each Friday thereafter.
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