Apple's Home Before Dark cast talk about season two and what to expect

In the Apple TV+ Original, American actress Brooklynn Prince – who’s been acting since she was two years old, and also starred in the 2017 film The Florida Project – plays Hilde.

After moving to the small lakeside town her father (Jim Sturgess) left behind, and unearthing a cold case, the young girl becomes a talented investigative journalist.

READ MORE: Kevin Bacon talks about the return of City On A Hill to Sky Atlantic

Inspired by the real-life reporter Hilde Lysiak – who became famous after scooping seasoned professional journalists on a local murder case at the age of nine – the show is now returning for a second series, which is set a year after the events of season one.

It sees Hilde refusing to let go of the mystery of Richie Fife’s disappearance – but, while there are intense scenes, Prince had plenty of fun in between takes, revealing that she and Sturgess “sing and dance our hearts out”.

“Brooklynn, you’re giving all our secrets away; we’re supposed to be pretending we’re really intense, thorough actors!” quips her on-screen dad, when I speak to the duo over Zoom.

“But we’re not, we’re goofballs!” cries Prince, before Sturgess, who was born in London, reveals he’s also been “teaching her Cockney rhyming slang”.

The pair seem to have a really lovely bond. Asked if she has had any good advice from 43-year-old Sturgess – star of films such as One Day, 21 and Cloud Atlas – about acting and the future, Prince says: “Jim, he’s so good at being there for you, during an emotional scene, a happy scene – being in the moment with you.

“And even when the camera’s not on him and you can barely even see him, he’s all in it for you. The advice he’s given me is not with words, it’s with actions, which is the best type of advice.”

READ MORE: River City star Iain Robertson on turning 40 and growing up in Govan

The showrunner is American Dana Fox, who has previously worked as a producer on TV show New Girl, and has written rom-coms like How To Be Single and What Happens In Vegas.

She recognises the importance of making sure the Home Before Dark set is “emotionally safe”, considering how young Prince is.

“I take it on as a very deep and important responsibility, to make sure that all of the kids that are on the show have a good experience because I’m a mother of three young children,” she elaborates.

“This is their actual childhood, and it’s more important to me that they have a good experience in these formative years that they’re having on the show, and hopefully, it sets them on a really great path for the rest of their lives.”

She adds that Prince’s parents are “extraordinary”; her mother actually ended up being the acting coach for all the kids on the second series of Home Before Dark.

“I would meet with her mother and she would sort of say, ‘This word is going to sound odd coming out of Brooklynn’s mouth – I would change it’.”

“I never want her to cry unless she feels it as a person,” she continues, discussing Prince’s process. “She has very deep and profound feelings about who Hilde is as a character, and she met the real Hilde and feels really beholden to her.

“She would always come with all of her lines memorised, totally researched, figuring out how she wants to perform the moment on the day. And then the emotions that you see in the show – those are Brooklyn’s real emotions. She’s an incredibly empathetic person, and she feels very deeply.

“And also, she’s literally the nicest person on the planet and I love her like she’s part of my family. I hope to work with her forever and ever on this show and beyond.”

In the second series, we see how a mysterious explosion hits a local farm, leading to Hilde following a trail of strange animal deaths and toxic chemicals. This takes her to the most powerful figures in Erie Harbour.

But it becomes clear that the suspects in her investigation may have put her family – and the entire community – in grave danger, and so Hilde must fight the biggest corporation in town to save the people she loves most.

What inspired Fox to write this particular storyline for the new episodes?

“Season one was so emotional, because Hilde, on some level, felt like she was trying to heal her father, and help him get through his pain from his own childhood. And I was really struggling; ‘How do we figure out how to tell a story that is as emotional as that, and primal as that feeling actually is?’ And where we landed, I think was really great.

“It just involves the fact that Hilde, her search for truth is always about trying to make the world a better place for the people around her and the people she loves.”

As much as Prince is undoubtedly the star of the show, it can’t be ignored how great Sturgess is in this too.

The amiable actor recently made the news for being one of 800 people to sign an open letter to the film and TV industry.

The idea was to target abuse in the entertainment business, following an investigation by the Guardian detailing sexual harassment allegations against actor, writer and film-maker Noel Clarke, which he denies.

Sturgess says he is hopeful that the culture is changing – in all industries, not just entertainment.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to behave in ways that are unacceptable,” he muses. “Very quickly, people are realising that people are now going to speak out and talk about it, and that there’s back-up and that there’s support, and I really hope that it does change a lot.

“It’s always baby steps and you’re always making moves forward. But it feels like those moves are happening and they’re in place, and it’s amazing how, when people come out and they speak out, that people are behind them and that they feel supported.”

– Home Before Dark- Season 2 premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Friday June 11