The Apple TV+ show is set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina after it struck New Orleans in 2005. Carlton Cuse (Lost) dramatized Sheri Fink’s nonfiction book, which followed staffers at Memorial Medical Center as they struggled to save lives in a hospital without power and amid rising floodwaters.
The first three episodes of the eight-part drama are available to watch on Apple TV+, with new episodes released on Fridays.
Ahead of the show’s premiere, Cuse and lead actors Vera Farmiga and Cherry Jones spoke to Newsweek about respecting the story and the residents of New Orleans, and why they shied away from CGI and special effects.
What Happened at Memorial Medical Center
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans. It killed up to 1,464 people in Louisiana and caused $70 billion worth of damage. Years later, as the city was still recovering from the mass devastation, details emerged about what occurred at Memorial Medical Center, where dozens of patients were found dead five days after the storm passed.
The story was first reported in The New York Times Magazine in 2009 and later expanded by Fink in her 2013 book. After several attempts to adapt it to the screen, John Ridley and Lost co-creator Cuse turned it into a miniseries for Apple TV+.
“It’s an incredible story,” Cuse told Newsweek. “We didn’t have to do too much [to adapt it to the screen]. The story itself is so gripping and powerful, and that’s why I was so desperate to turn it into a series.”
Since the show is based on a real disaster, Cuse said, the challenge was to make sure the events weren’t sensationalized for entertainment purposes.
“That’s one of the challenges you face as a filmmaker and as a storyteller. And I think that trying to approach the story with a high degree of fidelity and respect for the characters is the answer to that question,” he said.
He went on, “For us, it was also about not taking sides. I think that we try to present all sides of the story. And when we are with various characters, we’re advocating for those characters. I think sometimes stories like this veer to sensationalism when a filmmaker tries to impose a point of view on a story that is better served by letting the audience make up their own mind.”
Cherry Jones (The Handmaid’s Tale, 24) stars as Susan Mulderick, a staff member at Memorial thrust into an impossible position. She said the show raises important ethical questions that people are still trying to answer.
“I hope it will open a conversation to the country, not only about ethics but about climate change, the blatant racial and social injustice that we’re reminded of by this series,” she said. “I mean, anyone who watched the actual footage from that time, there was no question there was systemic racism happening. So it covers a lot of territory that is absolutely imperative that we keep revisiting, and television does it as well as any other medium.”
She added, “I think this series is a powerful way to do that for folks who don’t want to think about a lot of these issues.”
Jones said a friend found the trailer alone to be very impactful. She also described how an oncology nurse predicted that Five Days at Memorial will one day be shown to nursing classes dealing with questions of ethics, death and dying.
Preparing for Her Part
Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga (The Departed, Up in the Air) plays Dr. Anna Pou, who was arrested and charged in connection with her involvement in events at the hospital.
Farmiga told Newsweek that she did not have access to the Pou to prepare for Five Days at Memorial, so she instead relied on Fink’s book. She also made an effort to talk to people who knew Pou.
“If someone were playing me, I think there would be a lot of value she would get by talking to my family members, to my children,” Farmiga said. “If you want to know what a doctor was, talk to their patients, and I found that to be most helpful, a very full-bodied perspective on who the real-life model for my character was.”
She continued, “The most important part of interpretation was understanding how abysmal and how desperate those conditions were at the hospital. That was the priority for me in terms of understanding the character. That meant understanding the conditions that zapped her mental and emotional reserves.”
Cuse explained why the show’s creators didn’t speak to the people portrayed.
“We fully trusted Sherry Fink,” he said. “She is just the most brilliant and rigorous journalist I’ve ever met. And she spent six years working on this book, interviewed over 500 people. The book was so complete and so thorough and so well documented. Then, beyond that, she had other information she couldn’t fit into the book. So she was the source material for us.”
Farmiga shared what she learned about New Orleanians as a result of her research.
“As soon as you step foot in [New Orleans], you feel it. They are a joyful breed of human, they are resilient. That resilience comes from going through a disaster like this, through what was the most powerful storm ever recorded in the history of our country,” she said.
“When you walk into New Orleans, you almost feel like you’re in another country, another country that you’re so happy to be in,” Jones added. “People in New Orleans pride themselves as being basically their own country.”
Farmiga said, “Joy just comes from a culture of their food and their music. And it’s everywhere.”
Forgoing the Digital Effects
Starting with the first episode, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation is clear to see. It’s displayed in both re-creations and actual footage. Most of what we see on screen is the actors battling the elements, as opposed to digital additions done afterward.
“I think visual effects are awesome and they get you a long way, but I think there’s an authenticity to a scene when the actors are actually immersed in something that is like what actually happened,” Cuse said.
The first episode shows staff and patients rushing across a bridge between buildings as it sways and looks as if it’s about to collapse during the storm. The actors recalled how this wasn’t computer magic and was very real for them.
“This was a machine underneath the floor that was literally moving us, so there’s no special effects,” Farmiga said. “That was me really mad scrambling, trying to find my footing across a hall with pelting rain and wind coming through—in a very controlled environment, of course—with stunt people surrounding us and a stunt person in my arms.”
Jones likened her experience to the movie The Perfect Storm, which also subjected her to storm-like effects. While the actors in Five Days at Memorial found the experience testing, Jones said, she never felt she was in actual danger.
“I do want to say—and especially after the tragedy with the film out West [Rust]—that with John and Carlton, I remember John Ridley going and wiping up a tiny little drop of water that had dropped in a hallway because…I was going to have to run down that hallway. They’re such great gentlemen. We felt very safe,” she said.
Three episodes of Five Days at Memorial are available to watch on Apple TV+. New episodes will be released on Fridays.
