Vera Farmiga and Cherry Jones star in Five Days at Memorial as real-life figures Doctor Anna Pou and Susan Mulderick. Created by Carlton Cuse and John Ridley, the show is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink's reporting and subsequent book about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at the titular hospital. Much of the reporting focused on the fact that 45 patients were found dead at the hospital after it was evacuated, with Fink interviewing 140 people to investigate what happened.
In addition to Farmiga and Jones, Five Days at Memorial also stars Adepero Oduye, Cornelius Smith Jr., Julie Ann Emery, and Michael Gaston.
Screen Rant sat down with Jones and Farmiga to discuss Five Days at Memorial, including what it was like on the massive set, the real-life figures behind their characters, and how the show still resonates today.
Screen Rant: Vera, how do you prepare to play the role of a real-life figure? Did you try to reach out to Dr. Pou or did you kind of just stick with the script? How did that work for you?
Vera Farmiga: I stuck with the script and Sheri Fink's book that we dramatized. I have yet to meet Anna. I hope I do one day, but I think Sheri did all the work for me in a sense. There's a reason she's a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, and it's clear in her book that she just mines for those details. You want to know what a person is like, ask their parents, ask their children, ask their best friends, ask their patients, ask their worst enemies. And those details were all in the book.
For me, I think most important in my interpretation, honestly, was - above all, what was integral - was to just understand how dire and abysmal the circumstances of the conditions in the hospital were. The sort of sheer exhaustion, frustration, or disgust with knowing that nobody is showing up. To tap into her innate character as a surgeon, as a most excellent surgeon, who is focused and cool-headed, and detail-oriented. [The] roll up your sleeves, get the job done mentality. To portray all those. To also portray her great faith.
I think this is a woman who relied on her faith and her relationship with god to get her through it and that was a really interesting aspect to play. It's very rare to actually focus, yes on the physical, mental, emotional exhaustion, but also spiritually. Her relationship with god was a whole other facet that I found really interesting to explore. And to exhibit her in all that weakness but also in her strength, because she's killer strong. And she was one of the last doctors and women standing. And that left her with a tremendous responsibility to ensure that the patients that were going to be left behind did not suffer pain.
You're familiar with playing real-life figures with The Conjuring and things like that. Do you find it more difficult than playing a fictional character?
Vera Farmiga: I do, because I feel the pressure of it. And for example, with Lorraine Warren, I had Lorraine. I befriended Lorraine. Lorraine was a part of that project. Lorraine was a producer on that project and that's not the case, for example, with Anna. So yeah, there is an enormous pressure.
Look, I feel that mother lode on my back. There's an obligation to capture that person's spirit and her essence and I feel like I had a lot of the information that I needed, especially in the interviews and the 60 Minutes interview, and the radio interviews. Lots of on camera appearances that I had, to receive who she was as a 45-year-old woman.
Cherry, I've always found your screen presence commanding but comforting. Susan Mulderick is a tough role to tackle in the same vein as Dr. Pou. You're in the thick of it on this hospital set, can you talk about what this experience was like for you filming Five Days?
Cherry Jones: Well, you do look at something this extraordinary [and] that set felt like a sacred place because it is about actual events, and it is about the most horrendous conditions. And I too, did not meet Susan Mulderick. We are doing the dramatization of Sheri's book. And I wanted to, as Vera said, try to get to the essence of this woman. We have great imaginations as actors, but you can never truly get close to what these people dealt with any time there's a trauma or catastrophe unless you are in it, and it is happening to you. There's no way anyone can ever imagine how horrible that was.
So, we really did our homework to try to get as close as we could. Carlton Cuse and John Ridley, our screenwriters and directors, were just superb in trying to help us before each shot, remind[ing] us of where we were in terms of the heat exhaustion and the lack of sleep and the despair, or the determination. Whatever that scene was, we took a moment. It wasn't like action, everything got quiet and we got to that place as close as we could [with] tremendous respect for who we were trying to portray [and] attempting to breathe life into genetically.
What's so interesting about Five Days is there are direct parallels to be drawn in certain things in terms of infrastructure, government response to the pandemic, and things like that. Cherry, you've been very passionate about social causes, and very outspoken about those things. Were these things on your mind while you guys were making this?
Cherry Jones: I think it was on everyone's mind because it does. It covers almost every issue that smacking us straight in the face right now. Climate change, of course, being the top of the list, and the fact that it's up to the people, not the elected officials, it's up to the people to elect officials, and then make them honor their pledges. Because we have got to preserve this earth. Because kids are not going to be able to eat or breathe in another 40 years. At all. And I think we're just starting to get it.
Look, we know television now has a greater reach than most works of fine journalism. And so anything that we can do as artists to bring these issues home to people, and I do think this series is going to go a long way. And then, of course, the ethical questions at the end, which also will create debates amongst good friends. It's so personal, so it hits people both on the larger issues and deeply personal issues.
Five Days at Memorial Synopsis
Based on actual events and adapted from the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheri Fink, “Five Days at Memorial” chronicles the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital. When the floodwaters rose, power failed and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come.
Check out our other interview with Five Days at Memorial EP Carlton Cuse.
The first three episodes of Five Days at Memorial premiere August 12 on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes every Friday.