In the new Apple TV+ series Suspicion, American businesswoman Katherine Newman's (Uma Thurman) son is kidnapped. As the authorities investigate the case, attention turns to five British citizens who were at the same hotel as Katherine's son the night he disappeared. The group looks to prove they're innocent as they deal with both the FBI and National Crime Agency hot on their heels. In the ensemble cast, veteran character actor Noah Emmerich plays Scott Anderson.
Screen Rant interviewed Emmerich to discuss the mystery surrounding Suspicion, his long list of iconic roles, and much more.
Screen Rant: I love a mystery unraveling like Suspicion. When you read the script for the first time, what question did you want answered most?
Noah Emmerich: I had so many questions. I just didn't know who to believe. I didn't know who was telling the truth. I thought everybody was guilty at different points. That's what really drew me into this. It was just a masterful juggling act of keeping me questioning everything that I was reading.
How much information are you given upfront? Do you know the whodunnit of it all?
Noah Emmerich: No, no, I had nothing. I got some scripts delivered and I didn't know anything. I had the same experience that you did. Just, instead of watching, I was reading, but it's the same experience, which is always the greatest barometer of the material, for me, is just my experience of reading it, and I was just completely hooked. I only got the first three and I was like, "Where's four? Or five? Six? Send them. I need them. I need to know what's happening." I wanted to binge-read it.
A lot of the characters in the show, they spend a lot of time getting questioned, especially at the beginning. What question would you say you get asked the most from fans when they see you at a convention or on the street? What's the number one role you get asked about?
Noah Emmerich: It changes over time, and it goes back and forth. For a long time, it was The Truman Show. Then for a long time, it was Miracle, this hockey movie. Then for a long time, it was The Americans. And then it goes back, something will play on the tube and then all of a sudden, I'll be asked a lot of questions about a movie that all of a sudden all these people saw, so there's not one real winner. The Truman Show, and The Americans, Beautiful Girls is one. Different demographics have different things that they like. I get asked about Beautiful Girls by college students all the time because they all watch it every Thanksgiving in college. I get asked about Miracle around the time of The Olympics, if people are watching Olympic sports movies. But I wouldn't say there's one particular that trumps all the others. But it's great, it's fun. I love the engagement with the audience.
The fun of the show is the secrecy, of course, of every role you've ever taken on, which one was the most shrouded in secrecy, where you really felt like you couldn't even talk to anyone about it?
Noah Emmerich: I think the secrecy around scripts in the story has grown over the course of my career. Now, I get scripts with all kinds of codes imprinted on them. So in case I leak it, they know it was mine. I've had to sign confidentiality agreements before I even read scripts. Sometimes they want you to do that. It's a crazy legalized world of paranoia. There was one job, which I didn't actually end up doing. But, they wouldn't send me the script. I live in New York, and they flew me to California to sit in an office and read a script, they wouldn't even let it leave off the sight. I flew across the country, sat in an office for three hours, read a script, and flew home. That was the most secretive experience I'd had and I ended up actually not doing the job for various reasons. That was interesting. I felt like I was really in the FBI, flying across the country to read the script.
Now this is a show I definitely want to binge through to get the answers. What are your current binges? Is there a show you watch recently that you could not wait to finish?
Noah Emmerich: Well, do you know Paw Patrol? That's mostly what I watch. I have a four-year-old son so we do mostly Paw Patrol and I can't say I'm inspired to binge it, but I do get through it.
Suspicion is now streaming on Apple TV+.