On April 15 arrives on Apple TV + Roar , the anthological series for women based on the collection of short stories by Cecelia Ahern (author of #ScrivimiAncora and PS I Love You ).
Defined as a series of darkly comic feminist fairy tales, Roar chronicles the lives of ordinary women in rather extraordinary circumstances, spanning genres ranging from magical realism to psychological horror.
In Roar , women eat photographs, date ducks, live on shelves as if they were trophies, yet their struggles are universal.
The trailer
The series was developed by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch , creators of the Netflix series GLOW . Flahive herself participated in an online conference that also saw the participation of part of the cast, specifically Alison Brie (protagonist of the episode The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder ), Cynthia Erivo ( The Woman Who Found Bite Marks on Her Skin ), Merritt Wever ( The Woman Who Was Fed By A Duck ) and Fivel Stewart ( The Girl Who Loved Horses ).
About this project and how it came about, Liz Flahivehe said:
After Glow, many projects came to us, centered on women in the 80s or women who for the first time in history were doing something specific. They were all valid concepts but we were looking for something different. Then the producer Bruna Papandrea sent us Cecelia Ahern ‘s book . We read these short stories and had the same reaction, which is not obvious because we are very different. The ideas behind each story were so compelling and challenging, for us as writers but also for the other writers involved. It contained these different, fabulous, surreal elements. All this prompted us to make the series.
For the first time, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch have adapted the pages of a book for the small screen:
It is the first time that we have adapted an existing material. We sent the book to the writers and asked them to tell us what their favorite stories were. It was great to see their response. Some stories have been reproduced in a very faithful way, for others we have decided to keep the main theme, adapting and changing everything for the television format.
From the (very particular) love story …
This is the case, for example, with the episode starring Merritt Wever . The already surreal story of a woman who receives the help and advice of a duck to face a particularly difficult day has become a real love story in Roar . As stated by the actress:
After Nurse Jackie I was looking forward to working with Liz Flahive again. I liked the idea of stepping into a fantastic dimension and doing my job to make it as real and honest as possible.
What attracted me was the idea of representing such a complex relationship with an animal. How could I have made this credible?
Incredibly, working on set with a real duck turned out to be easier than expected. Also thanks to Justin Kir k, voice of the animal in question, who always remained on the set during filming:
I thought working with a duck would be the hardest part, but it was a real dream. Justin Kirk was there on set all the time.
As for Alison Brie , her story was specially made up for the series. A tribute to crime titles such as True Detective which tells the story of the ghost of a brutally murdered woman, determined to solve her murder. As stated by the actress:
I would follow Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch to the end of the world. I really admire their dedication to telling stories about being a woman that can be interesting for everyone.
I love detective stories but I had never considered the victim’s point of view. My character is very funny, she tries to solve her murder of her but at the same time she also tries to understand who she was as a person. Usually in works of this kind the victims are angels who have never done anything wrong or mysterious madmen involved in things that no one knew. In this case the victim is just a normal person.
To the western
Each episode of Roar is different from the other and deals with a different genre. They range from the love story to the crime, also passing through the western. This is the case of the episode starring Fivel Stewart , who couldn’t wait to try his hand at the genre:
I grew up loving horseback riding but had not yet been able to explore this skill of mine in the world of acting. When they sent me the script I was so excited to be able to do it. In addition, I had always dreamed of taking part in a production with a historical setting.
It was also a privilege for Cynthia Erivo to take part in this project:
I love that this series manages to render what is usually a metaphor into a concrete thing. This highlights how absurd certain situations women face every day are. I absolutely wanted to take part in all of this, to make people see these things in a different way.
Furthermore, I had never been given the opportunity to play such an eccentric, funny, but at the same time very concrete character. Also being able to play a character with my real accent, which I rarely do.
Roar will be available with all eight episodes from April 15, exclusively on Apple TV +. The cast includes Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Issa Rae, Merritt Wever, Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Meera Syal, Fivel Stewart and Kara Hayward .
In addition to starring in one of the episodes, Nicole Kidman is executive producing alongside Per Saari and their Emmy-winning Blossom Films. Emmy-winning producer Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Allie Goss are executive producers on behalf of Made Up Stories. Creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch are executive producers and co-showrunners. Author Cecelia Ahern is executive producer through Greenlight Go. And Theresa Park on behalf of her Pro Capita Productions.