From UAE to Hollywood: Actress Georgia Flood’s journey to stardom with ‘Apples Never Fall’

Australian actress Georgia Flood, who stars in the glossy dark family drama ‘Apples Never Fall,’ premiering on OSN+ this Friday, greets you with the warmest of Arabic salutations: ‘As-salamu Alaykum,’ and proudly declares that she grew up partly in the UAE.

She believes she was bitten by the acting bug during her childhood in Al Ain and those formative years helped her go down the right path.

“I always knew I wanted to be an actor. When I was seven years old, the only channel we had was the Disney Channel, and watching all those child stars while living in the desert made me go: ‘I want to be an actress’,” said Flood in an interview with Gulf News ahead of her series premiere.

Like most self-respecting actor hopefuls, she signed up with an advertising agency in Dubai and began modeling. A few plum gigs enhanced the appeal towards acting.

“Do you guys still have the Shopping Festival there? So I became the face of the [Dubai] Shopping Festival when I was around nine years old, and I just loved being on the set … I took it seriously when I moved back to Australia, and here I am,” said Flood with the largest of grins.

Based on Liane Moriarty’s New York Times bestselling novel, “Apples Never Fall” (who also wrote "Big Little Lies") revolves around the seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family from Florida. Former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to embark on what should be the golden years of their lives. As they anticipate spending quality time with their four adult children (Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles), the dynamics shift dramatically when a wounded young woman, Savannah, portrayed by Flood, unexpectedly appears on Joy and Stan’s doorstep. The stranger injects a newfound excitement into their lives. However, when Joy mysteriously disappears, her children are compelled to reassess their parents’ ostensibly flawless marriage, leading to the unearthing of some family’s darkest secrets. This is a seven-episode series and deals with seemingly perfect, but mostly damaged folks.

“You should watch this show because it has got Annette Benning in it. So that’s enough. Period,” said Flood with a laugh.

“And then you also have Sam Neill, Alison Brie, Jake Lacey, newcomers Conor Merrigan-Turner, and me. It’s like a masterclass in acting, and I was fortunate enough to experience it. The show is really entertaining, intriguing, and compelling. It has got family drama and family trauma … While it is not a murder mystery, it has that vibe that you get in true crime vibes that people love these days,” said Flood.

The dysfunctional family show delves into the complexities of love, long-term marriage, and the struggle to retain your own identity in a family with a deft hand.

“Nothing is ever as it seems, especially with family dynamics. Remember this Tolstoy quote of how every happy family is the same and every unhappy family is different in its own way or something. It’s a great quote, but I didn’t say it right probably,” said Flood. The actual quote went: ‘Happy Families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’

She claims playing Savannah, a young woman who arrives on the wealthy Floridian couple’s doorstep for help, as her career’s toughest role.

“It’s a character that I have never played before. It’s challenging and rich. It was also just an opportunity to play someone who’s interesting and complex. I also got to work with a gamut of emotions and human experiences while playing Savannah … There’s so much going on with her. At first, I had to choose a few things about her and hone it in, and that was the biggest ask and challenge,” said Flood.

In a separate interview with Gulf News, showrunner, writer, and executive producer Melanie Marnich, known for ‘The Affair’ and ‘The OA’, claims her latest limited series will make for a compelling watch.

“Each episode of ‘Apples Never Fall’ will focus on a character. The first episode will be about the Delaney couple and then their children. Each episode takes us deeper into the darker family secrets … progressive revelations that sort of blast through the bedrock as we keep going … With decades of interactions, the secrets, the mysteries, and the wounds that have shaped each of these characters will emerge. And once their secrets come out, the joy is missing.” But unlike the current trend of going dark and violent, she says she was careful not to overdo the murky aspects. She believes that the viewers would end up loving the characters because she has kept it real and relatable.

“When we go dark, it’s not dark for dark’s sake. It’s dark for truth’s sake,” said Marnich.