'He plays the part with his soul': Hello Tomorrow! showrunners on Billy Crudup as Jack Billings (Exclusive)

Hello Tomorrow! is the latest offering from Apple TV+, a human story told through a retro-futuristic lens. Powered by the acting engine that is Billy Crudup (also the Executive Producer), who plays Jack Billings, the show is the tale of a group of traveling salesmen.

Intent on selling the idea of life on the moon and convincing customers to leave the worries of the world behind them, this is a captivating journey of family, deception, and escape.

Amit Bhalla and Lucas Ansen co-created the world of Hello Tomorrow!. It was immediately obvious how proud and invested they were in the show when SK POP sat down to chat with them. Speaking about Crudup and his acting, Bhalla said that the lead actor "plays his part with his soul."

They also spoke about their experience of building the world and working with a master like Billy Crudup. Extremely animated and passionate, the Hello Tomorrow! masterminds broke down what the legend (The Morning Show) brought to the series in this SK POP Exclusive.

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Hello Tomorrow! co-creator admitted that Lucas Jansen was weeping on set thanks to Crudup's performances

Lucas Jansen told us why Jack Billings, the flawed protagonist at the helm of Apple TV's Hello Tomorrow! fascinates him:

"Jack Billings is particularly fascinating to us because he’s this creature of this kind of indomitable hope. Such a dreamer. Such a dreamer that his dreams have the power to transform his reality and the reality of those around him."

Jansen added:

"That’s an incredible thing as a salesman. It can be inspiring. When you see Billy Crudup play him so masterfully you think, the charm, the charisma. I want everything he’s going to give me."

Yet, there is a caveat! Jansen outlined the complex creature that Jack Billings was and said:

"But the thing is, you know, a dreamer at that level; they can get lost in the very dreams that they’re selling and that leaves you open to all kinds of precarious circumstances."

He continued:

"The distance between that dream and the realities that lie beneath, that’s the story of Hello Tomorrow! And that’s the journey he goes on, over the seasons of the show."

Amit Bhalla added how Jansen would become emotional on the sets of Hello Tomorrow! set thanks to Crudup's performances. Bhalla said that Jansen wept on set every week and added:

"You could feel it. When he was shooting, the amount of attention and craft and lines that we’d edited a hundred times and said in our head a hundred times, and then he said it in some totally different way."

He noted that once Crudup said the same lines, the makers said to themselves, "Oh, that’s how it was supposed to be!"

Bhalla also said:

"It’s a deep collaboration. He plays the part with his soul. With his spirit."

To see his script go from page to screen in a manner he couldn't have hoped for was a thrill for Bhalla. He continued:

"And it’s the greatest gift you could ever ask as a writer. The show doesn’t exist without Billy as Jack. And there’s no Jack without Billy anymore. It’s totally his and it’s one of those occasions where people say – the right guy’s going to play the part."

Bhalla noted:

"Billy you know, we couldn’t have asked for anything more than him. It’s such a tremendous performance. And we were grateful every day for what he brought to the role. I mean he’s the best."

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While Crudup shines in Hello Tomorrow! with his portrayal of Billings and his many shades of gray, the science fiction elements of the show are just as fun. Think of it as a mixture of The Jetsons and Better Call Saul.

Catch the first three Hello Tomorrow! episodes on Friday, February 17, 2023. New episodes of the show air every Friday only on Apple TV+.