{"id":19373,"date":"2022-07-28T15:32:15","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T13:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1687620"},"modified":"2022-07-28T16:00:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T14:00:14","slug":"william-jackson-harper-is-doing-his-best-to-avoid-spoiling-the-resort","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/william-jackson-harper-is-doing-his-best-to-avoid-spoiling-the-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"William Jackson Harper is doing his best to avoid spoiling The Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 28 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Devised by Andy Siara, the writer of acclaimed time-loop movie Palm Springs<\/a>, new eight-part series The Resort is much more than your standard mystery drama.<\/p>\n

The show sees a married couple \u2013 Noah, played by William Jackson Harper, and Emma, played by Cristin Milioti \u2013 arrive at a holiday resort in the Mayan Riviera, with their relationship woes taking a backseat after they uncover a missing persons case from 15 years before.<\/p>\n

From there, the series twists and turns \u2013 not just in terms of its plot, but by playing with a number of different genres and tones. To say any more would be straying into spoiler territory \u2013 and speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, William Jackson Harper knows it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tap-dancing \u2013 I\u2019ve got on, like, ballet slippers right now,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of tough. But what\u2019s fun for me is getting to be like a big sibling that has a secret and just won\u2019t tell their little sibling anything. It\u2019s kind of fun to do that. Because there\u2019s literally nothing I can say, so I can\u2019t get in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he signed up to play Noah in the series, Harper says showrunner Siara laid out \u201cthe bullet points of how things were going to unfold\u201d \u2013 nevertheless, he found himself taken on an unexpected journey with each new script, an experience he hopes the audience will share.<\/p>

\u201cIt was just so weird from the get-go. Like, that first script, there\u2019s something slightly askew about the storytelling and the way the characters present themselves \u2013 you feel like something\u2019s up, you just don\u2019t know what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, when things start to get really twisty. I felt like I was being led around by the front of the shirt. It kind of puts you in a headspace right off the bat and then when the twists and turns come, you just keep getting surprised by these weird little pieces of things that seemingly don\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen eventually, some of them start to fall into place over the course of the eight episodes. And it\u2019s satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution to the series is, he says, \u201cnot what [he] expected at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that [events] unfold in the script and the way they unfold in the final rendering is not remotely close to what I was imagining. So I had an idea, but what they actually pulled off\u2026 it feels different and has a little more weight than what I initially thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

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William Jackson Harper in The Resort<\/span><\/figcaption> 2022 Peacock TV LLC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The Resort\u2019s offbeat stylings won\u2019t come as a total surprise to anyone who\u2019s seen Palm Springs, which also starred Cristin Milioti, and Harper says that film \u201cabsolutely\u201d played a big part in attracting him to Siara\u2019s new project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Cristin a while \u2013 we actually did a play together back in 2017 \u2013 but I loved Palm Springs, I thought it was just such an interesting take on the time loop story. It felt grounded and a little heartbreaking and it was incredibly funny. So [joining The Resort] was kind of a no-brainer in that regard. And then getting to work with Cristin again is just icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vibe personally is very, very warm. We\u2019re both a couple of chuckleheads, we get a real kick out of each other. But in the script, there\u2019s tension, the characters are in a rut, so rather than trying to get into a space where we\u2019re upset with each other, we just sort of let the script do the work and keep the part where we just love each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep the love while doing this other stuff and you can find a really interesting balance when you\u2019re playing some of these scenes where they\u2019re at each other\u2019s throats a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Milioti\u2019s character Emma who first stumbles across the case of two young American tourists who went missing in the area and encourages Harper\u2019s more reluctant Noah to engage with an amateur investigation. \u201cHe\u2019s a little bit more complacent and she\u2019s a little more active, which I think runs as a thread throughout their entire relationship,\u201d Harper says. \u201cThat\u2019s a big source of tension.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys that feels like he\u2019s reached his allotment of happiness. And, you know, to ask for anything more is Greek to him. He\u2019s accepted that this is probably just what happens in relationships after a certain amount of time, while Emma is a little more front-footed in acknowledging her dissatisfaction with the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n