Five Days at Memorial: Interviews with the cast and co-writer Carlton Cuse

Five Days at Memorial, written by John Ridley and Carlton Cuse, offers an emotionally and morally complex depiction of the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina on one under-prepared New Orleans medical centre. Following hospital staff over the course of the storm’s five days, the Apple TV+ miniseries’ first five episodes traverse the brutal and fast-deteriorating conditions they faced during the crisis, landing increasingly impossible ethical decisions at the feet of caregivers. Its remaining three episodes chronicle the legal fallout from the hospital’s handling of the crisis, lending a political angle to a story whose first act develops its character-driven jeopardy with a taut tension, resulting in a whole that is dramatically engaging, philosophical and politically prescient

Anticipating the release of Five Days at Memorial, The Upcoming had the pleasure of speaking to cast members Julie Ann Emery, Robert Pine and Adepero Oduye, as well as co-writer Carlton Cuse.

Emery spoke to us about her character, and how her physical and emotional interpretation of Diane Robichaux developed. She also discussed the theme of corporatised healthcare, which is woven into the narrative, and her hope that the series will spark a conversation on its reality for the quality of service provided.

Pine, who plays the hospital’s longest-serving doctor, Dr Horace Balz, discussed playing a character whose steadfast moral code clashes with the show’s ambiguous morality, and whether portraying a real character in a story with such tangible ramifications affected his preparation for the role.

Speaking to us about her character, Karen Wynn, who, as the head of the hospital’s ethics committee, encapsulates the practical difficulties of making ethically driven decisions in the midst of a crisis, Oduye revealed the significance of Matthew Davies’s meticulous reconstruction of the hospital as it appeared in 2005 in embedding her into the character’s environment and state of mind.

As well as speaking to members of the cast, we had the opportunity to get the thoughts of co-writer Cuse on the prescience of the story to a world emerging from a pandemic that has similarly exposed deep cracks in healthcare systems across the world, as well as how he initially became attached to the project.

Matthew McMillan

Five Days at Memorial is released on Apple TV+ on 12^th August 2022. Read our review of Five Days at Memorial here.

Watch the trailer for Five Days at Memorial here: