Sienna Miller, Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker and Kit Harington are among the international cast of Apple TV+’s ambitious limited series, which asks what happens to humanity in the near future, when global warming upends every aspect of our lives, including the way we love and grieve.
This story is part of The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Sustainability Issue.
When Sienna Miller arrived on the set of Extrapolations for the first day of filming in October 2021, a Native American shaman came to bless the grounds. There were no printed signs directing her where to go, or stacks of paper scripts available for producers to scribble their notes in the margins. Instead, there were clothing racks filled with thrifted and vintage garments sustainably sourced by the costume department, water stations for refilling nonplastic bottles, compostable plates and utensils, and plant-based craft services. It was the greenest set the actress says she’s ever been on.
“It was really environmentally conscious, and that was a treat,” says Miller. “I’ve been on sets with bamboo stools, but nothing to the degree that this was.”
That difference was intentional on the part of Scott Z. Burns, writer, director and creator of the new Apple TV+ series, and executive producers Dorothy Fortenberry and Media Res’ Michael Ellenberg.
“Dorothy and I, along with Media Res and Apple, felt that if we were going to make this show, we needed to try and make it in the way that the subject matter required of us,” says Burns.
All filming took place throughout New York City’s five boroughs, drastically reducing the project’s carbon footprint. But the greatest success of the production, which employed the help of Green Spark Group, a consulting firm that trains filmmakers on how to reduce their environmental impact during production, was simply demonstrating what’s possible when it comes to how we engage with the Earth and with each another.
Which is precisely the point of Extrapolations. Rather than fixate on hypotheticals about what the planet might be like if humans continue on our current path or depict a distant, apocalyptic-like universe, the eight-episode drama drops viewers in near-future societies around the world where its characters’ entire relationship to one another revolves around the climate issues many believe we still have the luxury to ignore. And that, in and of itself, is terrifying, says Yara Shahidi, another member of the star-studded cast.
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