Exclusive Video Interview: Stars Billy Crudup & Nicholas Podany Talk Hello Tomorrow! Premiering Today

Hello Tomorrow!Today, Hello Tomorrow! Premieres on Apple TV Plus. The series takes place in a retro-future world and centers around a group of traveling salesmen, led by Jack Billings (Billy Crudup), selling lunar timeshares. An ambitious salesman, Jack’s faith in the future inspires his coworkers and excites his customers, but hope can be a very dangerous thing. 

Star Crudup was drawn to the unique world of the series. “There's something so authentic and rich about Amit [Bhalla] and Lucas [Jansen]'s writing and about their creation of a very original but very familiar world,” the actor told SciFi Vision. “…I couldn't help but be intoxicated by it. I wanted to see and understand and live in the world that they had created on the page, and I couldn't imagine that I would ever get an opportunity like this in my career. So, it was an easy one to jump into for me.”

Hello Tomorrow!“I remember reading these sides, and just I was so fascinated by what the take was going to be on this, because on the page, it was so enigmatic,” Nicholas Podany, who plays Crudup’s coworker Joey Shorter told the site. “It was very difficult to put your finger on what they were trying to go for. The further along I got in the audition process, and after reading opposite [Crudup], it became very clear that this was not about the sci-fi elements. The sci-fi elements were actually enhancing the human story that this project is based around.”

During the interview, the two also talked about the retro costumes, cars, and whether they would want to go to the moon. Watch the full interview or read the transcript below. The first three episodes of Hello Tomorrow! are now available to stream on Apple TV Plus.



***Edited for length and clarity***

SCIFI VISION:   
Can you start talking about what was it for the two of you that made you think you just had to take on these roles? 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
There's something so authentic and rich about Amit [Bhalla] and Lucas [Jansen]'s writing and about their creation of a very original but very familiar world, not to mention all the hijinks that happen inside of it and the glorious expression of these guys’ ups and downs. I couldn't help but be intoxicated by it. I wanted to see and understand and live in the world that they had created on the page, and I couldn't imagine that I would ever get an opportunity like this in my career. So, it was an easy one to jump into for me. 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
I mean, for me, I get auditions and put myself on tape and cross my fingers. But I remember reading these sides, and just I was so fascinated by what the take was going to be on this, because on the page, it was so enigmatic. It was very difficult to put your finger on what they were trying to go for. The further along I got in the audition process, and after reading opposite this guy, it became very clear that this was not about the sci-fi elements. The sci-fi elements were actually enhancing the human story that this project is based around, and so to do Death of a Salesman, but with hover cars, it's pretty cool. [It’s] not Death of a Salesman with hover cars, but it's kind of like that.

SCIFI VISION:   
I did want to ask you guys about the style. I mean, this, as much as it’s the future, it's almost like a 50s period piece in a way, just with the costumes and everything. How much did those costumes inform the choices that you made as actors for the characters? 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
Well, I didn't have pockets, so I couldn't do pocket acting. 

SCIFI VISION:   
[laughs] Is that good or bad? 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
I mean, like new shoe, you walk a little different. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
Definitely. 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
I ran the gamut of having normal 50s clothes, which felt different in my stock leather jacket, versus being pinned up in a suit, and a very wide lapels suit. You feel different; you walk different. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
I don't know who I am as a character until I put on the clothes. Then, you lock in with the costume designer. This [was] one of the wonderful and joyous things about this project, for me, that all of the creative team, the entire collaboration, had the same kind of interest and vigor in creating this authentic and original and novel world, that every time you'd go into a costume fitting, the details were so refined and so well thought through and so considered that it felt very familiar and also otherworldly at the same time. So, the costumes and the props and all of the various components that go into making a project like this, it became cohesive at a certain point. That's really where the character drops in, for me. You don't know who they are until you're in the world. The first day that we shot sitting in the car with him. It was  - I can't remember what kind of car.

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
It was a 1961 T-Bird. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
1961 T-Bird.

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
Old. It was so -

SCIFI VISION:   
Yeah, there're some nice cars. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
It felt like a 1961 T-Bird. 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
Did it? [laughs] 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
And and you go wait, I'm here in that kind of [car]. I haven't - I'm not that old. Okay pal. 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
[laughs] I wouldn’t know. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
Younger generation here. 

SCIFI VISION:   [laughs] You made me wonder…in the future if you had an opportunity, because I mean, there are people who are doing it, would you go to the moon, if you could? 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
I'm going to wait for it to become more affordable to people, I think, before I [do]. 

SCIFI VISION:   
Yeah that's kind of a big part of it. 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
Yeah, I'd love I'd love to go to space, but I also think we’ve got some work to do down here. 

BILLY CRUDUP:  
What do you mean? 

NICHOLAS PODANY:   
[laughs]

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