Original-Cin Q&A: Emmy winner R.J. Cutler talks about the heart-touching doc series Dear... on AppleTV+
AppleTV+ has a new docuseries targeting your heartstrings.
Dear…. Is a 10-episode series executive produced by Emmy Award and Peabody Award winner R.J. Cutler inspired by Apple's groundbreaking "Dear Apple" spots.
Dear… takes an inventive and cinematic approach to biographies of the most iconic figures in society today, using letters written by people whose lives have been changed through their work.
The series sketches biographies of a variety of people: activist/primatologist Jane Goodall, director/producer Spike Lee, Sesame Street’s Big Bird, Stevie Wonder, ballerina Misty Copeland, Oprah Winfrey, composer/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, activist Gloria Steinem, Olympic gymnast Aly Reisman, and actress Yara Shahidi.
Cutler and his team combine brief biographical highlights of the inspirations along with letters written to the luminaries which are read by letter writers.
Lin-Manuel Mirando is one of the influencers whose response to a fan’s letter changed a life in Dear…
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with R.J. Cutler about the series that begins streaming on June 5th.
ORIGINAL-CIN: This series is so emotional. I defy anyone not to tear up watching it. We’ve seen the “Dear Apple” TV spots, so how did those spots evolve into this series?
R.J. CUTLER: “My friends who run Apple TV shared those ads with me kind of early on in their life and asked if I thought there was a television series that might be inspired by them.
“At first I thought it was a funny question, because of course those ads, while being beautiful, feature people whose lives have been impacted by this technology and who were moved to write letters about it. But they were ads for a watch.”
OC: There had to be way more to it, there’s no way anyone would want to watch a 30 minute episode about that.
CUTLER: “Exactly. I was determined to figure out what the connection was between that and a television series that's 10 times as long as each episode and tells stories about human beings.
“When I left the meeting, I really wasn't sure. But as I thought about it, I thought, ‘What if, rather than the technology, we find people whose work has inspired us. And what if we focus on the letter writers, whose lives have been changed by that work?’”
R.J. Cutler
OC: There are some pretty high-profile and inspiring people featured in the series. Was there anyone you really wanted to include but weren't able to get?
CUTLER: ”The prototype episode in my mind (because he hasn't yet agreed to do it, but I hope he will) was an episode about the impact that Bruce Springsteen's The Rising had on all of us who were finding it hard to cope in the wake of September 11th. With the impact of that event, and with the loss associated with it, he brought so much comfort at that time with his music and words.”
OC: The people featured in the series must all get thousands of letters a day. How hard was it to go through all of them and choose who you wanted to focus on in the show?
CUTLER: “I work with a remarkable group of artists, storytellers and filmmakers who do this work. We do this work all day long and our researchers and producers are the best in the world. We were just very blessed. But you know, you say they receive thousands of letters a day, and it's true. But that doesn't limit the impact of each one. It made our job truly difficult to choose.”
OC: When you were growing up did you ever write a letter to somebody who had a real impact on you?
CUTLER: “I wrote many letters to members of the New York Mets, because I was a young baseball fan. I didn't necessarily write letters to those whose work had inspired me, but I did reach out to them. And honestly, perhaps the most life-changing outreach I did was when I had an idea to make my first film, which was The War Room (about Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign) in 1992.
OC: I remember that film well. I covered the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
CUTLER: “That was an amazing premiere, I can recount every second of it!
“I reached out to D. A. Pennebaker, whose film, Dont Look Back about Bob Dylan had been a life-changing film for me. It was a movie that I watched and thought, ‘That's what I'd like to do.’
“I was a young theater director and saw that film, and thought, ‘I bet there's a way for me to do that.’ So I reached out to D.A Pennebaker and his wife and filmmaking partner Chris Hegedus. They not only became my mentors, but they became the directors of The War Room, which I produced. It genuinely changed my life.”
Dear… Executive produced by R.J. Cutler. Stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey. Debuts Friday, June 5 on AppleTV+.