A new Harlan Coben thriller, titled I Will Find You, recently landed on Netflix and is already the most popular show on the streaming site. The story is centred around one man, David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), who starts the series in the fifth year of his life sentence for killing his son, Matthew (Ashton Cressman).
But like every Coben story, the series is filled with mysterious twists. They begin when David’s sister-in-law, journalist Rachel Mills (Britt Lower), becomes the first visitor he’s ever had, after she gets her hands on a photo that seems to be evidence that David’s son is alive.
While there have been several adaptations of Coben’s work, particularly on Netflix, this was the first time the author wrote the novel as the series was being developed. But as Coben highlighted, the scripts and the book were kept “completely separate.”
“A novel has to be a novel, and a TV series has to be a TV series. It’s a real mistake if you write one for the other,” Coben told Yahoo Canada. “But it made for … a really interesting dynamic, and maybe it kept us on our toes a little more than normal.”
“He challenged us. He just said, ‘OK, here’s the book, here’s where we’re going, bring something new. Let’s figure out different ways to look at these characters. Let’s explore little storylines that I wasn’t able to explore fully in the book, and just go for it,'” series creator Robby Hull added. “And he just gave his blessing to… try new things.”
A more ‘dynamic’ lead character
But both Coben and Hull stressed that Sam Worthington’s performance, in particular, really brought this story to life. And one aspect of Worthington’s portrayal of David that’s particularly interesting is the innocence and vulnerability that he has when he’s broken out of prison.
“In this case, the sum was greater than the parts,” Coben said. “I love what Sam did with it. I just love the idea that Sam didn’t insist on being the hero. … He was often the one being led. … There’s a scene in Times Square, for example, where you see he’s terrified, and he’s like holding on to [Rachel], … holding on to her arm. And I love those kinds of moments.”
“And then Sam is an actor with the generosity and vulnerability to be able to pull that off, and so we’re with him. I think we’re with him this whole journey, and I hope that’s satisfying for people.”
As Worthington described, he likes playing characters who have “a hard muscle and a soft muscle.”
“Everybody has an armour, and we just don’t understand what they’re protecting. It’s pretty clear in this one that this guy’s armour is cracked, and so what you’re seeing is the raw nerve beneath that,” Worthington said. “If you’re locked away for five years, how do you react to the world?”
“They’re all kind of cool things to explore that take it away from being just a heroic journey or an action man journey, that’s what I’ve always tried to fight against. That doesn’t interest me. What interests me is playing a damsel in distress and having Rachel be the character that can pull him away from all the bad decisions he makes and rescue him. … I think by doing that, you get a lead character that is a bit more dynamic and then has a bit more exciting interaction with the other lead character. … And then that leads to a uniqueness in maybe a genre that we’ve seen before.”
Britt Lower: ‘I have such a respect for the career and art form of journalism’
The character holding the series together, and also the connective tissue in the mystery of Matthew’s disappearance, is Britt Lower’s Rachel. And behind every action she makes in this thriller, she has a lingering thought about her last assignment as a reporter, an investigation into sexual assault at a college, and the devastating way it impacted a woman she spoke to for her story.
“I have such a respect for the career and art form of journalism, and there’s a shared DNA with acting and journalism that you’re really trying to find the humanity in the other person and the humanity in the story,” Lower said. “And Rachel believes in this profession so deeply, and it’s been taken away from her, and she’s had to grapple with the ethics of journalism, and really she still has that fire to tell stories.”
“So when we meet her, she’s at this point where it’s evidence, it looks like evidence to her that her nephew might be alive, and she has to follow that instinct, and it’s really what drives her through the whole series. And yet, in the back of her mind she’s always saying, ‘Is this helpful? Is this harmful? And how can I do what’s right?’ And the fact that she did lose everything has given her this spine and this moral compass of, alright, let’s do what we need to do to find Matthew, but let’s do it in the right way.”
Sam Worthington: ‘I love bigger themes of sacrifice’
There is one moment that viewers of the series are waiting for in the story, when David is reunited with his own father, played by Hugh Thompson, who we find out early in the series has been diagnosed with cancer.
“That’s a very difficult one, because you’ve got guns to people’s heads, and a father giving up his life for his son’s life. So the authenticity is very thin anyway, in that point,” Worthington said. “But … I love bigger themes of sacrifice and things like that, because you can tap into the resource of what true love is, and where your souls connect.”
“It’s a very theatrical scene, and it’s the first time he’s seen his dad in five years, and it’s just pulled into this very theatrical moment where essentially it’s about what a father does do for his son, and David would do the same for his own. Sam would do the same for his own son. So once you tap into that realism in that, then the scene can hopefully ping.”
But that’s a scene Worthington shared he wished they “pushed it even further,” leaning into the high stakes moment.
“I’m sure we did takes where we pushed it even more, it might have been a bit inappropriate for the type of genre that we’re in,” he said.
“Although, the whole thing is about these connections between families and fathers and sons, and, and what we’re willing to do for each other. I think that’s where Harlan’s work really resonates. It’s they’re always about ordinary families in extraordinary situations. … We can see ourselves in them, and then they’re larger than life, so they’re entertaining.”
Logan Browning and Chi McBride: The best father-daughter duo
But constantly following David’s trail are father-daughter agents Sarah Greer (Logan Browning) and Max Williams (Chi McBride), and the banter between them is a highlight of the series.
“Chi is just a beacon of light. He’s just an angel with wings, and it’s so easy. It’s easy to have fun with Chi. It’s easy to work with Chi,” Browning said.
“The very first time I saw … Logan, and I’m like, let me enter into this actress’s world with a warm greeting, and I say, ‘Well, if it ain’t my daughter. … Here’s what this one says. She looks at me like this, ‘I’m not calling you dad,'” McBride added. “Cut to less than a week later. This is what she’s saying to me, ‘What did you eat? … There’s a really good restaurant down the street. Do you want me to get you something?’ … True story.”
From the most chilling scenes to more lighthearted moments, its popularity on Netflix proves this exploration of family relationships is landing with audiences.