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Based on true events and adapted from the book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sherry Finkthe drama series Five days at Memorialby co-creators Carlton Cuse and John Ridley, provides insight into what happened at a local New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. After the horror of the storm came rising waters, power outages and oppressive heat, forcing those whose job it was to save lives to make unspeakable decisions.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Vera Farmiga (who plays Dr. Anna Poe, a head and neck cancer surgeon who finds herself riding out the hurricane at Memorial Hospital) and Cherry Jones (who plays Susan Mulderick, the director of nursing) talked about what made them want to tell this story, connecting with the personal perspective of it all, what it was like to work in the hospital for filming and the real horror – life, which the people in this story must have experienced. They also talked about what they look for in a project and joked about how they should do a reboot of The Golden Girls.
Collider: It feels like Hurricane Katrina has been far enough away and enough other hurricanes have happened that at this point you can almost forget the aftermath. When that happened, what impressed you the most? What made you want to be involved in telling this story?
CHERRY JONES: I wanted to be a part of it because it was really one of the big disasters that most of the country was watching from home. It should not be forgotten, and it is necessary now more than ever to remind people because it affects so many, so many of the problems we are facing right now. You can just point them either way, whether it’s racial inequality, economic inequality, or healthcare workers not being valued as they should be. Of course, the big elephant in the room is climate change. Stories like this feel like a sacred trust to retell because we learn from them, hopefully.
Vera, when you tackle a story like this, which is such a big story, does her personal point of view become the most interesting to you?
VERA FARMIGA: Yes, in the end it’s the personal point of view, because I accept the character. I have to fight for her. I have to defend her and I have to present her case to the grand jury or the public and say, “Look what it’s like to be in her shoes.” It’s a huge responsibility. I see the character as a female characteristic. This was an extraordinary woman, going through extraordinary circumstances, facing extraordinary challenges, and having to make impossible decisions under extraordinary duress and exhaustion. All I focused on was doing her justice. I can’t even imagine what she went through. I can’t I tried my best but I don’t even pretend to understand it. That was what was wanted of me. I just have so much respect for these doctors and nurses. To me, the script read like a magnificent tribute to the doctors and nurses and our healthcare workers, what they go through, and their incredible strength, compassion, kindness and resilience for what it takes to take care of people.
I was so aware of Hurricane Katrina when it happened because I always wanted to go to New Orleans. I had my first trip planned right around that time and ended up having to cancel it because of what happened. When I finally got there, I was really emotional because you could see how resilient the city and the people are after all these terrible things that happened. As a result of all this, I thought it was an interesting way to approach the story to take a really personal point of view with it and allow the audience to connect emotionally with the characters instead of trying to think how they should was for all this to happen.
JONES: I just want to add that New Orleans lost almost half its population after Katrina. The people who stayed in New Orleans were the ones who absolutely refused to be anywhere but New Orleans. This is who you should meet.
I also thought it was really interesting how with the first five episodes each is a day of the five days and the remaining episodes are the investigation. What was it like to spend so much time in the hospital or on sets for the hospital?
JONES: I never leave the hospital except for this very intense scene. What was so remarkable was watching the hospital as it was destroyed. Hour after hour watching the degradation of the interior of this hospital was such a clear metaphor for the human bodies of everyone in this hospital. Whether you were terminally ill, or had just had your appendix out, or were a superb and resilient young assistant, bodies degraded and their minds degraded. In 110 heat, so many days and with that kind of stress, it was not knowing when you would ever get out and the claustrophobia of having to break windows. All that came in through the windows was the foul smell of the floods and another wave of extreme heat. Because of the art direction, we didn’t have to spend a lot of energy trying to imagine it. This was given to us visually. It was remarkable.
FARMIGA: For me, it was almost, in a sense, two different stories. I couldn’t wait to leave the suffering of the hospital only to move on to another part of the suffering. My character goes from a compassionate hero who cares for me to an accused murderer. In a way, it was just a pendulum swing from one harrowing aspect to the next.
JONES: What a way to put it.
Cheri, one of the things that struck me about your character is that as soon as this storm hits, she decides to start looking at the manual when you think she should already know these things.
JONES: The thing is, she did. She knew this job inside out. The hero had been there for 30 years and was on the emergency committee that wrote the manual. They had a plan for everything. But it never occurred to him to look, because when hurricanes hit, water comes in and then comes out. It never occurred to them that they would have to evacuate 2,000 people in 10 feet of water. It just never occurred to anyone. You could argue since New Orleans is an aquarium and has a levee and a lake above it that maybe that should have been considered, but for some reason it wasn’t. I can’t imagine the horror they felt. I also think they probably didn’t imagine that if it flooded they would have to evacuate because there were pumps and the water would recede. I understand why it wasn’t in the manual. I understand why it wasn’t, but boy, it must have been just jarring to realize that it wasn’t.
Vera, your character is hard to guess. On the one hand, it seems like she could be the perfect person in an emergency because she’s so calm. But on the other hand, it can also be interpreted as cold and unemotional.
FARMIGA: She’s a surgeon. She is an excellent surgeon. She is at the top of her game. She is a head and neck cancer surgeon. She should be calm. She needs to keep her cool. She needs to keep her focus. She doesn’t tend to get emotional. What would that be? It is she, by virtue of the fact that she does. Yet she was faced with such unimaginable circumstances. Feeling the emotion of disappointment and the shock of knowing that no one is coming to save you, and the disgust of that. She’s completely blown away that she doesn’t have a game plan. Dementia of exhaustion and lack of sleep, we know what that is. Last night I didn’t sleep and cried before I had to come to do 50 interviews in a row. We know how lack of sleep affects endurance, perseverance and dedication, but she still managed. Until the very end, she was the last woman standing there, or one of the last people standing there. She carried enormous responsibility and impossible decisions for the people who would be left behind, who she could not move alone, in this mandatory evacuation, and doing everything in her power to ensure that they did not suffer.
I am such a fan of the work you both do. You’ve both worked in all kinds of genres and played such a wide variety of characters. Is there a genre that each of you feels you failed to do?
JONES: For me, I like things that have social value. Life is short and there are great projects that lead to problems at home that we should all be aware of. Ideally, if you’re asking me what I prefer, I’d do it until the cows come home. But if I could be really funny and be included The Golden Girlsi would do it.
FARMIGA: I would do that with you, Cheri. I want to be on The Golden Girls.
I would definitely watch this reboot too. Vera, you did real life stories like Five days at Memorial and When they see usyou’ve done superhero projects like Hawkeye, and you played Norma Bates. What next?
FARMIGA: I never know what’s going to hit me. Sometimes I feel like they choose me. I don’t have to choose them. I think it has magnetism. There are a lot of stories that don’t seem like they’re worth my time or the time away from my family. It usually has to pack a punch in some way or challenge me in some way. I know immediately. I know within 10 pages. My husband knows within 10 pages. I’m going to start reading it to him. I’m going to start reading it out loud. My husband can tell, even before I do, because he just knows what to expect from me.
Five days at Memorial is available to stream on Apple TV+.
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