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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 It is always a reason to celebrate for a series creator when their production becomes a hit. Brad Ingelsby got to feel that joy with his Emmy-nominated \u201cMare of Easttown.\u201d The task then facing Ingelsby was what to do next as he had established a high bar.<\/p>\n
He looked to accomplish the task with \u201cTask.\u201d The HBO Original drama series\u00a0is now available on the premium service plus the streaming service of HBO Max. New episodes debut weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cTask\u201d is set in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia where world-weary FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) heads a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies. Those hits on houses where drugs are being sold are being led by family man Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey).<\/p>\n
Part of the creative process for Ingelsby was taken care of when he opted to film the series in the familiar location of Delaware County, PA (known as Delco), and focus again on law and order. The test was to find the right design for the main characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s always about characters for me. I think everything I\u2019ve written in my life has come from characters,\u201d Ingelsby says. \u201cI knew that probably we couldn\u2019t do a whodunit again. That was the genre of \u2018Mare.\u2019 When I came up with the characters for Tom and Robbie, I felt like OK, what\u2019s the engine that\u2019s going to join these guys, or what\u2019s the engine that will carry the audience through the story?<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like maybe the tension can be a collision course. And so, once I started to put those pieces together, I wanted to tell another story in Delco.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingelsby replaced the whodunit element with a\u00a0cat-and-mouse game between the FBI agent and the thief. That is just the primary thread as both characters are dealing with numerous levels of pressure especially when it comes to family.<\/p>\n
Making the characters complicated is how Ingelsby looks to get the audience to sympathise with all the characters even when they are at their worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s, hey, how do we scratch under the surface? And when we do scratch under surface, what\u2019s there? How do we make that honest and authentic? So, I think that\u2019s a goal that I try to achieve as a writer,\u201d Ingelsby says.<\/p>\n
The series creator knew the only way that would work is if he found the right cast. Along with Ruffalo and Pelphrey, the cast of \u201cTask\u201d includes Emilia Jones, Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Thuso Mbedu, Fabien Frankel, Alison Oliver, Ra\u00fal Castillo, Silvia Dionicio, Phoebe Fox, and Martha Plimpton.<\/p>\n
Pelphrey was blown away by the scripts, but he had to put his enthusiasm on hold when a strike delayed the start of production. He was excited when he finally got to bring to life the characters Ingelsby had created.<\/p>\n
He has heard Ingelsby give credit to the cast for making the project work, but he counters that the heart of the show is Ingelsby\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I watched it, I thought everybody\u2019s work was exceptional. And that happens when there\u2019s beautiful writing. That\u2019s the only time that every actor is elevated and that\u2019s what Brad provides,\u201d Pelphrey says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me that the actors are better in something that he wrote because he starts from character, so every single character has a strong why.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Jersey-born actor understands good writing having worked on such projects as \u201cOzark,\u201d \u201cIron Fist\u201d and \u201cOuter Range.\u201d The biggest challenge for him was to make sure his New Jersey accent didn\u2019t slip in when speaking as the Pennsylvania criminal.<\/p>\n
Emilia Jones had an even bigger accent hurdle as she was born in London. She found trying to get the accent right a tough task but also a lot of fun. Jones worked with a dialect coach, Susanne Sulby, who put her through lessons via Zoom for five months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I flew out to Philly two weeks before we started shooting and Susanne and I would go around to bars in Delaware County and just listen in to people talking and \u00a0befriend the locals,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI just have loads of videos, recordings on my phone of how people from Delco speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really fun though, because it\u2019s not just an accent, it\u2019s an energy that I noticed from when I was going around bars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both had accent struggles but there was no difficulty with the filming location. Both actors praise the attention to detail by the crew to houses that were located in Delaware County where they filmed.<\/p>\n
Jones loved the filming location because it felt so authentic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s always nice when you get to film where exactly the show or film is set and it really helped me with the accent and the energy and just being there,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n
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