It started with a lie. Or at least, the kind of brazen public denial that practically dares you to investigate further. For novelist Laura Dave, watching Linda Lay—wife of Enron’s disgraced CEO—proclaim her husband’s innocence on live television didn’t trigger skepticism so much as obsession. “It sort of stuck with me,” Dave says, “like, okay… why is that hitting me?”
The result wasn’t a takedown of corporate corruption but something much trickier: a character-driven mystery that asks whether you can ever really know the people you love. “I only wanted to tell that story if I could make the woman at the center of it the hero of her own life,” Dave says, “not the victim of her circumstances.” That woman became Hannah, played by Jennifer Garner in the Apple TV+ adaptation of The Last Thing He Told Me, which Dave co-created with her husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post, First Man).
Of course, this is TV, so “hero of her own life” involves more than journaling and wine. When Hannah’s husband vanishes, she’s left piecing together his secrets while bonding with a stepdaughter who’d rather get a root canal than share feelings. It’s intimate. It’s shadowy. And, unexpectedly, it’s got a killer soundtrack.
“Springsteen singing ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ right at the beginning,” says Singer, “that was a true north for us from the very beginning.” The needle drops weren’t just vibe checks—they were literal storytelling tools. “There are several songs throughout the series like that,” Dave adds. “Josh and I would almost write to them and think about them on set every day.”
This is the kind of attention to detail that actors like Aisha Tyler appreciate—especially when they don’t have to argue over music cues. “They had such a great plan for this show that I had no input whatsoever,” Tyler says, laughing. “When I direct, I’m always running around trying to get my favorite bands into the series. But on this one, I got to lay back.”
Tyler, who plays Jules, Hannah’s no-nonsense best friend, doesn’t take that relaxation for granted. “It’s much more relaxing being in front of the camera,” she says, adding that directing has made her even more of a team player. “I always tell directors when I’m acting: ‘Listen, I’m just here to make your dreams come true.’ I’ll do it a million times until you’re happy, and then one more for good luck.”
Jules is the kind of ride-or-die who shows up in the middle of the night with zero patience for drama, which makes her a perfect foil for the show’s central tension: who the hell was Owen, really?
“I don’t know everything about Owen, but I know who he is at his core,” Tyler says, quoting Garner’s character. “We’re drawn to people because they feel like our soul matches—friends or lovers. We make a decision to love them regardless of who they’ve been or what they’ve done.”
That central theme—love in spite of ambiguity—is part of what elevates The Last Thing He Told Me from a beach-read adaptation to something with teeth. “We all know people in our lives we don’t really know,” Tyler points out. “Honestly, you can’t know everything about someone.”
That idea manifests not just in Hannah’s investigation but in the character of Bailey, the teenage stepdaughter whose icy relationship with Hannah thaws just in time to give the audience a reason to root for them. Bailey’s favorite artist is Emmylou Harris. “We wanted someone who would’ve been part of Hannah’s world view,” says Dave. “Emmylou Harris is just timeless.”
Singer, ever the composer nerd, relished the chance to build something tonal from the ground up. “We developed this theme with our composers that you hear in the first episode,” he says, “and it becomes our theme not just in the main titles, but it comes back a couple of different times over the course of the series. It winds up being pretty powerful.”
Tyler’s musical tastes, though a little heavier, still check out. She proudly admits that Kill ’Em All was her first album. “I love Metallica so, so, so much,” she says. Has she checked out 72 Seasons yet? “I gotta get it together,” she laughs. “I’m still listening to a James Blake album from like five years ago. Thank you for reminding me I need to go out and get the new stuff.”
So yes, love is unknowable, identity is fluid, and Bruce Springsteen might be the prophet of our time. But also? TV is still better with a little Metallica in the mix.
“Seriously,” Tyler says. “I met them at Comic-Con like eight years ago in the elevator. I think I squealed so loud that the last bit of hearing they had left was destroyed.”
Consider it a fair trade.
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
