Apple TV’s City on Fire wants you to remember 2003, whether you like it or not. A year when you couldn’t just drop a pin or ghost someone without actually moving away. Jemima Kirke and Ashley Zukerman, who star in the soapy whodunit, are here to remind us that yes, the early aughts are now a “period piece”—and no, they didn’t exactly miss MapQuest.
“You know, I didn’t really think about it as a period piece,” Zukerman says, apparently unaware that anything before TikTok counts as ancient history. “That’s just when I figured out who I was.” The era of The Strokes and Libertines might now have the sepia glow of nostalgia, but for him? “It still feels like a bit of a cultural black hole.”
Kirke, always the pragmatist, wasn’t spending much time pining for the days of iPod Classics either. “It really wasn’t on my mind much when I was playing this character,” she shrugs, though she admits to a soft spot for the Libertines name-drop. “I do remember those times really well… I am Sam’s character at heart, that’s really who I should have played.”
Set against post-9/11 New York with fires breaking out and a murder mystery unfurling, City on Fire doesn’t exactly paint anyone in a flattering light. “Nobody’s in a good spot exactly,” as Kirke puts it, and that’s putting it mildly. Affairs, addiction, daddy issues—it’s basically a Buzzfeed list of emotional triggers. Zukerman’s Keith, for one, is the kind of guy who makes you root for chaos just to watch him squirm.
But apparently playing someone immediately unlikable is all part of the fun. “Those are always the nicer characters to play,” Zukerman says, with the enthusiasm of someone who enjoys poking at open wounds. “You have to find a connection where it’s not obvious. I look for the parts in me that match, even the shameful parts.”
Kirke, on the other hand, had to summon her inner ice queen for Regan, a character she admits is nothing like her. “I’m a much more understanding person,” she insists. “I had to ask myself all the time, why is she being like this?” But as the series goes on, even she starts rooting for her philandering husband. “When there’s mercy at your feet…” she muses, letting that hang in the air like a particularly poetic Instagram caption.
And then there’s that line. “I was that girl and I strangled her so we could have this,” which might just go down as one of the most disturbingly perfect moments of the series. “I asked to be in my underwear for that scene,” Kirke reveals casually. Apparently, wardrobe adjustments are all in a day’s work when you’re trying to sell existential despair.
If you’re hoping for some deeper exploration of the affair, don’t hold your breath. “This wasn’t Scenes from a Marriage,” Kirke laughs. “We didn’t have time for that.” What they did have time for was packing in enough drama to fuel at least one more season, which both actors seem more than ready for. “Hopefully we get to delve into that,” Zukerman says, still half-lost in the character’s moral swamp.
So, if you’ve ever wanted to revisit a time when everyone dressed like they were in The Strokes and made life-ruining decisions without the help of social media, City on Fire is your ticket. Just don’t expect the characters—or the actors—to make it easy on you.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
