Long Bright River star Amanda Seyfried joins author Liz Moore on FringeArts panel

Moore’s novel follows Mickey, a young mom and Philadelphia police officer patrolling modern-day Kensington. As children, she and her younger sister Kacey lost their mom to an overdose, and now, Kacey struggles with her own addiction. As Mickey begins to suspect that a series of murders in the neighborhood may be connected to her sister’s recent disappearance, she also discovers dark threads within the police department.

The series stars Amanda Seyfried as Mickey (she’s also an executive producer) and Ashleigh Cummings as her sister. They joined the Saturday, March 7, event along with series co-composer James Poyser of The Roots, actor Nicholas Pinnock (in the role of Truman Dawes), Philly rapper OT the Real (who appears in the series), and John Doman (of The Wire fame), who plays Mickey and Kacey’s grandfather.

Authentic and humanizing

The evening’s first panel highlighted the show’s community engagement, with Seyfried moderating a panel with Poyser, Laurel, OT the Real, and faith-based Kensington community service providers Father Michael Duffy (who also appears onscreen) and Johanna Berrigan.

While the majority of Long Bright River was not filmed in Philly, the cast and creators touted strong connections with consulting organizations like Savage Sisters and New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), Philly police officers who hosted cast members for ride-alongs, Philly graffiti artists who decorated the sets, and Philly actors like Jen Childs, who featured prominently in a clip screened at the event. As Moore noted later in the evening, people from Philly “will immediately call out things that are inauthentic.”

“This project means more to me than anything ever has,” said Seyfried, an Allentown native who described her own teenage escapades in Philly. Laurel of Savage Sisters praised the show’s “female-forward energy” and said the creators “care about us, about elevating our voices.”

Father Duffy, a New Hampshire native who has helmed Kensington’s St. Francis Inn since 1987, explained why he likes Philly: “There’s no pretense, no putting on airs.” During filming, he described being herded to lunch with a gaggle of actors costumed as sex workers: “I was praying that the bishop didn’t drive by.”

“You can’t be a punk in this city,” Poyser said. “You develop a certain resilience.” To inspire the show’s musical landscape, he said he recorded the sounds of Kensington on this phone.

Berrigan, of the Catholic Worker Free Clinic, thanked Moore for her sensitivity and depth as a novelist, “telling a story that humanizes people.”

“I have never been more moved by a community”

During the cast and creator panel, moderated by WHYY radio host Cherri Gregg, Doman described his childhood in Fishtown in the 1950s, full of tight-knit intergenerational families: “It was really a great place to grow up.” He explained a change from page to screen that allowed the show to include some Mummers lore.

Pinnock, a British actor, said he wasn’t fazed when visa issues prevented his traveling to Philly for research along with the other stars: “A lot of it was right there for you,” he said of the script. Most media offer “a shallow view of the unhoused and people struggling with addiction,” he added. Doman said he hopes that viewers of the series “get a better and open-hearted understanding of what’s going on in the community.”

Seyfried, who shouted out Philly police officers in the audience whom she met during her research for the role, said that it’s always been her dream to play a cop because that kind of role was never offered to her. “I’m in awe because they’re the good kind,” she said of the Philly cops she rode along with. That one day “flowed through me the entire time” she was filming.

Cummings said she volunteered with Savage Sisters as part of her acting process and that homelessness and substance abuse are personal to her own family story. “I have never been more moved by a community,” she said of the harm-reduction and recovery services nonprofit. “Your whole humanity is allowed to be there.”

As an Australian actor, Cummings enjoyed her time in Philly and is still trying to figure out lingo like jawn: “I don’t get it, but it could be anything.”

Long Bright River gives back

“My eyes are open,” Seyfried said of her work on the series. “What a perspective shift that I needed in my life at this point.”

At the event’s close, panelists announced that Long Bright River, in collaboration with NKCDC, is making a donation to Kensington’s Webster Elementary School (covering new uniforms, a new freezer, and a new washer and dryer), as well as funding a new Savage Sisters recovery home for three months.

All eight episodes of Long Bright River, a limited drama series, will stream on Peacock beginning Thursday, March 13, 2025.