The Resort: Creator Andy Siara and Cast Discuss the Genre-Bending Series

Peacock describes their new series The Resort as a “multi-generational, coming-of-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery.” Series creator Andy Siara’s description is more succinct. “It’s a very weird show,” joked Siara during roundtables interviews at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con.

The Resort follows Emma (Cristin Milioti) and Noah (William Jackson Harper), a married couple celebrating their 10th anniversary with a vacation in the Mayan Riviera. However, rather than relaxing at the pool, sipping exotic drinks and enjoying the sites, they get caught up in trying to solve a 15-year-old missing persons case.

Seeds of the storyline were planted in a film script nearly a decade ago.

“About eight years ago or so I wrote a movie about a kid who goes on a vacation to a resort and over the course of a week he strikes up this unlikely friendship with this older couple that’s there on their 20th anniversary. It’s kind of this like really light, indie comedy-drama thing that’s not very good. It didn’t work and I put it away, didn’t show anybody. But there was something about the core idea of it that I was attracted to, this couple that’s trying to almost like recapture a feeling of their youth through another person,” explained writer, showrunner, and executive producer Siara.

“I kept on going back to it every year, taking it apart and rebuilding it. It kept not working and I couldn’t figure out why until I was older. Seven or eight years passed, and I then realized I was not only looking at the script through this nostalgic lens but also myself at the time through this nostalgic lens and seeing things so much differently in my 30s than I could have even seen them in my 20s.

So, I decided maybe that’s obviously the core of the show. I took those factions and split them off over time. You have that couple as Emma and Noah and they’re in the present day trying to figure out what happened to these missing kids in the past, but also in that there’s a mystery baked into that – trying to figure out what happened to themselves to get to this point in their marriage and in their lives.

And then from that point on it was just like my life changed drastically over that time, too. I got married, had two kids…the world changed drastically over that time, too. All of that was filtered into the show in a way,” said Siara.

The series reunites Andy Siara with his Palm Springs star Cristin Milioti.

“I first told Cristin about this when we were filming Palm Springs and I was hopeful that someday someone would let me make this ridiculous show and I would call her up. And, so, I did. And I think it’s because she has – and what Will has as well – they’re both able to so successfully ride this line between silly and sincere. Like, that tonal line. In the same scene you can go from laughing about the goofiest thing to wanting to cry. And both of them have that incredible talent to do that,” explained Siara.

“The entire show lives and dies from being able to go from silly to sincere and if they don’t have that then the show falls apart. Luckily, they have it,” he added.

High school teacher Emma seems to need something to re-ignite the fire in her marriage, and the possibility of delving into an unsolved mystery is just the spark she’s searching for to light the flame. “I think she’s at a real crossroads in her life and is trying to – whether she’d admit it or not or be conscious of it or not – trying to figure what went wrong,” explains Milioti.

William Jackson Harper’s Noah has a different view of their marriage. “I think that Noah is relatively content and probably just not interrogating certain things because I think he’s probably hit a place where he feels he’s reached his allotted amount of happiness. Anything beyond that is just probably asking a bit too much,” offered Harper.

Keeping this as spoiler-free as possible, Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) and Nina Bloomgarden (Hot Pink) are key players in the storyline that takes place 15 years ago.

Bloomgarden made the trek to San Diego for Comic-Con and explained why she felt drawn to The Resort.

“Right off the bat just like the brains behind it – Andy Siara with Palm Springs, Ben Sinclair with High Maintenance, and then even like Sam Esmail producing it with Mr. Robot. Like, those separately would excite me but altogether it was [mind-blowing]. So, definitely that and then the scripts were unlike anything I’ve ever read. The pilot…you’re expecting another resort TV show and then it suddenly twists and takes you into a completely different direction that I think people will be very surprised about,” said Bloomgarden.

Bloomgarden describes her character, Violet, as very spontaneous, full of life, but also grieving the loss of her mother.

“She’s very complex and I think that was really exciting to step into. I also recently lost my own father, so Violet coming into my life now was perfect. Andy wrote her really fully. We had long discussions on set about my grieving process and Violet’s grieving process, and where we kind of differ and where we come together,” said Bloomgarden. “I just gained a lot of empathy for her.”

Siara calls the show weird (in a good way) and Bloomgarden shared her own one-word description. “It’s so bizarre! I think there’s so many little quirks within it that are so funny and that our incredible cast has taken and improvised with. They just ran with [it]. I think people are going to laugh so much. They’re going to cry. It’s just so full and it feels like life. It feels like real life.”

The Resort’s talented ensemble also includes Luis Gerardo Méndez as Baltasar Frias.

“Baltasar is the head of security of this resort, and he has all the secrets and all the information of what happened in this resort in the golden days when everything was perfect. And then this horrible thing happens, and a hurricane destroys everything, and he is the bridge between those moments and the present where the characters played by Cristin and Will are trying to solve these mysteries. So, he becomes like an ally for them.”

Méndez jumped at the opportunity to work with Andy Siara, saying yes before he ever read a script.

“I saw Palm Springs on my couch in the middle of the pandemic with four friends after a really strong party. I never laughed so hard in my life. I was like, ‘That’s a really interesting, smart comedy.’ I haven’t seen something like that in years. And a year after that Andy sent me a letter offering me the role for this TV show and I was like, ‘Of course. I mean, yes!’ And I didn’t even read the scripts at that moment. I was like, ‘Yes, I’m in,” revealed Méndez.

He added: “And then I got the scripts and I was screaming to the pages all the time because I think the unique thing about The Resort is that it’s always changing. The show is always turning into something new and different.”

Gabriela Cartol plays Luna, an employee at the resort where Emma and Noah are vacationing.

“Luna is one of a kind. She’s reckless. She is the most fun person I’ve met. She holds information. I always think about her like she holds the key to every door, so she knows more than you think she does. And she does more than you think she does. I love that about her. But also, I think I had the opportunity to play her twice, both 15 years ago and in the time present after 15 years have passed. My thought was, ‘Who was I, Gabriela, as a person, as an actress 15 years back?’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, I think I’m a different person completely. I don’t recognize that person.’

I thought about that with Luna. I was thinking about emotionally where she was standing, what reflection she had in life. Did she change? That’s really interesting to play as well,” explained Cartol.

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The Resort premieres on Peacock on July 28, 2022, with the release of the first three episodes.