‘Dear Edward’: What to Expect From Connie Britton and Jason Katims 12 Years After ‘Friday Night Lights’
Dear Edward recently premiered on Apple TV+. The show, which is based on a novel by Ann Napolitano, tells the story of a young boy who is the only survivor of a deadly plane crash. It also follows friends and family members of other victims as they deal with grief and loss.
Renowned actor Connie Britton plays Dee Dee, the rich widow of a man who died in the crash. Dear Edward is actually her second time working with producer Jason Katims. Here’s what you should know about their partnership:
Connie Britton and Jason Katims worked together on ‘Friday Night Lights’
Both Britton and Katims worked on the NBC series Friday Night Lights, which aired from 2006 to 2011.
Britton played Tami Taylor, a guidance counselor at Dillon High School and the wife of football coach Eric Taylor. Britton won one award for this role as well as many nominations.
Meanwhile, Katims was a producer, director, and writer on Friday Night Lights. He later also worked on Parenthood, another hit NBC series.
How Connie Britton joined the cast of ‘Dear Edward’
Britton and Katims’ prior working relationship was how she got the role of Dee Dee on Dear Edward.
According to Entertainment Weekly, when Katims was creating the character, he thought of Britton. He explained, “I was driving into work and I thought of Connie for the role. And the minute that I thought of her, I could never think of this woman as anybody different than Connie.”
“Working with Connie on Friday Night Lights was just a pinnacle experience,” Katims continued. “It was unbelievable. Her work is so incredibly beautiful in it. If I was going to work with her again, I wanted to do something that, well, that she would do, she would say ‘yes’ to, something she would be able to sink her teeth into in a very different way than the character in Friday Night Lights.”
Britton was also delighted to join Katims on another meaningful project:
“Having the experience of working again on a Jason Katims set, it’s a lovely environment, it’s a collaborative environment, it’s an environment of exploration and curiosity and discovery and fun and mutual respect,” she shared. “And those are the things that are most important to me. I was really, really excited to have Jason come to me and have it be such a fantastic part to explore.”
Jason Katims tried hard not to cry while editing the show
Because Dear Edward tackles very emotional topics, Katims himself was also touched by the events that play out on the show. In fact, he wanted to cry while editing the scenes.
“The embarrassing thing for me has been being in editing rooms, watching cuts of the show and starting to feel emotional in front of the editor and then I try to not cry, because it’s ridiculous to cry in front of [an editor] over words that you wrote,” he said during Apple TV+’s Television Critics Association panel (via Deadline). “So I’m trying not to cry, and in trying not to cry, then these noises come out…that’s happened to me quite a bit.”
