Is ‘Long Bright River’ Based on a True Story?

Set in Kensington, Pa.,“Long Bright River” paints an authentic picture of a community overrun by the opioid epidemic.

Based on the novel of the same name, author and co-writer of the series Liz Moore completed extensive research in order to accurately portray the community both on the page and the screen.

“As a writer, I’m really interested in taking certain truths about a place’s history, for example, or a place’s present, and then giving myself permission to run wild fictionally,” Moore told TheWrap. “I think that’s the gift of writing fiction, whether it’s in on the page or on the screen, you have the power to tell any story that you want to tell, and so we were able to take a very specific look at one family in Philadelphia and in a completely fictional way, imagine a life for them on the page and then on the screen.”

While “Long Bright River” is not a true story, its characters are based on the reality of what it’s like to live and operate in Kensington. Moore said that she let reality inform her imagination for Mickey Fitzpatrick (Amanda Seyfried) and her professional and family dynamics.

Moore and Seyfried both went on ride-alongs with Philadelphia cops to prepare for the novel and the limited series. The “Long Bright River” team also met with harm reduction organizations to authentically represent addiction in the series, sex workers in Kensington and advisors from the city attempting to develop the neighborhood.

“Liz started writing this book after doing volunteer work in Kensington,” showrunner Nikki Toscano told TheWrap. “She had spent a lot of time volunteering, working with women that were suffering from substance use disorder, as well as women that were engaged in sex work. So that was sort of the genesis of her novel.”

The executive producers sought to pay homage to Philly by casting local actors and extras, bringing on local graffiti artists and engaging in constant conversation with the community, even hosting a special screening in the city a week before its premiere.

“Playing somebody who is unreliable is realistic, playing someone with lots of failings, playing someone who makes mistakes, and playing someone who is not a great mother or a great partner, it’s realistic because we can’t check all those boxes,” Seyfried told TheWrap.

So though there may not have been a specific murder mystery and estranged family drama that Moore based her novel and subsequent limited series on, the cast and creative team made a concerted effort to accurately portray the neighborhood and its own unique cast of characters.

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