Apple TV brings bestselling book 'Lucky' to the small screen

Before it was an Apple TV series, "Lucky" was a bestselling book by Marissa Stapley. And Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon was one of its biggest fans.

"Reese read the book, fell in love with it, called me and said, ‘You have to drop everything and read the book,’ which of course I did," laughs Lauren Neustadter, one of the show’s executive producers. "And then I called her and I said, ‘I’m in,’ and we both sort of together said, ’It’s Anya.’"

That would be Anya Taylor-Joy, who headlines the new series as a con artist on the run from both the law and a dangerous group of criminals. It’s a highly-physical role for which the actress draws on her own real-life dance training.

"Scenes to me have a music that only I can hear," says Taylor-Joy. "And I sort of chart the emotional beats as if I were marking a dance performance. That's always been the way that I've done it, and I feel so grateful to have had a background in ballet and such a love for it."

"Lucky" also stars Timothy Olyphant, Annette Bening, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Drew Starkey — the latter of whom might look a little familiar to Atlanta audiences. 

"I lived there for, I guess, almost four years after I graduated school," says the actor. "I was in Norcross for a little bit, and then I was in Grant Park for a couple of years. I was like a traveling one-man show. I just did everything that came through town."

"Lucky" didn’t film in Atlanta, but much of its first episode was shot in another very busy and iconic city: Las Vegas.

"We couldn't shut down the casino," says executive producer and co-showrunner Cassie Pappas. "We could only section off a very specific area. So, there's plenty of scenes where the background is just people playing craps. Like, really people drinking, really people having a good time."

"The only thing that I remember, which actually is very intelligent but very annoying, is one group of drunk guys realized that if they yelled, ‘Cut,’ I would stop," adds Taylor-Joy. "Which is frustrating when it’s 6 a.m. and you're running through a casino and, because I hear ‘Cut,’ I stop!"

The first two episodes of "Lucky" begin streaming Wednesday, July 15th exclusively on Apple TV, and new episodes will drop every Wednesday through August 19th.