Produced by Stranger Things’ The Duffer Brothers, The Boroughs follows a group of residents in a retirement community who unite to fight a threat from another world. Nancy Daly’s role as Mother is not only her introduction to the horror genre but also draws on her own experiences with Alzheimer’s and dementia, making it feel personal.
In anticipation of the show’s Netflix release, we spoke with Daly about how the story hits close to home. Her personal experiences helped her tap into the role in a uniquely human way.
Learn more about Actors & Artists Unite To End Alzheimer’s here.
HGL: What interested you most about taking the role of Mother in The Boroughs?
Nancy Daly: Well, this role was kind of a secret, because how I auditioned for it is they sent out a monologue, and it was from a film called Still Alice. There was no way they could have known this, but it really resonated with me. I’ve lost five members of my family to the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia, so this was material that hit me in the heart and the soul.
Apparently, they loved that audition and had me meet with the two showrunners, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, and they had makeup there because, as it turns out, my character was going to be in head-to-toe prosthetics. For me, it was like, oh yeah. They were so sweet because they wanted to make sure I was ok with it.
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It’s really an honor because you’re creating the character with the makeup team applying it, and there you are, looking in the mirror, and you see her unfold before your eyes with each application. I said to them the hardest thing will be getting me out of the chair (laughs). Every limb was something prosthetic or makeup or something; it was quite something.
Once I read the script, I just felt so honored to play her. Because my mouth was glued shut, I didn’t have any actual lines, so I had to create her own language just from sound. You can’t rehearse that; it has to come from you, from your heart, your soul. I didn’t want to overthink her; I didn’t rehearse the sounds. I just let them happen once we were filming. She has this glorious language of heart, soul, and sound; it was an honor to play her.
I started training as soon as I got cast at the end of October, and they were going to need me in December. I’m already an avid hiker, do yoga, so I basically doubled my training and the carbs disappeared as I was going to need to be wiry and flexible to do what was needed.
HGL: Of course, playing the role of Mother was not typical for an actor. Was the preparation and performance challenging?
Nancy Daly: I don’t think a role like this is ever easy for an actor. However, once they got everything on me and I waited in the trailer for my scene to come up, you just think and feel the character. What has led her to this point? What was happening? Who was behind it? What was underneath it? What led her to what happens in this story?
That’s the deep work that you do; that’s what you access. At that point, I knew her so well; I’d done so many makeup tests for her, I’d worn her, and she was there to be accessed by me.
I really think she was a channel for me, that’s the best way I could describe it. I took courage and focus of the soul. Obviously, I have my own griefs and sorrows, but hers was different. I wasn’t there to release my own inner demons. My hope is that when people see the show, they will resonate with her because she goes on a journey of grief and rage and despair, the depths of horror, but she does have her moments of wonder and delight. There is some hope in the darkness.
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HGL: The Boroughs has a strong horror element. Are you a fan of the genre?
Nancy Daly: I’m so glad you asked me that. I’m almost giggling now. I used to watch horror through my hands, worrying over characters, wondering if the dog was safe (laughs). Now, these are my people. I was a bit of a scaredy cat about it before, but now I’m eager to get caught up on all the ones I haven’t seen.
I saw the first Scary Movie, and I’m still recovering. I have to go and watch all the Halloweens, all the Nightmare on Elm Streets. These are now my people, and who knows, maybe I’ll be invited to play in that party, now that I’m part of the gang? They know I can wear prosthetics, it should be “hire that girl!” (laughs)
I’m joking, but seriously, now that I know how it works, it really resonates; it’s life amplified. It strikes you deeper when you are fighting something you don’t know, don’t recognize, and that’s when you have to rise up and take charge. I have a better understanding of it all now, having played this role, so now I can’t wait to do it again because I had no idea how much I would adore it. That is going to be my goal this summer, catching up on the horror franchises.
HGL: Can you talk a bit about the organization you started to fight Alzheimer’s disease?
Nancy Daly: Of course. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009, my father was still here, and he was her primary caregiver. All I can say is it’s one of the most harrowing moments of your life when you look in the eyes of your mother, and she doesn’t know you. So I started Actors & Artists Unite To End Alzheimer’s in 2011. We had four teams in New York, L.A., Washington, D.C., where I’m from, and Miami. At one point, we had 41 teams across the country, but the pandemic really bottomed that out.
From the pandemic on, the teams got smaller, but also, for some people, once their loved one had died, they had to step aside to grieve, which I totally understand. I founded this team in 2011, but I had no idea my dad would die from the same disease eight years later. It haunts me to this day because all of those years being out there, training, walking, and walking for awareness, to help find a cure, I was too late.
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He died before we found a cure, but we keep walking, I keep walking, and there has been progress. Medications that can slow down the disease, pause it. And as I say to my team, if we can pause it, we can cure it, and when the day comes they find a cure, we will dance. That is also the theme of The Boroughs. You stand together, you hold on to each other, and that alone is a victory, a fight for justice.
It takes place in a retirement community. I saw the first episode, and there is this man, he’s in the courtyard of the manor home, waiting for his bus. Jeff (Addiss), our showrunner, spent time in a retirement community to meet these people, so I feel the show is honoring those who are, in what I call, in their twilight.
Ed Begley Jr., who is a brilliant actor, plays a man who is having a loss of memory, and it will resonate with anyone who has cared for a loved one who no longer knows what day it is, what time it is, who their family is, or who they are. That’s the wonder of this show, so beautifully written, it will enthrall people, it will scare people, but it’s also very heart-driven and will touch people.
The Boroughs Season 1 is now available to stream on Netflix.
