How Juliette Lewis returned to Cape Fear

More than thirty years after being revealed in Nerves, the American actress returns in the remake on Apple TV. A wink told to us by the creator of the series.

It has become almost a tradition in the long history of Cape Fear.

In 1991, when Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg embarked on the remake of Nerves, they decided to invite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum to the cast. The two Hollywood legends accept and play secondary characters, after having played, thirty years earlier, the leading roles in Jack Lee Thompson’s version, released in 1962. A nod that is replayed in the 2026 series, currently broadcast on Apple TV (and available in France via MyCanal).

Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum are no longer in this world. But Juliette Lewis makes her return from episode 3, to be discovered this week.

A surprise appearance, which the production managed to keep secret until the end and which Nick Antosca, the creator of the series, tells us:

“Juliette had played in an episode of The Act, another series that I created in 2019. And it was precisely at that time that I started to consider a new adaptation of Cape Fear. I immediately said to myself that Juliette had to be part of it,” Antosca tells Première. “She said yes very quickly. It was fun as a reference and it continued the tradition of the films, in a way.”

It must be said that Juliette Lewis has a very special story with Les Nerfs à vive. In 1991, the young actress did not make her screen debut, but it was Scorsese’s film that propelled her to the forefront. Impressive in the role of Danielle Bowden opposite Robert De Niro, the 17-year-old burst onto the screen and immediately landed a role with Woody Allen with Husbands and Wives (1992), then in Gilbert Grape opposite Johnny Depp (1993), before making her mark in Born Killers (1994). And it was his walk near Cape Fear that started it all.

But Juliette Lewis isn’t the series’ only nod to the previous films. As Nick Antosca reveals to us, another cameo is hidden in the first episodes:

“Wesley Strick, the screenwriter of the 1991 film, also appears in episode 2, in the role of a doctor! And he wasn’t hard to convince either: he’s my neighbor!”

Cape Fear continues every Friday on Apple TV and also in France via MyCanal.