Books
The bestselling author talks about seeing her novel come to life on Peacock, why filming on Nantucket mattered, Chloë Sevigny and D’Arcy Carden’s performances, and the book she’s writing in retirement.
To read an Elin Hilderbrand is to visit Nantucket.
You can taste those summer tomatoes from Bartlett’s, and cold beer from The Chicken Box after a night of sweaty summer dancing. Feel sandy beach roads under your bike tires, as you pedal to the beach, a chicken salad sandwich and cold lemonade in your backpack.
This is the idyll Hilderbrand captures so well. It’s also what makes her best-selling books feel so sun-ripe for adaptation. Her sense of place is so real, it all but oozes off the page like so much Coppertone.
Part of that magic? The Boston-born novelist writes about her longtime island home with something approaching actual awe.
It feels right on brand, then, that when we reach Hilderbrand just after the Los Angeles premiere of “The Five Star Weekend”— Peacock’s star-studded series adaptation her 2023 novel — she tells me:
“I cried. I wept. And it’s nothing to do with me personally. It’s seeing my home — the place where I’ve lived for 33 years — up on the big-screen. Not a day goes by that I don’t think ‘I am so lucky to live here.’ Every single day.”
“The island is so beautiful,” says the Pennsylvania-raised novelist. “It is so unique. It’s singular. It’s a singular part of America.”
With her son Dawson as her date, Hilderbrand attended the L.A. premiere with the cast including Jennifer Garner, Chloë Sevigny, Regina Hall, D’Arcy Carden, Harlow Jane, Timothy Olyphant, and more.
This isn’t the retired (remember she retired?) novelist’s first Hollywood premiere — she saw Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber in the Netflix series adaptation of her novel “The Perfect Couple” in 2024 — and it likely won’t be her last.
At least half a dozen other books are in various stages of development, she says.
One surprise here: Sevigny, whose bread-and-butter is in the fringe, knocks it out of the park in this popcorn series.
On NBC’s “The Today Show,” the hosts asked if she thought it was too mainstream when she signed on.
“I did… but I was like you know what? My mom will finally be able to walk through the grocery store and not have to have an awkward conversation about something that I’m in. So it was my gift to my mother.”
Nutshell: Wellesley-based food influencer Hollis Shaw (Garner, who also served as executive producer) sees her life fall apart after her husband, Matthew (Josh Hamilton), dies in a car crash. To reset, Hollis invites one friend from each stage of her life—from childhood pal to college bestie and beyond—for a girls’ weekend on Nantucket.
With all eight episodes now streaming, we called Hilderbrand to talk ACK, filming magic, her sister’s island tour guide, internet buzz, her new book out soon, why the movie had the perfect filming formula, and more.
You attended “The Perfect Couple” premiere, so this wasn’t your first rodeo. But how was “The Five-Star Weekend” premiere?
Fantastic. I don’t know if it’s because the cast is so female-forward, and the directors and producers were all female — but this really felt like by women, about women, for women. And I was very included in that. They embraced me, brought me into the fold and made me part of the team. I hosted the companion podcast for the show — that was awesome. So I’m super grateful.
A lot of authors I’ve interviewed aren’t involved at all in adaptations, so that’s pretty rare. And I think the last time we talked you were on set?
Yes, they filmed on Nantucket last year; I was on set a bunch. That was up there with the most exciting things that have ever happened to me.
Nantucket itself, I think some people were worried about the show coming out and Nantucket being overrun by tourists. But what I’d love to point out, A: they could’ve filmed it elsewhere and called it Nantucket. We still would’ve been overrun by tourists.
B: My readers aren’t buying the house next door to you. They’re coming for the day. They’re walking around downtown, going to lunch, boosting the economy. Plus, there’s only so many people who can come because of the boats.
So I hope some of those people watch the show and begrudgingly agree that it’s so authentically beautifully filmed. It’s just gorgeous.
Did “The Perfect Couple” film on Nantucket?
They filmed B-roll. They had to film during the strikes in 2023, so a scene planned for Main Street didn’t get shot. Other than B-roll, [“The Five-Star Weekend”] is the first time Nantucket has been done in recent years.
Were you involved with the screenwriting?
I’m not a screenwriter, but when they had questions about Nantucket, I answered those and made suggestions about where to set certain scenes, and just generally gave advice about how things worked on the island. For that reason, it just feels very genuine.
What did you think of the cast?
Oh my God! I couldn’t even pick a favorite. They’re all so good. The day after it came out, I woke up to people in my DMs who said they’d watched the entire thing already.
Wow.
[Laughs] I know! They’re all saying that Brooke, played by D’Arcy Carden, is the standout for them. That’s sort of the public opinion. She’s fantastic. Of everybody, might be the least known to the general public.
But her role is definitely the juiciest. She slayed. It’s a tricky role because she’s the socially awkward character, and she played it pitch-perfect. She isn’t silly or cheesy. She’s just vulnerable and really lovable.
I love that Chloë Sevigny plays Tatum. She was also just here for the Nantucket Film Fest and won an award for career achievement.
Chloë is outstanding, and the chatter has sort of been that she doesn’t really do things that are mainstream.
She’s the indie darling.
She’s the indie darling, right? And doing a popcorn thing like this is not her MO, but she really shines. Now she and Jen Garner are like best friends. And she loved it. She loved the camaraderie with the other women. She loved the material. And [sighs] she’s so so good in this.
Will there be a Season 2?
I think they want to, but they have to wait and see how it does. I was at the premiere’s after-party, and the executives were so enthusiastic. But they want to wait and see how it does before they commit to a Season 2. So it’ll probably be another month or two before we get that kind of news. We’ll see.
What’s up next for you? I know you have a few projects in development.
I have six or seven things in development — you just don’t know what’s going to get green-lit and what isn’t. The one that’s furthest along in development is “The Perfect Couple” Season 2. That’s in a writer’s room, but it hasn’t yet been green-lit. I have “Hotel Nantucket” in development with Amazon. My “Paradise” series is in development with Apple. The other ones I can’t talk about yet.
You wrote the New England-set “The Academy” with your daughter Shelby. Now the sequel, “The Thoroughbreds,” releases Sept. 15. How did it go writing with Shelby overall?
Oh, I loved it. She’s a creative writing major at University of Miami, but I think she wants to go into the production side of Hollywood — my books being adapted has inspired her.
I can see that. And will you be writing more?
You know what, I turned down the offer of a contract. I’m retired — I really am.
[Laughs]
I don’t want to be on the hook for another book. But I am writing a book. I work on it one hour every morning, and that’s it. I don’t think about it the rest of the day. And that’s just keeping myself busy, really. Just having a writing project. It’s so liberating because I don’t feel any pressure to get a word-count in, or have to promote another book. So my focus now is just trying to enjoy my summer.
I know you do weekly 11 a.m. Wednesday signings at Mitchell’s on Nantucket. You also mentioned some sold-out local premieres this week at Dreamland Theater?
I’ll do that with Tim Ehrenberg, my podcast co-host [Books, Beach & Beyond]. It’ll be good for Nantucket people to see it — a lot of people were extras. So they’ll be able to see themselves.
That’s so cool. Are there any specific spots we’ll see in the movie? Like,“Ooh, like there’s like The Chicken Box”-type moments.
Oh, yeah. Actually, The Chicken Box has some great scenes — they shot the exterior here on Nantucket, but they recreated — sticker for sticker, license plate for license plate — the inside of The Chicken Box in L.A.
Amazing.
All three owners of The Chicken Box were just blown away. It’s uncanny.
Did they recreate anything else like that?
In Hollywood, they built Hollis’s — a main character — Wellesley house and kitchen. And they built an entire Nantucket house inside these airplane hangars. That’s what the soundstages are — huge airplane hangars. So you’ll see the house’s exterior — a house on Eel Point Road in Nantucket — but the interiors are all on L.A. soundstages. So it’s quite something.
But they shot inside Murray’s Toggery, which is iconic. They did a whole shooting day downtown. So you’ll see things that you recognize, which is fun.
Which brings me to “The Blue Book” — your Nantucket guide. Is your sister Heather still doing Blue Book tours?
She’s still doing the tours. [Laughs] Now she’s added a “Five-Star” element to it, so the tour includes a mini-tour pointing out where they filmed the show.
I love it. What spot from the “Five-Star” mini-tour should people definitely see?
[Pause] So there’s a footbridge out in ‘Sconset. It’s this iconic spot. In the show, Chloë and Jen ride their bikes over the footbridge – which you are not allowed to do. This is a thing. There’s signage that says you’re not supposed to do it. But that would be a fun place to see. Heather stops and says, “This footbridge is in the show, and you are never to ride your bikes over it.”
[Laughs] Overall, is there anything you’d want to add about this filming process?
This is how [a Nantucket show] should be done: They did 75 percent of the filming in L.A. You get a better cast because actors want to stay home. Then a one-month shoot in a place as beautiful as Nantucket is icing on the cake. “You get to stay home for most of it, then we’re sending you to Nantucket at the most beautiful time of year.”
And they had immaculate weather last September. Everybody loved it — and aside from the few naysayers — most of the community embraced them and made them feel welcome.
So I’d say, if anybody in Hollywood is thinking about shooting anything else of mine, that is how it should be done: on sound stages, then on location on Nantucket in September. That was the magic.
The interview has been edited and condensed. Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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