He said the idea for the story came to him when he was very sick in the hospital. “I had double pneumonia and I came very close to stepping out,” King says. After about three weeks on his back, “my wife decided to totally clean out my office and change it around and make everything new again for me.”
When he finally peaked into it, he says, “it was totally empty,” King says. “And I thought: This is what this room would look like after I die.”
His wife advised him to not make “Lisey’s” specifically about their relationship, telling him “‘Fictionalize these people as much as you can and let’s step back from anything that’s too personal.’ So I try to do that. I try to satisfy both sides of it, the reality side and the fictional side. And it worked out pretty well.”
King says he was pleased with the casting in the limited series. “I think they were fantastic.”
Of his own role, Davis says “I never really approached it and based it on Stephen himself.”
For Moore’s part, she says she tries to make their relationship and experiences something that can be universal. “That gives everybody a way in.”