Apple TV+’s Before Filming Locations

Before, the Apple TV+ limited series starring Billy Crystal, filmed its ten episodes entirely across New Jersey: Paterson, Moonachie, Hoboken, and Independence Township. Principal photography ran from May 2023 to March 2024, paused from June 2023 until December 2023 by the Writers Guild of America strike.

The series, created and showrun by Sarah Thorp, follows Eli Adler (Crystal), a child psychiatrist coping with the recent death of his wife Lynn (Judith Light). An eight-year-old named Noah (Jacobi Jupe), a foster child who has moved through multiple homes, begins appearing uninvited at Eli’s house and seems to carry knowledge about Eli’s life that he could not reasonably possess. Rosie Perez plays Denise, Noah’s foster mother. Maria Dizzia plays Barbara, Eli’s adult daughter. The series debuted on Apple TV+ on October 25, 2024, with new episodes each Friday through the December 20 finale.

Paterson, New Jersey

Production began in May 2023 in Paterson. The crew used the Hamilton Club Building at 32 Church Street, a property that is now part of Passaic County Community College. The building opened in 1897 as an exclusive gentlemen’s club, was gutted in the 1902 Great Paterson Fire, and was rebuilt and reopened in 1903. Its surviving interiors include a marble vestibule, grand staircases, solid oak wainscoting, and fluted columns, all in a Neo-Italian Renaissance style. Those preserved spaces gave the production formal, period-inflected settings without requiring constructed sets.

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh visited the set during the Paterson shoot. Local media reported him saying it was “an honor to have Billy Crystal in our city today.”

Moonachie and the WGA Strike Interruption

Filming also took place in Moonachie, a small borough in Bergen County. The crew planned to work there through August 2023, but production shut down in June when the WGA strike began. At that point the project was shooting under the working title “Winston.”

When the strike ended, filming resumed in December 2023 in Moonachie before moving to Hoboken in January 2024 and Independence Township in March. That December restart also brought a director change: Barry Levinson, who had been attached to the project as director since the June 2022 Apple TV+ order announcement, exited. Adam Bernstein replaced him as pilot director. Bernstein had previously directed pilots for Fargo, 30 Rock, and Scrubs, and had worked with Apple TV+ on Silo. Judith Light joined the cast at this same stage, with Perez, Jupe, Dizzia, and Ava Lalezarzadeh (who plays Cleo) formally added in January 2024.

Hoboken, New Jersey

Shooting in Hoboken took place on January 10 and 11, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. One day was spent inside a brownstone on the 900 block of Hudson Street; exterior work covered blocks framed by 9th Street, 10th Street, Washington Street, and Frank Sinatra Drive. Crystal, Light, and Perez were all on location, according to local reporting.

Before filming, the production sent a notice to area residents stating the crew would “make every effort to minimize our impact on the neighborhood.”

Independence Township, New Jersey

The final location days were in Independence Township, Warren County, on March 4 and 5, 2024. The filming centered on Route 46. The RDJ Service Center at 275 Route 46 was closed during production, with the Independence Police Department managing traffic on both days. The crew also used Youngs Island Road, Alphano Road, Cemetery Road, and addresses near Nykun Lane.

Independence Township’s open rural terrain contrasted sharply with the urban and institutional settings used earlier in the shoot.

Cast, Crew, and Production Details

Sarah Thorp, whose prior writing credits include The Bounty Hunter (2010) and the 2019 horror film Jacob’s Ladder, created and wrote all ten episodes of Before. Crystal executive produced alongside Academy Award winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Adam Bernstein, and producing director Jet Wilkinson. Production companies were Paramount Television Studios, Jennilind Productions, My Name Is Cavale, and Vanessa Productions.

The wider cast includes Sakina Jaffrey, Robert Townsend, Miriam Shor, and Rebecca Ruane in recurring roles, with guest appearances from Itzhak Perlman, Barbara Bain, Jennifer Esposito, and Will Hochman. The production used AI de-aging visual effects from the studio Deep Voodoo for certain sequences.

When the production was casting Noah, early descriptions characterized the character as non-verbal. Jupe’s final performance uses minimal dialogue by design. Thorp told Screen Rant that when they met Jupe it was “instantly clear that he was operating on a whole different level.”

Crystal has described swearing out of frustration on difficult days, and Jupe turned it into a running fee. In a promotional interview, Crystal said: “Out of frustration, if I said an F-bomb, he’d go, ‘Oh, you owe me a dollar!’ So, the last day of shooting, I gave him a $20 bill.” Jupe replied: “I either spent that or I still have it.”

The world premiere of Before was held October 16, 2024, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

What the Locations Add Up To

The four New Jersey settings cover a deliberate range: Gilded Age club interiors in Paterson, a Bergen County borough, Hudson County waterfront blocks, and an open Warren County highway corridor. Critics were largely negative on the writing, with a 32 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from 31 reviews and a Metacritic score of 46 out of 100.