FORBIDDEN FRUITS
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director: Meredith Alloway
Screenwriters: Meredith Alloway & Lily Houghton (Adapted from Houghton’s play, Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die)
Logline: Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
Panelists: Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Meredith Alloway, Alexandra Shipp and Lili Reinhart
Premiered: March 16, 2026
Key Quote: “I came into my first zoom with Meredith and Lily with a very clear idea of this woman, and I was still shooting Riverdale at the time and looking ahead to what I wanted to do after. Apple is so different from anyone that I’ve ever played before. She’s so in control and manipulative and powerful,” Lili Reinhart told Deadline. “Ultimately, I just loved the idea of doing something 180 from what I had done before, and it was just pure collaboration every step of the way has been conversations about her, making a very extensive 200-pin Pinterest board, being very involved in Apple’s wardrobe with our costume designer, Sarah Millman and looking at a character a not just not this solidified thing that needs to be finalized before I walk on the set. It’s very much when I’m on set, I’m still finding her. It was everyday finding something new about her [in the] process and her name, I mean, I wanted to play a b-tch named Apple.”
RELATED: ‘Forbidden Fruits’ Review: Lili Reinhart & Lola Tung Bring Back Mall Culture With Witchy Toxic Feminist Cult In Meredith Alloway’s Fun Camp Debut — SXSW
Deadline Studio at SXSW presented by Redbreast Irish Whiskey.
