‘The Morning Show’ Producer Reveals Billy Crudup Was Really Singing in That Piano Scene (Exclusive)

Caution: Spoilers ahead for season 3, episode 7 of The Morning Show, “Strict Scrutiny.”

Billy Crudup is showing off all of his talents on The Morning Show. On “Strict Scrutiny,” the latest episode of the Apple TV+ series, Crudup’s Cory Ellison visits his mom, Martha (Lindsay Duncan), with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) to prevent her interference in the sale of UBA to Paul Marks (Jon Hamm).

After an awkward dinner, Cory sits down at a piano to play — and sing! — a special rendition of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” After a few moments, Martha joins in as Bradley watches on, tearfully thinking about her own mother, who died amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was really Billy singing it. It’s a beautiful sequence,” executive producer Mimi Leder told ET. “… Billy Crudup is a master of everything.”

The seemingly sweet moment ends on a negative note, when Martha warns Bradley about her son.

“He’s managing you. That’s what he does. He’s been doing it since you arrived. All of this — the lobster, our little song — it’s all an act for him. It’s not real,” she says. “He’s so good, though. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. You should stay away from him. He’s alone because he should be alone. I know because I have tried, and tried, and tried with him.”

She throws the final dagger when she tells him, “You really are just like your father. There’s something very wrong with you.”

While Cory appears to brush off his mother’s harsh words, Bradley is left shaken up by the scene. She tries to comfort Cory, telling him, “You know you’re not a bad person, right?”

“I think it opened up Bradley’s eyes to who he is, what he’s made of, why he is the way he is, and she saw it,” Leder told ET. “… I think love is the ultimate factor of how we turn out the way we do.”

For Cory, the fact that that love wasn’t there led him to become the cutthroat executive we see on the show.

“It’s a great story. I was so happy too that we went into Billy’s past and to meet his mother, played by the incomparable Lindsay Duncan,” Leder said. “… It’s really devastating to learn that your mother doesn’t love you. You wonder why people turn out the way they do, and so, it was a very devastating episode. Billy went there in the most subtle of ways to expose this devastation of his personal life.”

The first seven episodes of The Morning Show‘s third season are now streaming on Apple TV+. Subsequent episodes will be released every Wednesday through Nov. 8.  

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