Why this scene from Netflix's 'I Will Find You' almost didn't happen

NEW YORK – Best-selling author Harlan Coben remembers arriving on set to film a scene in the Netflix limited series "I Will Find You" (all eight episodes streaming now), adapted from his novel.

The set on this particular evening was Times Square, and Coben was worried.

"I'm like, 'How are we possibly going to do this?'" he recalls telling showrunner Robert Hall, both of whom spoke with USA TODAY. "And we managed."

Coben's main concern: the number of people still in Times Square when the crew was set to begin filming around midnight. Coben, 64, thought that production couldn't commence until the crowds were cleared out, which seemed impossible to him.

"These extras look so real," Hull remembers hearing on set before clarifying, "They're just real. They're not extras."

The "cooperation of the crowd" wasn't the only variable producers needed to account for while filming in New York City. Every night at midnight, Times Square hosts what it calls a "midnight moment" in which the digital billboards are synchronized to display contemporary digital art. Once that had been completed, production began on the scene – a pivotal one for the show's main characters.

In "I Will Find You," David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) is serving a jail sentence after he was found guilty of murdering his son, though he did not commit the crime. After receiving evidence that his son is still actually alive, David teams up with his ex-sister-in-law, Rachel Mills (Britt Lower).

Spoiler alert: a prison break ensues, and the first place Burroughs ends up, of all places, is in the middle of Times Square. Rachel brings him there as they search for a burner phone.

"We wanted to put [David] in the most crowded cacophony of sounds and sight, and it's a real testament to Sam's performance," Hull adds, noting that Worthington had no dialogue to work with. "Just watching him take it in is pretty spectacular."

Worthington, 49, and Lower, 40, also recall the tricky shoot, which was filmed at the end of production.

"Even if you lived in New York City like I have for decades, Times Square can still be overwhelming," Worthington says. "So imagine what it's like if you've been locked up. It's going to be too much. It's going to be a visceral reaction; it's a sickness."

There's some levity too: David confides in Rachel that he's overwhelmed and " kind of forgot what real life looks like."

"To be fair, I just saw a woman's dog wearing a Gucci sweater," she replies. "So 'real life' might be a stretch."

Worthington says that scene is just one example of his character acting as "the damsel in distress." He notes that Rachel "is the heroic one, coming in and saving him and pushing him through this story."

As for Lower, she notes that typically on a night shoot that runs into the morning, actors feel tired. But she was "wide awake," in part due to the aforementioned digital billboards. The screens influenced more than her alertness.

"I remember being wide awake and just being so hungry for a burger," she says with a laugh. "That's all I wanted. There must have been burger ads."