RILEY Keough. Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—The eldest grandchild and the stepdaughter of two late music legends—Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, respectively—is making waves with provocative roles.
In the film, “American Honey,” and the TV series, “The Girlfriend Experience,” both acclaimed, Riley Keough is establishing her own identity and stamp as an actress.
The daughter of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough plays Krystal, the boss of youths who travel across the US to sell magazine subscriptions, in Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey.”
The dramatic road movie, which tapped thespians and nonprofessional actors, won the Jury Prize in the recent Cannes Film Festival.
In Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz’s “The Girlfriend Experience,” Riley portrays Christine Reade, a law student who is also a high-class escort. Executive producer is Steven Soderbergh, who directed the 2009 film of the same name, on which the Starz series is based on.
This granddaughter of Priscilla Presley started as a model in her teens. She debuted as an actress in “The Runaways,” a role which led to other films, including “The Good Doctor,” “Magic Mike” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
While playing the character named Capable in George Miller’s latest installment of the “Mad Max” movie series, Riley met stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen. They got married in February last year.
Excerpts from our interview:
Is it difficult to make a name for yourself since you come from a famous family?
It isn’t hard. It’s not something I am trying to get away from. I’m not afraid of it. Obviously, I was able to get an agent because of my family. No one else can just walk up to an agency and be like, hey, represent me.
But it also made me work really hard. Now it’s more, like, normal to be a child of someone and you become an actor. But when I was 19 to 21, people were more skeptical.
Do you sing?
I sing for fun all the time, like at home and with my husband. He plays the guitar. I am not a good singer. But I have no shame about it. No pressure.
How was your experience on “The Girlfriend Experience”?
It was amazing. I am reading scripts all the time. I either get the perfect mother-woman thing or the whore. You’re either a mother or a whore. I have never met anyone (her character, Christine Reade) like that.
If a man was doing that show, no one would ever say anything. They would be like, oh, what a charming guy. But if a woman does it, they go, oh, you are glorifying prostitution.
I had never done TV before. I was scared because I heard it’s very rigid, you have to stand here and look there. There’s no playing around at all.
Luckily, the idea was to make an independent film. So, it was what I was used to. It was a comfortable transition, but also fun because you get to explore a character for six and a half hours instead of 30 minutes or however much time you have in a movie. So, I loved it.
Nudity isn’t obviously a problem for you, in contrast to how prude some Americans can be.
That’s exactly what I said. They were like, oh my God, you were naked. The hard part was learning all the legal terms.
Did you have to prepare your mom before she saw the sex and nude scenes?
I fast-forwarded. But she actually watched it and got it.
Steven wasn’t going to make a show… just to show us sex. My mom got that. I was really surprised by that. I showed her two episodes, and she said, “That was great!” I was like, “Really?” I wasn’t expecting that.
Sex is a big part of “American Honey,” too.
I didn’t know what was going to happen at all. I just wanted to work with Andrea.
But you must have seen Andrea’s movies. She always has erotic scenes.
Yeah. But I didn’t know how big or small my role was. I didn’t know how many days I was working. It was crazy, and the amount I knew about this movie before was really scary. I knew that I wanted to work with her. I love the way she shows these things that people don’t get to see often.
Were there moments when you said, “I can’t do that—that’s too much for me”?
I don’t think so. Everyone was pretty fearless in making that movie. It was pretty wild.
Do you think that your being unflustered by sexual content comes from your mom being free-spirited?
I think so. My dad has no buttons on nudity. Sex was never a weird conversation. The lack of attention on it benefited me a lot.
I remember going to France when I was little and seeing boobs on TV and being like, oh my God (laughs)! It’s crazy that in America, sexual content is such a big deal. You can show people getting shot or stabbed.
What was it like acting with people who aren’t professional actors? Did they seek your advice?
Not really, because it wasn’t a normal film. They didn’t feel like they were filming something. They were just being themselves. For me, it’s an ideal situation.
It’s so spontaneous. It’s the closest thing to non-acting.
Did you ever consider a career that’s not in entertainment?
No, I was always obsessed with movies. I initially wanted to be a director. I was obsessed with people. I filmed hundreds of hours of things when I was 12 to 14. I would film at home. I just started making movies. I didn’t want to be in front of the camera. I just wanted to capture life.
What I thought I wanted to do was documentary filmmaking. But at the same time, I loved fantasy movies. I was like, I saw this performance and I said, oh I want to be an actor.
Does your husband travel with you? How do you work that out?
He normally does, but he does jiu-jitsu. He had to do a tournament, so he stayed in LA. But normally, we go everywhere together.
You should do a movie together.
We did “Mad Max: Fury Road” together, so that was cool. But we weren’t married yet, so it didn’t really matter. But I would love to do another movie with him.
Can you describe your tattoos?
(Points at different tattoos on her body.) This is the Led Zeppelin symbol. These dots, we got after “Mad Max.” Then, this is my birthday on the Mayan calend ar. This is the tattoo I have of my dad. The tattoo on my foot is—my husband and I got it in Australia and before we were married. We were just drinking beer at the beach and went, let’s get a tattoo! Then, we got married.
If you shoot a couple more movies, you will be covered in tattoos.
Yeah, I know. I keep saying that I am not going to get a tattoo anymore because all it does is it makes my call time a half an hour (to cover the tattoos with makeup) earlier every time I get a tattoo. But then, I keep getting them after every movie (laughs).
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