INTERVIEW BY DENISE MALLABO

This interview with actress and musician LOLA KIRKE happened before the world-wide order that everyone should stay at home due to the pandemic Covid-19 virus plaguing all nation. We were in different sides of the world, she’s in New York while I’m here in the Philippines but we were already updating each other with the news about the virus and how it’s been gradually immobilizing each other’s countries.

Although during this time, life was still close to normal; it was still “go within the usual schedule” as usual.  “I’m making coffee and I feel happy about that,” says the 29-year-old English-American, which would be part of her morning routine. Lola was born in London but lived all her life in New York. She said that she’d only been back in London when she visits her family and when she would have music engagements but other than that, she’s grounded in the U.S. It’s as if Lola is really destined to be an artist because she grew up in a household wherein from her parents down to her siblings, being creative and artistic are practiced.

She loved acting at a very young age. “My mom signed me up for acting classes. I don't know if that was because I asked for them or if she needed baby sitting on the weekends, but I would go to this woman's house on Saturdays and it was called The Soho Children's Acting Studio. We would do these weird knock-off plays of real plays, like the cheaper versions that you can't get the rights to? I grew up doing the acting classes then the plays in college. I really wanted to be an actress; that's who I was,” she says.

Lola did movies like Mistress America, Gone Girl, Gemini, Untogether, but her breakout role was playing Hayley Rutledge in the award-winning Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. And then music came into the picture. Even though she says that she hasn’t really been encouraged in music the same way that she has been encouraged as an actress, she finds a lot of love and discipline about song writing and wanting to get better at it. She has released an EP and an album entitled Heart Head West.  

After our quick chat about the Covid-19, we went on to talk about what she loves about acting, updates about her music, and the Netflix mystery drama Lost Girls.

You grew up in a family of artists. Was there a certain pressure from your end to also be creative or artistic?

Sure. But I don't know if it was pressure because that's the only world that I really knew. I wasn't surrounded by people with “real” jobs so much so I really didn't consider them as options or part of who I was. Though I always wonder if I would have been the world's greatest lawyer or something.  

What’s your most favorite thing about being an actor?

Probably taking acting class, honestly. I take a class in New York with a teacher named Tony Greco, we study in a basement of a very off-Broadway theater. As much as I love some of the things that come with being an actress and I've had amazing experiences on set while working, I do find that my favorite parts of being one are delivered to me when I'm studying. I really like the community and growing aspect, and the kind of rigor of studying. Those things escape me on set largely and I'm excited that I'm doing a play here in New York. We'll be working on "Three Sisters" directed by Sam Gold starring Greta Gerwig, Oscar Isaac, and Steve Buschemi, I've never done a play professionally but I imagine that there will be a similar sense of community on that stage.     

Your sister Jemima is also an actor. How was it like sharing the screen with her in Untogether?

It was great. I have so much respect for Jemima. I think she's a talented actress. She's the reason how I found the teacher that I study with and I'm so grateful to her for that. It's amazing to have a shared language and passion.  

What made you decide to have country and folk as your sound?

Initially it's the ease of playing country and folk music. With country music, there's this notion that it's just three chords and the truth, and that sounds like something that I can do although it's a lot harder than that. And telling the truth in a way that it's both interesting and fun or sad and moving is a challenge sometimes because sometimes the truth is just boring, and it's been said a thousand times. 

I write my own songs but I'm beginning to do more co-writing now. I've been spending more time in Nashville, which is completely amazing to me. They write songs in office buildings. They get together with a complete stranger, who's also a song writer, and you guys sit down and do this half-therapy session and half-work thing that by the end, you may or may not have a fun song to take with you. I always felt proud of writing my own songs but it's nice to do lots of things with other people with music. There are some things that I don't know how to do, so being able to delegate worked. It's a strength I think that I'm building.             

You’ve done four years of Mozart in the Jungle. What do you miss most about doing that show? What have you learned from it?

I miss the cast a lot. It's so corny to say but we really felt like a family. That was fun; I love those people and having a sense of community is fun. We got to travel to so many amazing places. I had such a great experience making that show. 

I was kind of the baby on that show. It was nice to feel protected by my fellow actors from Gael (Garcia Bernal) to Bernadette Peters, from Saffron Burrows to Malcolm McDowell. Gael was such an amazing teacher in a lot of ways. He's incredibly brave as an actor, although he'd be annoyed of me for saying so. He's very alive and extremely kind. Seeing these actors who have spent so long being so successful in the industry remain such real people with really assuring that you can achieve so much in the field that you love and you can still be a real person, so that's one thing that's truly nice. Gael and Bernadette Peters really both just commit so much to whatever it is that they're doing and that what makes so many of the silly stuff just not seem silly at all and be electric. It's a reminder for me constantly to get over my self-consciousness and do the thing that I came there to do, unapologetically.     

What’s a typical day like for you?

A typical day when I'm not working entails a lot of puttering about the house. There's a lot of self-care involved in my life which I feel very grateful for. It's extremely important when you're doing deep work into your subconscious as an actress that you can tend to the wounds that you're opening. I'm trying to take care of myself mentally and physically. I like to see my friends and my family but when I'm alone, I just like to sit down and play the guitar.  

You have a movie on Netflix now called Lost Girls. What’s your role here and how did you prepare for it?I'm a big fan of Liz Garbus and Amy Ryan. I really love the source material of the script, which was Robert Kolker's nonfiction of the book of the same name. Liz gave me a lot of permission to take my character, who is a real, living person, to be as creative as I wanted with her and I felt excited to do that even though I wanted to honor my character Kimberly, a sister of one of the victims. The other women depicted on the book, who are largely the sex workers who have been the victims of this heinous crime, were absent of our telling of it. We were focused more on the surviving family members. And I think these women are so rich in their characters and I kind of made my character a hybrid of all the women that I was reading about. And that was my way of paying homage to them.   

I read the book, which is an amazing asset to have as an actor because it's so thorough and it's nonfiction so there's a lot to draw from there. I also watched available materials that showed the woman that I was playing. I had a dialect coach because she has a specific Carolina accent. I also studied with my acting coach who was wonderful. I wanted to be creative and to be drowned from the outside world as much as possible, but I also want to bring myself to the work as much as I could. As much as I didn't have that much experience as the character that I'm playing had, I believe as an actress that in my own life experience there are things that would be pertinent and exciting that would make my work more exciting. I was also talking friends of mine who are sex workers both drawing from their fashion and their mannerisms. There's a lot of lifting and that comes with the work of being an actress. I want to make sure that I'm playing characters that feel real so real people can connect to them.                 

See Lola as Kim in LOST GIRLS, Streaming now on NETFLIX.