Riley Keough thinks it would be “unhealthy” to channel her own grief in her work.
Riley Keough doesn’t use her personal experiences of grief in her work
The ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ star’s sibling Benjamin took his own life in 2020 and last year, her mother Lisa Marie Presley passed away due to complications from surgery, and although the 35-year-old actress plays a woman who lost her brother when they were teenagers in her new series ‘Under the Bridge’, she wanted to keep her own emotions away from the project.
Asked if her brother’s death in particular had affected her acting method during ‘An Evening with Joey King and Riley Keough’ in Los Angeles over the weekend, she said: “I don’t typically use my own life in my acting career because I think I would be insane.
“I think it would be very unhealthy for me personally.”
The ‘Zola’ star explained it can be particularly difficult reliving emotions through work as actors often have to film the same scene multiple times, and so she would rather focus on the “headspace of the character” than her own personal feelings.
She added: “I really try and protect myself — it’s a hard job because you’re going to work and having to be extremely vulnerable and raw.”
Riley recently recalled how she felt like she was “losing [her] mind” while making ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ because it was where she met her husband, stunt performer Ben Smith-Peterson.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s ‘The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham’, Riley – who has 21-month-old daughter Tupelo with her spouse – said: “I’m sure you’ve read all the stuff about it, but it was like, I don’t remember feeling like I was filming a movie ever.
“I remember being like, ‘I live in this world and I’m totally losing my mind. That was my experience, but it was one of the most beautiful and challenging and amazing, incredible experiences of my life, and all of us who were there, it was so life-changing and, of course, I met my husband, so it was like extra life-changing.”
