Actor and musician Lola Kirke is perhaps best known for starring in “Mistress America” alongside “Lady Bird” auteur Greta Gerwig and as Hailey Rutledge in the beloved Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle,” but Aaron Katz’s psychological neo-noir “Gemini” marks an enticing departure for the 27-year-old. The film features her character, Jill, getting caught up in a murder mystery after her boss, Hollywood starlet Heather Anderson (Zoë Kravitz), ends up dead on her watch. Kirke sat with Backstage to chat about working on the film, the one thing she wants to master on camera, and why all actors need to befriend rejection.
Kirke and Katz made an instant connection.
“I got a call from my manager who said that this dude, Aaron Katz, had written a movie for me. And I was like, ‘What?’ That’s, like, a dreamy thing to hear (and something that I don’t hear very often). So I had a meeting with him, and I was completely charmed. Aaron has such a unique sensibility. He’s kind of an egoless auteur. I think that is a very rare combination. He is really open to other people’s ideas and really clear about his own vision, and somehow balances that clarity with a kindness and a generosity on set that makes you feel very safe.”
READ: John Cho and Aaron Katz of ‘Gemini’ Dissect Actor-Assistant Relationships
The film looks at some of the underexplored parts of Los Angeles.
“I’ve been living in L.A. off and on for the past couple of years. It’s funny, because as a New Yorker, if you asked me, ‘What should I do while I’m in New York?’ I’d be like, ‘Central Park…?’ I don’t know. It’s so second nature to me that I couldn’t pick out the things that make it special. It feels like home. But in L.A., as someone who’s coming there as ‘a transplant,’ I know what I really like about it, and I think Aaron and I have a similar sensibility about what to do [there]. A lot of locations you see in the film are more toward the neighborhoods we live in, and I think that’s a really untapped area, visually, in film. A lot of the films that take place in L.A. [are] in Malibu or in West Hollywood. People are moving away from that area. I think that’s what this movie does really well, is show you Hollywood in a different way. [There’s the] shadow of the film industry and the movie star.”
Kirke admits she hasn’t mastered everything—yet.
“Marlene Dietrich knew how to light herself. That’s incredible. I think I see a lot of actresses who just always look beautiful on camera and I’m like, ‘Oh, not only are they good, but they’ve also mastered the art of knowing their angles.’ Which I don’t. And I don’t know how. Am I meant to go to the bathroom and just stare at the mirror even more than I already do? Because that would just be ridiculous.”
Kirke advises actors to “get so good” at rejection.
“ ‘Rejection is protection,’ is what I like to say. You have to get so good at getting rejected. That’s been really important to me, because as lucky as I’ve been, I’ve also experienced a lot of heartache and waiting, and comparing myself to others, and being like, ‘Well, they were 27 when they did that, so technically I should be.’ It goes nowhere. You are different from every single person. You have your own journey on this planet. I think that you have to become deeply spiritual in a way to brave this business.”
Not every audition is going to be stellar.
“I had a terrible audition for ‘Into the Woods.’ I had pneumonia. I love singing, but I can’t really sing in the way a musical theater actor can. That’s just a whole different skill set that I completely lack. But I had pneumonia and I went in and sang the song, and I couldn’t even hit any of the notes. I would love to see that tape, though.”
Everyone has to start somewhere.
“I did my first movie when I was 20, but I had this brief dalliance with being a child actor, and that didn’t work. I’m really grateful that I got to live a normal life and be anonymous. I think that there’s a lot of freedom in anonymity, and the ability to pursue things on your own terms instead of in any kind of spotlight. I started going to an acting class as a way of my mom getting me out of the house on Saturdays. It was at Soho Children’s Acting Studio, and it was in this woman’s apartment. She would order Domino’s Pizza and we would do these off-brand plays. One play we did was called ‘Murder by the Quest,’ and I think it was like you couldn’t get the rights for [Agatha Christie’s] ‘And Then There Were None.’ I would always play these quite lascivious characters even though I was 10. My first part was Methany Vixen. She was a dramatic diva actress.”
Let your training guide you toward your own performance method.
“I think it’s really tempting when you start studying different methods of acting to delete everything you learned from the last [method]. At least for me, I’m like, ‘This teacher says that I should never do that, so I should do it exactly like they do.’ I think that part of the beauty of being an actor is that you’re an artist, and you get to create this palette of things that you can paint with. Recently, I’ve just given myself permission to take all of the things I like and leave the rest. [I] have my own toolkit.”
What’s next? Kirke wants to break out of her onscreen shell.
“I think I’m looking now for roles that I haven’t done yet. I think I want to explore the full extent of my abilities and find work that scares me a little bit, instead of [making] me feel safe. I have a much bigger personality than I’ve been able to work with onscreen. I find myself often in these roles where I’m the kind of quiet one to someone else’s Gael García Bernal, or Greta Gerwig, or Zoë in [‘Gemini’]. They’re more eccentric and have a whimsical personality, and I’m the one trying to make sure they get to where they need to be. I’ve definitely done that in my real life; I like taking care of people a lot. But I also think that there’s a part of me that is a lot bigger. I think I’m really shy about bringing that part of me alive onscreen, and I think there are a lot of actors that feel the opposite, that enjoy being these bigger characters in front of people. I’m looking for characters that say more.”
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