Sure, she is Elvis Presley’s granddaugher and Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, but Riley Keough has in the past few years established herself with a solid acting career in her own right and her own name, one that continues to shine right up to her current starring role in as Daisy Jones in Amazon’s limited series, Daisy Jones & The Six, playing a 70’s style rock star ala Stevie Nicks and others of the era. Despite acclaim for her acting roles in the likes of American Honey, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Devil All The Time, The Terminal List, Zola, Magic Mike, and of course her breakout performance in the series, The Girlfriend Experience, she has never faced the challenge she does in this hit limited series which was not only a huge hit on Amazon, generated Emmy buzz, but also has produced a hit album, “Aurora” putting her right in the musical league with her mother and grandfather she never thought possible, or even attempted. This business works in unexpected ways I am sure Riley Keough will be the first to agree.
Riley joins me this week for my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side for a deep dive into her career and how this actor who had never before professionally sung suddenly summoned the ability to not only do it, but knock it out of the park. It wasn’t always easy, was helped by pandemic delays, and involved a lot of training but both she and co-star Sam Claflin pull it off in style. She talks about every aspect of it including even that sex scene in the show she has to do with her real life husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, one she says was actually “awkward”. In addition to all this she talks about her directorial debut with War Pony, the highly acclaimed movie that won her the much prized Camera d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival ( as I write this today I am still at THIS year’s Cannes fest).
To watch our conversation just click on the link above.
Join me every Wednesday during Emmy season for another episode of The Actor’s Side.
