In a recent interview with Net-A-Porter, Riley Keough, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, discussed her acting and her character in the new TV series in which she stars. The actress highlighted the impact of substance abuse on her family and explained how she reflected on it through her latest acting project.
The actress portrays the main character in ‘Daisy Jones and the Six,’ a mini-series which revolves around a rock band’s journey in the industry. The show, which started airing at the beginning of March, also depicts drug abuse among rock stars through Keuogh’s character Daisy, which is interesting as some of her family members struggled with addiction in the past.
It started with Elvis Presley, who increased the amount of substances he used towards the end of his life and passed away due to heart failure. With a series of events, the late musician’s condition affected his family and the upcoming generation, including Riley Keough, in the long run. The actress expressed how drug abuse damaged her family in her previous statements to the media and added to them in her recent interview.
The actress wanted her character’s situation to be realistic and devoid of glamour to reflect the hazards of addiction and its struggles, as she experienced through her family. She mentioned that there was more behind the glorious image reflected in the public platforms and aimed to illustrate the humanity of the addicts by covering Daisy Jones’ life before drugs and her ‘moments of being silly’ in her performance.
She elaborated on her portrayal of the character by saying:
“Because this is something I’ve experienced in my family. I wanted the moments in which you see Daisy’s addiction to not feel glamorous, to make sure that those moments had weight to them, that we’re seeing the humanity behind the closed doors of what people are perceiving to be glamour.
I wanted to make Daisy very human and have moments of being silly. I wanted to see other sides to her before she ends up this quintessential fucked-up rock star on drugs.”
Keough also stated that she tried to express her character’s disappointment after seeing the conflict between her wishes and the real world through her depiction. She indicated that Daisy’s struggle was relatable on a personal level for her and many other women since most of them were not ‘taken seriously in [their arts].’
The actress’ words on the matter read:
“Being excitable and seeing the wonder in the world, but really struggling with how she wants the world to be versus what she’s being handed, is something I can really identify with. I also really identified with the way she wasn’t being taken seriously in her art. I think a lot of women at the time probably weren’t – and still aren’t.”
Riley Keough put a lot of thought into her character’s portrayal and took inspiration from her family’s condition, which damaged everyone involved, to reflect the true nature of addiction. She also wanted Daisy Jones to be a three-dimensional role people could identify with, which prompted her to design her performance accordingly.
