Riley Keough covers the latest issue of Nylon magazine. The editorial is absolutely awful, they made her look like a budget Kristen Stewart, which is so unfair because I actually think Riley is so striking and beautiful. Riley’s acting career has been getting more and more buzz, especially after her turn in Mad Max: Fury Road. She’s currently promoting her new Starz series, The Girlfriend Experience, based off of Steven Soderbergh’s film of the same name. The series is about a prostitute, basically, and what it’s like to be a modern sex worker. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:
She doesn’t care about nudity: “I don’t have a weird button on nudity really. I guess I’m a bit hippie in that sense. You kind of know what you’re signing up for when you’re doing a show about a sex worker.”
Playing a prostitute: “We weren’t making her come from some f–ked-up background, or from abuse, or being forced into it.…I think the show is really not judgmental and unbiased to that world. I didn’t want to be like, ‘Hey, I’m promoting it,’ or ‘Hey, I’m against it.’ We wanted to show an accurate story of this girl who ends up doing it.”
Her character: “She’s selfish and controlling, and she really likes sex. She’s not a character you often see written for a woman as a lead, and you’re kind of put off by it, because women are supposed to be super wholesome and moral or whatever. That’s why I liked it.”
Working on Mad Max: “There wasn’t really a set; there was just a truck in the desert. It was huge and wild and dusty and exactly what it looked like on-screen for six or seven months, which was really hard. Everybody went through such crazy sh-t on that film. In hindsight, I think we all really had a good experience. That’s what you want as an actor, you want to be immersed in whatever you’re doing. But there are moments like, ‘F–k this, I want a cheeseburger.’”
Falling for her husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, during ‘Mad Max’ reshoots in Australia: “It was the summer and you could go topless on the beach and drink a beer and be in the ocean every day—and the food’s amazing. Ben and I started hanging out, and then we started dating. Then I imported him…we were together eight months and then we got engaged. But I think I told him I wanted to marry him after a week. I was like, ‘Homie… . ’ I don’t know, I just had a moment. I don’t over-intellectualize it because it just kind of happened, and I went with my gut there. We both had the same reaction, like, ‘OK, cool.’”Her previous relationships: “Oh god, I’ve had so many relationships. I’m not shy about that. I’m not someone that’s delusional to the fact that I’ve been in crazy relationships, and a lot of relationships. I like being in relationships. I’d like to say to myself that I love being alone, but I hate it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. People always make this issue out of, ‘Oh you don’t like being alone.’ No, it’s f–king lonely. That’s why people have relationships.”
Her mom kept her from being too Hollywood: “She was like, ‘I don’t want you growing up like another Hollywood celebrity daughter.’ She was so not about that life, you know? She didn’t really put attention on it. It was there. We’d get photographed doing stuff, but I didn’t see a tabloid until I was 15.”
I actually buy that she’s genuinely this sort of bohemian, hippie chick who doesn’t care about nudity and can’t really be alone. I’m the opposite – I love being alone and I wouldn’t know what to do if I couldn’t have time to myself to think, work, sleep, etc. So I don’t really understand the mindset of “I can’t be alone” or “I hate being alone.” As for her husband and their love story… it sounds like hippie love. And she probably learned from her mother (who has been married four times) that “I do” doesn’t have to be forever, and she’s fine with that.
Photos courtesy of Nylon.
Didn’t she used to have a lantern jaw, or did I imagine that? I feel like she looks different.
I’ve always wondered what is it like to hate being alone because solitude is my favorite state. I disagree with the popular notion right now that one should learn to love being alone. People are different and no way is the only right way.
I love being by myself too and I also agree that there is no right or wrong way
I agree. It’s hard for me to relate to someone who has to be with constant company. I live for alone time. It’s necessary for me to remain calm and centered.
Agreed. Life is not one-size-fits all. I see everything as a spectrum, and there are people on both ends and everywhere in between.
I was fine being “alone” or, what she really means, being single. But alone-alone? Like, no one but you in the house? Nope. Never have and never will.
Boy, she is her Mother’s daughter.
“I hate being alone” is completely different than “lonely”. Loneliness is a feeling, I hate being alone is a mindset and it’s unhealthy. I honestly believe that people will not succeed in relationships unless they learn to be alone. But that’s just me!
Agreed. As an introvert I need alone time for my own sanity.
I find that people who can’t be alone are exhausting, insecure people who constantly need reassurance from others.
why is, “I hate being alone” any more unhealthy than, “I love being alone”? “I hate being alone” just means that you prefer to spend time in the company of others, and that’s just as valid and healthy as not preferring it.
Me too, Kaiser. I love being alone. Oh, and I’m a NeverNude like Tobias Bluth.
She looks way better with that bright red hair.
Her husband is so cute from certain angles.
definitely elvis’s granddaughter. no mistaking that!!!
I LOVE being alone. If I am around people all day long, i’ll go insane. Even if my ‘being alone’ is putting in headphones and ignoring everyone because I can’t actually be alone (whatever the situation is), that’s what I need.
I don’t like statements that group everyone together. I like my alone time and I do understand that mindset. But ever since I was little I wanted companionship. Whether that be with a best friend or my parents. And as I became an adult it translated into relationships with the opposite sex. I could be alone but if I was ‘alone’ I still had a person (bff). So I guess in a way I’ve always craved a partner. I don’t think that makes me insecure. We all cope differently. But for her to state: it’s lonely to not be in a relationship. Nope. Many people are genuinely secure on their own. And many of the people I personally know who are comfortable alone are highly driven and well rounded people. It doesn’t make you flawed or insecure to be either way.
I am so bad at recognizing actors. This is literally the first time I’ve realized that was Riley Keough was in Mad Max. She was really good! I hope to see more of her.
I don’t think she meant she can’t be alone for a day or for an afternoon of quiet time. She is saying she doesn’t like to not be in a relationship, is the way I took it. Some of you saying on here you love your alone time, yet let’s not forget you have your children and husbands or boyfriends to still fill that void in your life of a relatipnship and companionship, which is far different than someone saying I love my own company day in and day out and I don’t get lonely and don’t look for a relationship. No, most do want a relationship.
Kaiser, I don’t think anyone really knows who she is yet. She’s her moms daughter, Kristens friend and maybe you know her from seeing her on screen in MM but more than that. She’s not had an independent strike yet. She and Zoe K who are friends I think still enjoy a fair amount of work and mag covers because of nepotism. As for the lonely game I think you nailed it, 4 marriages tell you love for the moment. And maybe to avoid loneliness. There is a difference between alone time and lonely. But to each their own. Its always traced back to comfortability with yourself so you can be satisfied with respecting others. But she’s young yet.
Reading between the lines she probably got married because he isn’t American. That’s not to say it isn’t a real, committed, loving relationship but it can be huge hassle not to have that piece of paper when you’re from different countries. I know two couples who got married for this reason. They would have been cool with just living together but it made things much easier to get hitched.
Her husband was the stunt double for Max’s crazy flaming guitarist guy, which I find amusing.
I hate being alsone too but contrary to Riley I haven’t been in a lot of relationships. I date and fall in love but it has very rarely translated into real, working relationships. I actually think it might be because of me haing being alone TOO much – I always want to meet and hang out wit more people, new people (which I’ve heard makes me a bad/flakey girlfriend).