Kaitlyn Dever on playing ‘horrible' characters in ‘Last of Us', ‘Apple Cider Vinegar': ‘I just don't see any other option but to give 100 percent'

Yahoo

a day ago

When she's not conning the world, she's gunning for the world.
Such is the acting life of Kaitlyn Dever, whose twin performances this season — as the conniving Belle Gibson on Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar and the vengeful Abby on HBO's The Last of Us — have her poised for a potential double nomination come July 15.
More from GoldDerby
'Wicked: For Good' trailer teases more monkeys, a wedding, and Dorothy
Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood: The debunked 'White Lotus' feud explained
Justine Lupe on the unexpected chemistries that power Netflix's 'Nobody Wants This'
"Getting the opportunity to take on such different roles is really what means the most to me as a person and also as an actor," says Dever, who took a break from filming Godzilla x Kong to talk to Gold Derby. Here, she reveals what draws her to challenging characters, how she nailed that Australian accent, and what to expect for season 3 of The Last of Us.
Gold Derby: Congratulations on being an overachiever this Emmy season.
Kaitlyn Dever: I think it's just all so much luck. I feel so lucky that I've been able to work as much as I have in the past few years, and to get to do so many different kinds of roles and work so many different muscles — and some muscles that I didn't even think I had. It's such a gift to be able to tap into these darker roles and heavier roles, and getting to do an Australian accent is such a rarity for an American.
It certainly feels like you're not afraid to take on a challenge. What makes you say yes to a part?
I think it probably is the challenge. I really do like to push certain boundaries with myself and see how far I can go with something because I do feel like my job, as I've done it more and more, feels really therapeutic. I've worked really hard, and then it's in the can, and then whatever happens after that, I leave it up to the world to decide.
SEE'The Last of Us': Kaitlyn Dever will campaign as guest actress at the Emmys for Season 2 (exclusive)
When your characters aren't necessarily the heroine of a story or aren't necessarily likable, how do you find your way into them?
This is the thing I've thought a lot about recently because you're right, I have not played the [heroine]. When you first meet someone like Abby, she does something truly very horrible. And then you learn through the course of watching the show that she might not be so different from the rest of the people in that world. But for someone like Belle, she really does something so terrible and so horrible. And when I first read Apple Cider Vinegar, I was so mind-blown. I just couldn't believe someone would go through that much to do that kind of thing. The amount of lives that she affected by lying about having brain cancer is just so horrific and terrible.
I have such a personal relationship with cancer, and so I just was furious. And so yes, I was wondering that myself, how I was going to take that fury and turn that into what I ended up doing. What I found with our writer, creator Samantha Strauss, is that she was someone that just was desperately craving love and community and would do anything to get it. Getting to discover a little bit more about her background and where she comes from and how she didn't really receive a lot of love, or the love that she wanted growing up, I think that that was helpful for me to keep in the back of my mind while playing her.
What was great is that Sam Strauss with this story really wanted to create our own version of Belle Gibson because even though she does have a presence online, and a huge social media following, we really won't ever know, I think, who the real Belle Gibson is anyway. So I felt like I had to give everything I had to this character and go a little bit wild with it. Because she is a bit wild with who she is around certain people. She's very seductive in one scene and then crying her eyes out in another scene and then screaming and then, singing 'Firework' by Katy Perry a capella in front of a group of people. Whether it's embarrassing myself or feeling really sad, I just don't see any other option but to give 100 percent of my energy.
SEEKaitlyn Dever out front in Drama Guest Actress Emmy odds for killer 'The Last of Us' role
Talk about creating that Australian accent. I've heard nothing but praise for how authentic it was.
Creating that accent was certainly just so daunting because it's such a hard accent to do, and I've never done it before. I genuinely thought that when they sent me the script, they sent it to the wrong person. I thought they had the wrong email address, I swear, because I've never proven myself in that way or done an accent. I've only really done southern accents. That's as far as I've gone in accent work. They just really put their trust in me. So three months before we started shooting, I started meeting with the dialect coach. I truly would not have been able to do this accent at all without her. Because I have a little bit of a music ear, I was able to hear every little thing I did wrong, which was I think a blessing and a curse.
Were you able to reference the video interviews the real Belle Gibson had done?
Yes, I watched those for sure. I used that iconic 60 Minutes interview with the pink turtleneck and that intense lip gloss. I just kept saying, I think we need more. I want the light to reflect off of my lips. I used that as the core and then pulled from that. Because if you watch that interview, you can really see there's so much going on behind her eyes. I mean, it's fascinating to watch that interview. There was also an interview of her at an Apple event, and there was one other video that she did with her publisher where they were fact-checking her. And it was watching those that I discovered just how much of a chameleon she is and how she will literally do whatever it takes. She puts on a different type of voice and a different attitude around certain people. So she's kind of an actor to me.
You mentioned you've got a personal connection to cancer; I know you were dealing with your mother's illness. So how did you also protect yourself emotionally during filming?
There were only a few moments that were triggering, like the part where I'm getting a brain scan. But the timing was just too crazy when this project came into my life. My mom had just started sort of exploring, in addition to her chemotherapy and radiation, integrative type of care just to help boost her immune system and was looking into nonconventional therapies. So the things that they were discussing, I was like, "Jesus. This is so, so close to home." All of the coffee enemas and all of the IV therapy, that was my life for so long, and it was my life when I left to go shoot the show in Australia. There was a moment when I was afraid to go to Australia and leave my family — you know, god forbid something happened at the time. I was really scared to do it, but what kept me going was actually my mom. I got to talk to her every single day on the job and FaceTiming and showing her my new bleached blonde hair. I hold those memories very close, and I was able to protect myself in that way. My mom was there for me for all of those moments, which, I guess, ultimately, was the thing that helped me. It's pretty powerful.
Let's talk about Abby. You had just one line in the finale, and wow, did you deliver. Where did you summon the emotional energy for that one?
For that job, I felt like I was totally floating through set. And for some reason, I guess, all of those emotions and that anger and that pain, I had a lot of that. And so it was just a matter of amping it up to Abby mode. I think that was ultimately what I did for that character and really getting to this this deep, deep, deep rage and just full-on rage. We saw quite a bit of it in episode two. But that last scene, you don't have much time to tell that story or to give too much context on who Abby is. So I just had to let every moment, every word that I said really matter and make the most of it. I only did three episodes total, and I really wanted to make sure that I did whatever I could to use what I had. Craig Mazin is such a brilliant writer that I had so much to work with. It's just about going through the backstory, too, and what Abby has had to see and what she's had to deal with leading up to that very point, and some of that we haven't seen yet. So it was just a matter of imagining that.
How much do you know from the game, and what are we going to see in Season 3?
The first game I played a couple of times with my dad, and then the second game, I only played to a certain point, because it was right around the time I had my first meeting with Craig and Neil Druckman. And Neil was actually very clear on not finishing the game. I really want you to come at this with a fresh pair of eyes. But in that meeting, they told me a lot about their plans. We're going to get to dive even deeper into Abby in season three, and I'm really looking forward to doing that. There's a lot of stuff that has happened that we don't really know about. Obviously, it's all there in the game, and I'm excited to get to explore more of that.
Fans obviously have lots of feelings about Abby. Do you pay attention to it?
A lot of people have asked me this, especially before the show came out, and obviously I was going to check. I have a phone, and I'm a human being, and I'm going to look. I can't help it. And it's been OK. Any negativity ... I'm able to continue to do my work. There is a lot of hatred for the character Abby in the game. There just is. But I had to just put in its own box and just give a 100 percent of myself to doing my job and doing the character and just hope that people are able to separate real person from character. And the way that they structured the show, they gave a little more context to Abby in Season 2. Because in the game, they don't actually do that. In the game, Abby literally shows up and kills Joel. And then all of a sudden you're playing as Abby. You're like, who's this lady? What is going on right now? You have no idea who she is. It was nice and also helpful to be given that context and to see her pain.
Do you think she feels any guilt or remorse over killing Joel, or is it just what she needed to do?
I think when you experience that kind of grief, that's what drives her. She is so angry about that loss, and she's just riddled with grief and pain. She's just a very broken person at the end of the day. For me in playing the character, I had to approach the role in thinking that, she's someone who lost someone she loves, and spends five years planning on how she was going to get revenge. And I think that planning in all of those five years it sort of brainwashes you in a lot of ways. There's no other way to think about it. This is the plan. This is what I have to do to feel better. Because when you're grieving, all you want is for that pain to go away. And what you really want is just that person back, but that's not going to happen. But I don't know if that really, at the end of the day, it made her feel any better.
What do you want to see for her next season?
All Craig tells me, is 'Oh boy, Kaitlyn.' He just wants to level up. We're going to be bigger is what he's told me. So I'm excited for whatever that means.
Best of GoldDerby
Chloë Sevigny on Kitty Menendez and 'Monsters' fascination: 'People are endlessly curious about those who have privilege and abuse it'
Jason Isaacs relives filming 'The White Lotus' piña colada scene: 'It was one of the reasons I was worried about taking the job'
The Making of 'Out of My Mind': Inside the groundbreaking Disney+ film redefining disability representation on screen
Click here to read the full article.