Both your parents are actors: Did you always want to go into the business?
Well, I never really was dead set on acting. I always loved acting in high school and middle school. I did all the acting classes, but more sort of for fun than anything. And really, when I was 15, or maybe 14, I got really into movies and I got a Criterion Channel subscription, and became a total pretentious nut for the French New Wave and all that. That was really my first love.
My parents are actors, but they don’t talk about acting very much, because they’re like, “That’s our job. We do that every day. If we also talk about that in our private lives, then it will be all encompassing.” So, I didn’t really hear a lot about it from them. I mainly discovered it myself through cinema. My parents would always tell me, “You can’t be an actor. You don’t want to be an actor. It’s a really hard life.” Then I got an audition through my high school drama teacher to be in this movie called White Noise. When I got the audition, more so than acting, I was just like, “Oh my god. Noah Baumbach.” The Squid and the Whale is one of my favorite movies of all time. He’s a Brooklyn filmmaking legend, and I’m from Brooklyn. This would be so cool to get, because I could be on his set. Then, I got that, and one thing led to another, and now I adore acting. I wound up dropping out of college after one semester to do it, and [my parents were] really, really pissed off. Now, they totally support me. I think I just needed to prove to them that I was really serious about it. Because sometimes, when you’re 18 years old, you have these delusions [and] five years from then, you won’t feel the same.
Going back to Lochlan: Are you prepared for all the conversation around his actions after the kiss episode?
I am definitely not prepared. I don’t know. I mean, I’m on Instagram. I don’t have many followers, so I don’t know what it’s like to have a bunch of people trying to get in touch with you about your work and their opinions, whether they be positive or negative about what you’re doing. Yeah, I don’t know what to expect at all, but I’m ready. I hope.
How did you feel about Lochlan? He is this confused kid, but his actions are really strange and off-putting?
I always say my parents never really give me advice about the creative craft of acting. It’s something you have to discover for yourself. But the one thing they’ve always said, which I so agree with, is that you always have to love your character, even if they’re morally reprehensible. I don’t think Lochlan is necessarily morally reprehensible. But even if you’re playing Humbert Humbert in Lolita, even if you’re playing the villain in a Bond movie, you have to find a way to relate to your character and love them. If you don’t, then you’re not in your character’s skin unless it’s a rare circumstance in which you’re playing someone who hates themselves. I think it’s always an actor’s job to love their character, and I love Lochlan. I really do, and I really cherish the time I had playing him. Yeah, he fucks up, but don’t we all? I think he’s still a human being and I love him despite all that.
