LUCY FRY
Photographer: Lili Peper
Fashion Editor: Sanzhar
Blazer: I Love Pretty, Pants: MAXRIENY, Hat: Gladys Tamez Millinery
Interview by Sydney Nash
You were born and raised in Queensland, Australia and some of your first roles were in Australian television. What was it like for you to get your introduction to the industry in your home country and how does it differ from your experiences in Hollywood?
It was really lovely to start my first job on the Gold Coast in Australia, where I was close to my family and could go surfing and see friends in the evenings after work. It was easier to stay in touch with old friends. Essentially, I would say the workings on set are the same in Australia and America. They require the same commitment, people pull the same funny jokes and there’s always good camaraderie. What is different is that when you move to a new city for a job, the job becomes an all-encompassing focus. To get the work/life balance is harder than it was in Australia because a lot of your life is on the other side of the Pacific!
What was the biggest change for you when you moved to Los Angeles?
I think the layout of LA is a really hard thing to get used to. The fact that there are all these sprawling different little city centers, and everyone sits in their car all day to get to them. When I was a little munchkin and first moved to LA, I caught the bus to get to meetings and it was really hilarious. It would take me two hours to get anywhere! People would be like, “What?! You caught the BUS?!” In Australia, public transport is comparatively wonderful, and it really astounds me that such a developed city like LA could have such a terrible system. But! I want to say something positive, too. Getting used to how extrapeople are here was pretty fun and enjoying the sense of embracing your creativity in whatever way is exciting to you. That’s really uplifting.
Dress: ANNAKIKI, Corset: MAXRIENY, Wrap: WENDY JIM, Jewelry: WenYuan Jewellery, Shoes: Dissona
Some of your first roles were in films and TV shows directed towards a younger audience. How did that experience impact your approach to acting? What was the transition like when you started taking on roles for a more adult-focused audience?
I’ve never underestimated kids, so no matter what age the audience is, I bring as much depth to my characters as I can. Even in my first role in Australia as a surf-crazed alien, I was all about building a complicated inner life! It’s hard to be an alien and to love surfing so much that you have to travel through the galaxies to find a killer left break, you know? Kids can tell if you’re phoning it in. When you’re acting with kids on set, if you’re not fully present they’ll just get bored and zone out of the scene. You have to be on your game. Now that I am working in an adult-focused area, I enjoy creating characters who are a bit more raw and messy, like some skin has been peeled off them and they’re more volatile. Maybe you can see where their mind has been broken and where some veins are rupturing. I like getting into the muck of the human experience.
Blazer: I Love Pretty, Pants: MAXRIENY, Hat: Gladys Tamez Millinery
What do you view as being the most pivotal moment in your career so far?
I feel like in my career there have been lots of gentle steps. I suppose when I booked my first movie, VampireAcademy, I was like, Oh wow, great, this is working out and I can be a professional actor now. But since then, it’s been a journey from one role to the next, exploring lots of very different characters. I’ve really enjoyed being as transformative as I can be in my work. People tend not to recognize me as Marina Oswald in 11/22/63, or as Tikka in Bright, because my voice and physicality are so different from my normal self. As Marina I was Russian, as Tikka I had an elvish accent. I feel like it’ll be the same for Stella. She has an Italian NY accent, a lot of strut in her step, and 60s brown hair. I’m not “me” in anything I’ve done.
Shirt: MAXRIENY, Top: JW ANDERSON, Skirt: Stylist’s own, Shoes: Suzanne Rae, Jewelry: WenYuan Jewellery
Your work spans a number of different genres, including fantasy, horror and crime thrillers. Is there a specific genre you feel pulled to? Is there a genre you haven’t explored yet but want to?
I love magical realism. I’d love to be part of a movie like Pan’s Labyrinthone day. And I’ve also become a little bit obsessed with Maïwenn recently. Her films are electric and I love how real, unfiltered, and unselfconscious the performances are. I’d like to make a movie that offers that level of unflinching reality to the audience, because things that happen in real life are always so much more extreme than anything you could imagine.
Swimsuit: Miu Miu, Coat: ANNAKIKI, Hat: Gladys Tamez Millinery, Shoes: Dissona, Jewelry: Stylist’s own
Your newest project Godfather of Harlem premieres later this month on Epix, which is based on a true story. Tell me about your character Stella and the experience of portraying her.
Stella is a badass. She’s the daughter of the Italian mob leader Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, played by Vincent D’onofrio. The Chin is in a gang war with Forest Whitaker’s character, Bumpy Johnson. Stella is strong-willed and fiery. Her father underestimates her, so she uses that to get away with all her schemes. She loves music, and she’s fallen in love with the musician Teddy Green, played by Kelvin Harrison Junior. Stella’s challenges through the show are trying to figure out how to make a life for herself and Teddy in a world that won’t accept them as a mixed race couple and to break away from her father’s tyrannical control over her. Stella is a little bit eccentric, and one thing that I found hilarious about her family, with The Chin, Stella and Olympia, is that they are this tough, gangster family, and they are all incredibly eccentric people!
Blazer: I Love Pretty, Pants: MAXRIENY, Hat: Gladys Tamez Millinery
With the show being based on true events, do you find it easier or more challenging when you begin to prepare for the role?
Well, Stella is one of the characters in the show that wasn’t based on a real person, so I had free rein. I liked the guidelines that I had to work with though. Like, the music world in Harlem in 1963. The civil rights movement. Learning what it was like for a white girl, who had very little power as a female, wanting to overcome the systemic race barriers between her and her love. It’s helpful to have so many resources to look into when building the character. As I researched gang violence in the 60s, I saw the oppression that was driving it, for both the Italian and African American gangs. Bumpy Johnson is a poet, and with his perceptive impactful words, he drives the conversation around this oppression, and through that I hope people make connections to what’s going on today, too.
What are you looking forward to most in the upcoming year?
That’s hard to know because you can never tell what the most exciting things will be until they get here! Just wanting to stay present for all of it, I guess.
Blazer: I Love Pretty, Pants: MAXRIENY, Hat: Gladys Tamez Millinery
Quick Q’s
What is the most underrated app on your phone?
Underrated by me or by other people? I like the Marine Debris tracker. It’s a citizen science project on an app where you can track trash you find on the beaches (hopefully as you pick it up). Then, if you are interested, you can see patterns of what kind of trash is landing where, how the currents move it and hopefully raise awareness and help scientists understand and make plans to reduce it.
If you weren’t an actress, what career would you have?
Visual artist and Psychologist. Probably art therapy. I’m currently studying for an arts degree online in literature and psychology. It’s helpful for my work as an actor to understand how the brain works and what is going on cognitively when we display maladaptive behavior, which most of my characters do!
What was the last song that you listened to?
“Wake Me Up” by Aloe Blacc.
What’s your biggest passion outside of acting?
Painting.
Biggest pet peeve?
Narcissism.
Next vacation spot?
Home? Australia.
What’s the biggest misconception Americans have about Australians?
Hmm.. maybe that Australians are happy ,little surfing beach bums, which of course we aren’t. But sometimes I am.
If you’re not filming or on set, where can we find you?
In the sea.
Photographer: Lili Peper
Fashion Editor: Sanzhar
Interview by Sydney Nash
Make-up: Mai Quynh
Hair: Sunnie Brook
Layout design: Allie King
Creative Director: Deborah Ferguson