“WHEN The Trailer for the Netflix Limited Series Sirens Droped, A Viewer Commented, “This Is The Third Show I’ve Seen Where Meghann Fay Is Lozing Her Mind on I. That lavish coastal settings and expert wealth is a common Thread of Her Latest Projects – The White Lotus, The”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
“I GUESS AUDIENCES WANT TO SEE Rich People Behaving Badly in Nice Places!” She Tells Thr with a laugh. “I didn’t Realize I Had Done Three of Those Shows in a Row Until Someone Pointed It Out to Me After Sirens. THEN I WAS LIKE, ‘OH SHIT, I GOTTA DO SOMETING ELSE.’ ”
Here, Fahy, who played daphne on the Italy-Set Season Two of The White LotusTalks About Her Emmy Contenders The Perfect Couple an Sirenswhother she feels typeCast and whoh she might be done with Water Work for a while.
Let’s Start with The Perfect Couple. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO PLAY MERITT?
Merritt Seemed Like Somebody Who Desperately Wanted A Family. To me, that’s her motivation, and i found that really fascinating. Obviously, she was a Really Bad Weekend, and The Affair Is Horrible, But I Was Approaching It From A StandPoint of Really Wants to Create that for Herself.
I Read That Flash Mob Scene in the Opening Credits Was Notating You All Wanted to DO. Is that TRUE?
Oh, It’s Very True. None of US WANTED TO DO IT. I Really Struggle with Learning Choreography. That’s Kind of My Everest, But Yeah, We Were All Like, “This Is Insane!” We Were All Really Surprised that on the Day of Doing Iting, We Were Just Having So Much Fun, and It Was Effective In Its Way. People Talked About It – I Guess That Was Whaty Were Going For. But We Were Just Like, “Whose Idea Was This? This Is So Random.”
Talk to me about your Dead body cas.
One of the Crazier Experiences of My Life Was Getting A “LIFECAST” [a body dummy]. Itok All Day – They Do your Head First, Ten Your Arms, Midsection, Legs, Your Feet and Your Hands Separataly. They Pour Thick Silicone, and Ten They Put Plaster On Top of That, Who Creates A Chemical Reaction That Cause Intence Heat. It was Really Uncomfortable. I HAD TO MEDITATE THROUGH IT. … But is great, because then you don’ne to be in the Water as Much, WHICH is Also Really Hard. The first time i ever had to do anything in the water was The White Lotusthe Opening WHEN I’M RUNNING. That seized Like not a Lot of Water Water, as It’s Called, But We Filmed That For So Many Hours, and at the end of the day, My Who Body Was Shaking. In The Perfect CoupleDakota [Fanning] And I HAD to DO SO MANY DIFFERENT Versions of Walking Into The Actual Water, and THEN WE HAD A WHOLE DAY WHERE WEERE WE FILMED at AT A POOL, AND THEN IT CUTS TOCHETER AND IT LOOKS LIKS WAS. I HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED THAT BEFORE. Jack Reyonor[Fay’s[Fahy’sPerfect Coupple Co-Star]Was Like, “if i read a script and there HE WAS LIKE, “I’V DONE MY TIME.” It’s Really Tedious. I Definitely Will Be Paying More Attmentation in the Future to Anything Involves Water in the Script.
Meghann Fahy As Merritt in The Perfect Couple. Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix
WHAT ABOUT The MYSTERY/Murder Mystery Genre You Hit with The White Lotus, The Perfect Couple an Sirens Lately? Plus, you just did Drop.
It is a genre that i love to watch, and then i THINK Sirensfor me, was less that, and more kind of the Dark Comedy Component to It, Because that’s Another Genre That I Love. WHEN I SIGNED ON TO DO SirensI had on the first episode, so i didn’t Even Really Know Where It Was Going to G, WHICH WAS REALLY FUN FIND IT OBT as We Were Making it.
At the heart of Sirens Lies the Relationship Between the Two Sisters. How did you and milly alcock devil that relatation ahead of chooting?
It Happy Naturally. I do Feel Protective of Her As An Older Sister, and The Way That You See Devon Being On the Show, I Feel That Way About Milly. I was Such A Fan of Hers Before Meeting Her, And Then, We Were Going to Be New York, Wich Is Where I Live, and So She Came, and We Hung Out Together Alone A Bunch Before Wea We just had a very easy connection in that way. IT’s So Funny, Because Milly, In Real Life, Is A Little Bit More Energeticly Like Devon – She’s A Little More Punk in Real Life – SO I THINK FOR HER, IT WASSY MASY DROP.
But Instaad, You Got to Play The “Punk” Character.
I loved it. I read the pilot and i was was like, i have to do this. I’ve Never Loved a Character This Way, and It’s So Different thanning I Had Ever Done Before. I was like, I hope that will let me step into this Space, Because the things that happles a lot in this Industry is, if you haven’t Done it before, people are a a a little skip. EveryBody is more comfortable asking you to do someting that’ve seeen you do before.
Does that lead to a slippery Slope of Being TypeCast?
I thinkk so. MOST PEOPLE MET ME FOR The FIRST TIME as An Actor on White Lotusand i love daphne, but i’m so different than her energy. Devon’s Comedic Sensiness Aligns More with Who I Feel I Am. And so i’ve always wanted to step into a role like that. There’s Something SO Liberating About Playing A Character Like Devon Who Literally Doesn’t Give A Fuck About Anything, At Least On the Surface. I wasn’t through what kind of my hair loked like or what my makeup loked like, Because she wasn’t either. IT WAS REALLY FREEING.
WHAT WAS YOUR MOST Challenging Scene On Sirens?
There is a scene in episode two beetween Milly and me, WHERE I Come to Bust Her Out in the Night and She Doesn’t Want to Go. IT’s this eight-Page Scene of Dialogue, and It’s Very Rare that for Television You Get To Do An Eight-Page Scene, So That Was Excitation In and Of ITSELF. And THEN WE WEER ABLE TO COOT IT SORT OF IN ONE TAKE, WHICH IS ALSO UNIQUE. IT WAS SO USEFUL BCAUSE The SCENE BECOMES VERY EMOTIONALLY Charged Between the Two of Them. … That was One of My Favorite Days i’ve Ever Had on any set. IT WAS SO SPECIAL THAT EVERYONONE CAME TOGETCHER TO SERVICE THE EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE OF WHAT We Were Doing.
What Was Your Way to Decompress After Some of the Harder Scenes?
WHEN I WAS DOING SirensI Started Dawson’s Creek. I would just watch it in my trailler or in my room, and i was just rolling through and it was Such A Different World that I washa to just kind of disconnect in that.
Fay As Devon and Milly Alcock As Simone In Sirens. Macall Polay/Netflix
You’ve been extremely busy and it look like you have no plans to stop. Can You Tease A Little Bit About Your UpComing Projects, The Good Daughter an The Banquet?
I’m in the Middle of Filming The Good Daughter Right Now. We Finish End of June. It’s Really Intense. The Story Is Pretty Dark, and Is An incredible Cast: Rose Byrne and Brendan Gleeson, Who and Just Shot My Last Scene With Yesterday, And I Was Just Kind of Pinching. and I Think Rose Is Too, Honestly. I’m having a blast, but it’s definitely a realy intense shoot, Lots of the Southern Dialog, WHICH is Beautific, but It’s So Melodic. … I Think We’re Supped to Finish Banquet MID-DECEMBER, AND THEN it’ll be the Holidays. And i’m already Thinking about WHERE MY NEXT LITTLE Travel Moment Is Going to Be. That’s how i treat myseld after i’ve been reality Busy, is plansning a trip to somewhere i’ve never been before.
This Story First Appeared in a June Stand-Alane Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To Receive The Magazine, Click Here to Subscribe.