Lola Kirke Discusses Her Role In ‘Mistress America’

It’s only a matter of time before she becomes a household name, so get to know her!

Lola may be a new face to some, but by no means is she just breaking into acting. She has previously starred in Gone Girl and currently stars in Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle. Mistress America follows Lola’s character as a college student in New York as she is taken under the wing of her soon to be step sister, played by Greta Gerwig. Not only is Lola a great actor, but she’s also a joy to talk to. Lola took time to answer some questions about her role, the movie, and herself. Check our roundtable interview with the actress.

When did you start getting interested in acting?

Kirke: Oh, like way too long ago. It’s kind of boring and also miraculous that I was like one of the few 8-year old girls who was like I want to be an actress and then it’s happening. But yea, for a long time.

Do you relate to the character?

Kirke: Definitely. Yea, I do. I mean she feels really different from me but I also have had a slew of friendships where I have truly like, you know, idolized somebody and then seen the cracks in that and found myself through that and also just like tried to, you know, I’ve been saying this a lot and I still haven’t figured out an eloquent way of saying it, but I think that what’s essential to Tracy is that she’s trying to be the person that she thinks, Brooke thinks, she is throughout a lot of the movie. She’s performing for her and I definitely relate to that.

Noah and Greta like to do a lot of takes. How do you feel in that kind of environment?

Kirke: It can be exhausting and horrible but it can also be an incredible way of exploring a scene and I love the movie so now I’m like alright, lets do a million takes of everything. Cause I think in film and T.V there’s really little time for rehearsal and if you do rehearse it’s for the camera and filmmakers are really afraid of magic being lost. So they’ll be like don’t do anything just walk through it or whatever it is. I grew up doing theater so that was a really foreign experience for me and the idea that like, I say the words on a piece of paper and memorize them and five minutes later that’s going to be forever and be shown to lots of people is really terrifying. Getting to do lots of takes builds into rehearsal and I know that Noah and Greta mentioned that like statistically they will always use later takes it in the edit. In the beginning you’re like so excited about the scene because you love it and then like take 20 you fucking hate it, and then like take 30 you are asleep and take 40 it’s like brilliant so it’s kind of cool to go through that flow.

Did you film the last scene at the end?

Kirke: I think that it wasn’t the last scene that we shot. The last scene that we shot was actually me smoking a bowl on the steps of the house in Connecticut and it was really wild. It was this very quiet ending to this very raucous experience. I like sat there in the fucking freezing cold for three hours doing a million takes of me silhouetted smoking a bowl and then they were like alright, that’s a rap, and I was like what!

What was your favorite scene?

Kirke: I really like the bar scene with Rebecca Henderson because I think she’s brilliant. I also really like it when they’re all going, I mean I love the whole part in Connecticut, but specifically, when they’re all like walking in a row and talking and like excited about the restaurant spiel.

Talk a bit more about that bar scene.

Kirke: It’s a really interesting scene. I was actually catatonic during that entire scene. I think I ate like 20 hot dogs, actually, in the scene, because we shot it all day. We shot it a bar in New York that wouldn’t shut for the day because I think their clientele would have passed away if they had alcohol withdrawal for long enough so there was like many very drunk people in there at 6 a.m. by watching over and by 5 p.m. like the weirdest people come in, but Rebecca just nailed it despite of all of the odds that were stacked against her.

Can you talk about any interesting things you have coming up?

Kirke: I’m back to shoot season two of Mozart in the Jungle, the show that I do with Amazon and I just finished a movie with Doug Liman with Tom Cruise called Mena. 

Mistress America will be in select theaters August 14.