After playing in Flower Moon Killers alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, you’d think few actors could shake Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone. But then she met him Under the bridge costars.
In the Hulu limited series based on the true story of the 1997 murder of teenager Reena Virk by her classmates, Gladstone plays cop Cam Bentland, a composite character representing the local police working on the case. Although she frequently shares the screen with co-star Riley Keough, who plays journalist Rebecca Godfrey (who wrote one of the books the series is based on), many of her scenes are with the young actors playing the teenagers in Reena’s circle: Chloe Guidry, Izzy G., Aiyana Goodfellow and Javon “Wanna” Walton.
“Each of these kids, when I had the chance to be in scenes with them, they elevated my performance,” Gladstone, 37, tells PEOPLE. “Leaving Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, the scene partners that have terrified me the most in recent years are these kids because they are so good. They don’t lie.”
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“And you can tell these kids — who are all actors and want to be actors and have studied that — that they grew up watching some really incredible performances,” she continues. “There are much more complex characters for their age group, and they handle them so well. The strength of all their performances and what they brought to their roles is just indicative of what kids are capable of .They live and breathe what they do.”
Keough, 34, adds: “I’ve had moments with each of them that have blown me away. There’s a certain rawness or honesty about young performers, I think, that’s really powerful when you’re working with them.”
These intense and impressive performances from the show’s rising stars were essential to the series because, as Gladstone says, “the whole story is about the power of the teenage girl.”
Disney
Off-screen, Gladstone says, the young actors became great friends.
“It was an interesting balance, seeing these beautiful kids who are so supportive of each other, who are such good friends with each other, who miss each other when one has a day and the other goes home to on weekends,” Gladstone recalls. “Chloe and Vritika [Gupta, who played Reena] are very close. Chloe always sent her little videos when she wasn’t around and felt almost protective of her, I think, because Vritika was the youngest of all the children.”
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A similar support system also existed between Gladstone and Keough, who first connected via social media in 2018 and were excited to work together on Under the bridge.
“Lily is the kindest, sweetest, gentlest soul, so she’s very easy to work with when you have heavy scenes,” Keough said. “And I love watching actors so much, and it’s such a joy, and when you’re a fan of someone and you work with them and watch them perform, it’s like… Even if the material is heavy, it’s such a beautiful thing to experience that when you’re playing with someone you’re a fan of.”
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New episodes of Under the bridge drop Wednesdays on Hulu.
