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Jun 23, 2014 Haley Lu Richardson By Chris Tinkham

One of the breakout talents at this year’s LA Film Fest was 19-year-old actress Haley Lu Richardson, who starred in two films making their world premiere: the post-apocalyptic action thriller, The Well, and the collegiate romantic comedy, The Young Kieslowski, which earned the festival’s audience award for Best Narrative Feature. The Well, directed by Tom Hammock, is set in a desolate, expansive valley, where water is scarce and monopolized by a ruthless baron. Richardson’s character, a resolute 17-year-old named Kendal, comes off as a cross between Mad Max and The Bride from Kill Bill as she pushes her mind and body to extremes on a deadly gauntlet to save herself and her dwindling band of young allies. In The Young Kieslowski, written and directed by Kerem Sanga, Richardson plays Leslie Mallard, a Caltech student whose plan to stay celibate until marriage goes awry when a drunken night of sex with an awkward schoolmate (Ryan Malgarini) leads to pregnancy with twins. Sanga is a twin, and he and his sibling were conceived while their parents were students at Stanford.

Richardson displays impressive range across the two films, bringing dramatic intensity and physical prowess to The Well, and pathos and comedic charm to The Young Kieslowski, as Mallard (as she’s called throughout the film) grapples with impending motherhood. The press notes for The Well state that Richardson walked in from extras casting and that her only previous credits at the time were “a local Arizona industrial and a Christmas tornado feature.”

Under the Radar met with Haley Lu Richardson in a deserted concourse area of the JW Marriott hotel for a rapid-fire interview before she headed across the street for a post-screening Q&A for The Young Kieslowski.

Chris Tinkham (Under the Radar): Are these your first two feature films?

Haley Lu Richardson: I had done a TV movie, like a Christmas movie [Christmas Twister] before I did The Well. But The Well was really my first starring role.

It’s pretty cool to have lead roles in two films at the fest.

Oh yeah, it’s an honor. It’s really cool. It’s scary!

Your face is on the big screen.

My face is really huge right in front of me, so it’s really easy to cringe and pick apart my performance. I think that happens to a lot of actors. So it’s scary and kind of tough to watch, even though they’re good movies and people seem to like them. It’s tough for me to watch them, but it’s equally an honor.

What do you think of the main publicity shot for The Well?

The oil?

Yeah.

Honestly, first I was a little mad at everyone for picking that shot, ‘cause it’s so unflattering! You can’t even see my face. But it is pretty epic, and makes you drawn in and intrigued when you look at the picture. And also frightened. [Laughs] I’m pretty frightened by it, but it’s cool.

How tough was that scene to shoot?

Everyone keeps asking, “Was it so hot out there in California City when you were filming?” It was the opposite, ‘cause we were filming December and January, so it was freezing. The wind was blowing, and it was crisp on my face, and I had to go in that oil mixture over and over again, and it got in every single crevice, every single pore, places where you don’t want to have fake oil. [Laughs] So it was tough.

What was the toughest part of the shoot?

I think I started to reach my breaking point toward the end of filming, also at the end of the movie where I’m covered in oil. That was really tough, ‘cause it was freezing, I was covered in this mucky, fake-oil chocolate-sauce stuff, and I had to do these rigorous fight scenes over and over. My hair was falling out and my face was getting all dry and irritated from the oil makeup, and my body hurt, and I was cold, and I was getting sick. And I still had to be in that dark, kind of guarded, intense place that Kendal is in in the movie. So it was emotionally and physically crazy toward the end.

There are scenes where you hair blends in perfectly with the weeds.

Camouflage. [Laughs]

Was there any dye involved to get that effect?

No. That’s really funny. Yeah, the world we were filming in was all golden brown, and my hair is kind of that sandy brown color. It is kinda cool. I was like a little camouflage ninja that whole movie. [Laughs]

Did you have to train with weapons?

Oh yeah, I had never held any sort of weapon, any sort of gun, sword, anything before I booked this role. So, right when I did, Tom was very careful and smart and took me to the gun range, and I went with some of the producers and had to do some gun lessons. And then we did a lot of rehearsals for the fight choreography with the weapons. We were all really careful about it. I don’t think any of them wanted to put a weapon in my hands without me being fully prepared. [Laughs] ‘Cause I’m just this idiot 17-year-old girl. What do I know about any of that?

Tom said that you dancer background helped with movement and control. Was that something he became aware of after you were cast, or did you make that known to him?

It was really funny. They asked me in one of the auditions, “So, do you have any fighting or weapon training?” I was like, “uh.” And they asked, “Do you do any sort of sports or physical activity?” I said, “I dance!” I was a really intense competitive dancer. Somehow, they turned that into something they could work with. It definitely did help with all the fight sequences and the choreography of that.

What kind of dance?

I do contemporary and jazz. And I did competitive dance back in Arizona, where I’m from, with Cannedy Performing Arts. That was my dance studio. I did a lot of dance, like 25 to 30 hours a week, for eight years in a row.

I understand that this was a prolonged audition process for The Well.

Yeah, I think they really wanted to find the right girl. I don’t know if I’m the right girl. I hope I am. I loved working on the project, and the minute I read the script, I saw myself as Kendal. But yeah, I think they saw a lot of girls and saw a lot of girls that were way more qualified than I was. Somehow, they felt that I was the right choice, and I’m really lucky.

As that drags on, does it make you want the role even more?

It makes you want the role even more. It makes you get in your head even more. It makes all of the pressure go up. And it also makes you even more hopeful. It builds up the hope. You get the callback and the test and stuff, and you’re almost there, it’s right in front of you, and then most of the time when you get to that place, you don’t get it. So all that crashes down. But it’s really worth it when you do get a part that you really want, that you’ve worked hard for.

When you tell people that you’re in a film called The Young Kieslowski, do they assume it has to do with the director? Is it confusing?

Well, most of the people I’m friends with don’t know who that is. There are a couple of people who say, “Wait, is that about…?” And I say, “No.” Kerem, the director, just got the idea for the name from him. And that’s pretty much all that has to do with that.

I’m a big fan of his films, but I couldn’t figure out if there was any connection beyond that.

Nope, no connection. [Laughs]

What is Old Testament hair?

[Laughs] That’s something that only drunk Mallard knows.

Did Kerem ever explain that to you?

I guess like George Washington, and how they all wore the wigs and stuff, and like that swoopy thing. Maybe that’s what drunken Leslie Mallard was referring to when she thought of that? But sober Haley does not know. [Laughs] Sober Haley has no clue.

You talked about the headspace that you had to be in for The Well, but both characters carry a heavy burden.

Yes, in very different ways. Both were difficult places to go.

And both characters have maternal instincts. Did you feel those kicking in at all?

Yeah, and the thing is, being motherly, having maternal instincts isn’t my strong suit. So in working on both characters and studying, I noticed that, and I really tapped into that. Both characters, Kendal and Leslie Mallard, were pretty sensitive on the inside, but they built up these walls around them. I think that’s one thing that they have in common. I think when you build up a wall around yourself, you automatically do that for other people, and you want to keep other people safe. That’s something I don’t really have, as me, Haley. I don’t really have any walls. So it was fun to experiment with that in both movies.