Riley Keough details directorial debut ‘War Pony’ and her initial fears in industry

Riley Keough detailed the making of her upcoming directorial debut, War Pony, which received the Caméra d’Or award for best debut feature at the Cannes film festival last year.

In an interview with the Guardian, the Daisy Jones & the Six star, 33, admitted that having belonging to a famous family did help open doors for her.

“Amazing opportunities! I walked into agencies, met with agents,” the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla told the outlet.

While she had the privilege of opportunities, Keough was still having second thoughts over fears that she “wouldn’t be taken seriously.”

However, Keough went on to land a breakthrough film role in Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, followed by American Honey, and the TV shows The Girlfriend Experience and Daisy Jones & the Six.

War Pony, produced by Keough and friend and producing partner Gina Gammell, is the story of two young Oglala Lakota men on “the rez” whose lives cross paths at the end of the movie.

The script was written by Bill Reddy and Sioux Bob (with Gammell), who she met in 2015 in a motel in South Dakota waiting to shoot a scene in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey.

Earlier in March, Keough shared her experience in an interview with Net-a-Porter of finally being validated after her movie played at 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

For Keough, being recognised at Cannes meant a lot more than just having her name on a trophy. She explained that in the past she “found it easier to sort of disengage and play dumb.”

“I think it’s years of being a female, going, ‘Please listen, I know what I’m talking about’ – and then it not amounting to anything… So, it was a moment, as a woman, where you go, ‘F--k you’. I am not here by accident. I put a lot of work in to be here,” she told the outlet.

War Pony is slated for release on June 9, 2023 (United Kingdom) July 28, 2023 (United States).