Riley Keough reveals strict rule she follows for acting performances

Riley Keough shared how she stays far away from an ‘unhealthy’ practice of using her very personal feelings for her acting method.

The actress, 35, talked about maintaining strict boundaries between her personal and her character’s emotions during a conversation with Jena Malone about her Hulu limited series Under the Bridge at an event in Los Angeles, via People Magazine.

Keough plays late author Rebecca Godfrey, who wrote a book about the 1997 murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk, in the new series.

Godfrey, who died in 2022 at the age of 54, lost her 16-year-old brother Jonathan when she was 13 after he “fell from a bluff near their home and drowned.”

On the other hand, the Daisy Jones & the Six star’s brother Benjamin died by suicide in 2020, years before her mother Lisa Marie Presley's death in 2023.

“I don’t typically use my own life in my acting career because I think I would be insane,” she said in response to a question about whether her brother's death, in particular, affected her acting method.

Noting that while this may work for other actors, Keough thinks “it would be very unhealthy for me personally,” as they often have to perform the scene repeatedly for different takes.

She continued, “I really try and protect myself — it's a hard job because you're going to work and having to be extremely vulnerable and raw.”

Keough also explained that her situation “didn’t totally apply” to her characters given the different nature of the scenarios. The Zola star shared that she focusses instead on the “headspace of the character.”