Lola’s notes on jungle life
Lola Kirke tells she still hasn’t figured out classical music - or acting.
Sudain
LMatt
ola Kirke is nice. You can tell she’s nice because the first thing she asked is how people living in Britain like me are dealing with Brexit.
She was in Venice doing media for Mozart in the Jungle, just days after the infamous vote, and she’d picked up on the low mood amongst the European hacks.
‘‘How are you guys doing?’’ she said with a tone like she was talking to a group who just lost a much loved relative. I wanted to tell her that Europeans tend to look depressed a lot of the time anyway.
I watched as one Italian journalist, old enough to be her father, asked her in the most patronising way possible whether Mozart cheapens itself by relying too much on ‘‘the sex’’.
‘‘I don’t think the show is that explicitly sexy,’’ she said. ‘‘But I do think that my character Hailey’s journey as an artist and a woman is one that could be relatable to lots of young people.’’
‘‘Maybe it gives the wrong advice, the show,’’ the Italian guy suggested.
‘‘I don’t know,’’ replied Kirke, kindly. ‘‘Maybe.’’
During season one of Mozart, Kirke’s character, Hailey Rutledge, had to take the rough with the smooth, and put up with her fair share of condescending jerks. During season two, she grew in confidence as a person and a musician. In season three, her newfound confidence is likely to be shaken again, but Kirke wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘‘I think it’s great that her journey towards success isn’t straightforward and simple. There are so many hurdles that she has to overcome. Hailey as a character is treading this line between an artist and being in the modern world.’’
Kirke was born in England (so perhaps that explains her post-Brexit empathy) and raised in New York from the age of 5. Her dad was the drummer for Bad Company; her mother owned a famous New York boutique, which supplied some of the outfits for Sex and the City. So it was maybe inevitable that Lola would end up in a glamorous show about music, set in New York.
‘‘I grew up with music, but I definitely didn’t grow up in a home where people went, ‘Have you heard the new Mozart?’ I thought classical music was something only old people or my dentist listened to. It wasn’t the exciting thing to me that I’m learning it really is.’’
After joining the show, she discovered Carmen, Madam Butterfly,
Anne of Green Gables
the ‘‘greatest hits’’ of opera, as she describes it. She also found composers like Sibelius, and Ravel, ‘‘It’s all pretty incredible.’’
Getting to grips with the subject matter of this show takes a certain level of discipline, and focus.
‘‘Because classical music is such a foreign art-form to me, even as I do season three, you have to spend as much time as a classical musician spends to really get it.
‘‘And maybe you never get it. I know that as an actor I’ve spent a really long time trying to figure out what this thing is, and I still don’t know what acting is. That’s why it’s exciting to me.’’
Kirke acknowledges how intimidating it was to join a show with seasoned performers like Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters and Saffron Burrows, but also how much she’s come to depend on their mentorship and support.
‘‘I think the initial intimidation has worn off because of how generous and kind everyone is.
‘‘I kind of feel like this big baby all the time. Like, I have all these parents and brothers and sisters.
‘‘Monica [Monica Bellucci, who joined the show this season] makes me feel like I’ve taken a Xanax whenever I’m with her. She has this very calming manner.’’
She also feels lucky to be working with her co-star, Gael Garcia Bernal.
‘‘Gael and I are really close. He’s a really great friend. I think that the relationship between Hailey and Rodrigo [Gael’s eccentric Latin America conductor character] is a special one.
‘‘I think if the writers weren’t so brilliant it would just be a romantic connection.
‘‘But because they are so brilliant, it’s so much more. It involves mentorship, and admiring someone for their artistic ability.’’
So there’s no one on set who’s tried to deliberately sabotage your career like Betty (Debra Monk) in season one? ‘‘No! Debra is incredible in real life. She’d never do something like that.’’
The show, made by Amazon, is officially a comedy, though Kirke acknowledges that in our age those lines aren’t always clear.
‘‘You can approach any subject with humour. I think you see in shows like Transparent and Mozart, that you can be a person who has a lot of intense circumstances, but if you have positivity and optimism, your life could be a comedy instead of a tragedy.’’
And with the word ‘‘tragedy’’ the subject immediately switches back to Brexit. Kirke again offers condolences. I say, ’’I’m Kiwi – New Zealand is my rip-cord if it all goes bad’’.
As for whether there might possibly be a Brexit storyline in the show, she politely says it’s possible, though she thinks it’s unlikely the show will change its name to Brexit in the Jungle.
Mozart in the Jungle
'I don't think the show is that explicitly sexy... but my character Hailey's journey as an artist and a woman is one that could be relatable to lots of young people.' Lola Kirke
is now streaming on Lightbox.