NO ‘LIE,’ SHE’S A LITTLE MONSTER
Joey King on her twisted role
Some lies are killers — the gist of the psychological horror film, “The Lie,” hitting Amazon Prime on Tuesday.
The movie is from the Emmy-nominated duo known for AMC’s mystery crime series “The Killing” — star Mireille Enos and creator Veena Sud — and features Enos, “The Kissing Booth” actress Joey King, and Peter Sarsgaard as a fractured family bonded by a heinous crime and cover up.
The film follows the desperate effort by exes Rebecca (Enos) and Jay (Sarsgaard) to protect their teen Kayla (King) from her own actions at all costs.
King told the Daily News viewers will have“so much empathy for” the“sad” and“lost girl” Kayla, and understand she’s “lonely and scared and just wants that love and affirmation from her parents” — though it comes at a cost.
“We can also see the side where she is a monster for doing what she’s done,” King, 21, added.
For newcomers to Sud’s Greek mythology-infused brand: Brace yourself for twists.
“There’s a thousand times in this where one person just opening their mouths would’ve changed the outcome for everyone ,” En os ,45, told The News.
“The Lie” was “definitely” inspired in part by Greek tragedies, Sud told The News, also pointing to the influence of “moral dramas like ‘Prisoners’ and ‘In the Bedroom,’ parents doing terrible things in the name of love to [protect] their children.”
King is no stranger to playing people with questionable character.
Last year, she scored an Emmy nomination for her role as Gypsy Rose Blanchard in Hulu’s “The Act,” which follows Blanchard before and after she was convicted for the 2015 murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. The years of abuse Gypsy suffered at the hands of her mom, who falsely passed her off as sickly, are believed to be linked to Munchausen by proxy.
“Gypsy’s situation was so out of this world that it’s hard sometimes for people to picture themselves in such a crazy sad situation as the one that Gypsy was in,” King said. “For that reason it may be seemingly easier to connect with someone like Kayla. But, I personally would say Gypsy’s reasoning for what she had done made a little bit more sense to me.”
Sud noted teenagers sometimes don’t think through their actions, even violent ones.
“I’ve heard therapists and psychologists say the teenage brain is that of a psychopath,” said Sud. “They do not understand consequences. They don’t think about them, nor do they care. … I raised a teenager. So I saw many teenagers in and out of the house. And it’s horrifying what they think they can get away with and how little they understand the gravity sometimes.”
Beyond exploring the magnitude and ripple effect of Kayla’s actions, the film — which weaves in themes of bigotry — also looks at the actions of her parents, with whom mothers Sud and Enos can empathize.
Sud said she’s mostly confident she’d do “exactly what they did.”
“I mean I know the criminal justice system,” she said. “[Rebecca] is a woman who has worked in a prosecutor’s office. She actually knows how it works .… Because I do know it, I would do what they did, short of the end maybe … Who knows what any of us would do in this situation? That was the idea of the whole film.”
Enos added: “It’s the impossible question of the film. I’m a reasonable law-abiding person. But if my daughter had a moment of insanity at 15, would I turn her over to the authorities, have her life forever change? Who knows what would happen to her in their custody. No. Not if there was any other option.”