As much as you have spooky supernatural elements in this show, is it safe to say you’re just using that as an entry point to explore how the traumas of our youth shape the adults we become?
I reckon. I just turned 40 this year and there is a funny thing that happens — your teenage years become part of your “story” . . . In your 20s, you see your teens as a fairly evolved time in your life, until you get to your late 30s and you realize how much of a child you were, and you can have compassion for that child — for whatever they did. If you don’t, it will burst out in weird ways; it’s a really important thing to have a reckoning with at some point in your life. I think Gracie Darling is definitely talking about that.
And I love the story between my character and her daughter, because that helps to facilitate her own reckoning, her own looking back and dealing with it — facing the ghosts of her past, quite literally.
What does the inclusion of ghosts and horror add to the exploration of a universal human experience like that?
I feel like every kind of storytelling is “true,” in a certain way. Even the most outlandish, crazy thing like South Park, everything’s rooted in the truth. The really important thing is the emotional ride the audience gets taken on, and what feelings it is evoking from you as the viewer.
There are lots of flashbacks to Joni’s teen years. How much did you study what your young counterpart, Eloise Rothfield, was doing in her performance?
We had a few days where we tried to just hang out. I don’t know whether she was doing this, but I was sort of secretly watching her mannerisms [laughs]. And then the rest is in the script — so at least I know what she’s up to. I sort of thought about it like, every character I’ve ever played has a backstory as a young person — whether you see it or not, it’s there. I trusted that we were going to cut together just fine [in the editing room] . . . and I wanted to make sure that my experience with Joni was as pure as possible without getting too “in my head” about it.
Is working in horror a different experience on a technical, practical level than acting in other genres?
Housebound [her 2014 horror comedy] taught me a lot. There’s a certain style of acting which is really fun and it is basically “scared acting.” Creeping down hallways, using the breath, using the idea of, inside, you just wanna either melt or explode and you have to contain everything . . .
What was it like dropping in for the latest season of The White Lotus? Are you getting recognized on the street?
It’s like getting invited to the coolest party ever — and I’ll take it. I’ve been in this business long enough now to know that how “recognized” you are, it really does come in waves. I haven’t ever been a part of something that is such a huge, colossal titan of social impact — but then, conversely, being a fairly small part of that. I feel like I get the best of both worlds, because I get to be part of the tsunami that is White Lotus, but fly under the radar just enough to be lovable and cute and not get s*** on too much [laughs]. I think it’s opened some doors for me, which is amazing.
And I don’t hold my breath, but I keep thinking Pam could work in season four. She works at the hotel, they transfer all the time!
Playing Gracie Darling, streaming on Paramount+
MEMORABLE ROLES:
A vet of the New Zealand and Australian entertainment scenes, Morgana O’Reilly got her break on iconic Aussie soap Neighbours playing spoiled rich girl with a secret heart of gold Naomi, before starring in cult-hit horror flick Housebound as a delinquent sentenced to house arrest in a haunted house. Most recently, she appeared in season three of HBO’s Emmy-winning anthology The White Lotus as fan-fave “wellness mentor” Pam.
CURRENT GIG:
O’Reilly now leads this eerie drama about a teen who disappears after a séance gone wrong. Child psychologist Joni feels compelled to unravel the mystery — given that her own best friend, Gracie Darling, vanished under identical circumstances 27 years prior.