Girl Crush: Riley Keough
Why we love the star of The Girlfriend Experience
More than just an extraordinarily pretty face or the descendant of a legend (she’s the granddaughter of Elvis and was briefly a stepdaughter to Michael Jackson), Riley Keough, 26, is the kind of actor who can effortlessly make characters come alive. “The thing that defines watchability is this sense that there’s another story going on behind the eyes separate from the story that’s being told,” said Steven Soderbergh, who handpicked Keough to be the lead in the TV adaptation of his film The Girlfriend Experience. “That’s what you have with Riley. And that’s a quality that is impossible to fake. [Even in] these moments where she’s doing nothing, where she’s very still, you can feel underneath it that there’s an inner life that’s very active.”
Keough started out modeling for brands like Dolce & Gabbana and Victoria’s Secret, and then took a thoughtful, indie-oriented approach to acting. She made her film debut in the Joan Jett saga, The Runaways, opposite Kristen Stewart. She made an indelible impression in a small role as the “party girl with a pig” in the Soderbergh-directed Magic Mike, and she nabbed her first title role in the 2012 lesbian teen romance movie Jack and Diane. Of course, Keough also has the magnetism to hold her own in big budget action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road—in which she played one of Charlize Theron’s battle-ready sidekicks.” People make you think you need to audition for everything, and that the goal is to make millions and millions and be an action star and be in the biggest blockbusters,” Keough has said. “I loved being in Mad Max. That’s cool. But no one ever said: ‘You don’t have to go on things you don’t want to go on.’ I don’t care if I do one movie every two years.” With The Girlfriend Experience, Keough has given herself a chance to show off the full range of her talents.
Yes, she’s beautiful enough to be believable as a high-end escort, but her performance is also mesmerizing because she adds a layer of intrigue and relatability to the role. Those qualities are why viewers want to keep on watching and they’re also what make Keough a perfect PROVOKR Girl Crush.
