‘I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously’: Riley Keough on movie-making, friendship and privilege
Jun 02, 2023
Keough – Elvis’s granddaughter – had already made her name as an actor. Then as a first-time director, she won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. She and creative partner Gina Gammell talk about War Pony, their film about a Native American reservationIn 2015, Riley Keough was in a motel in South Dakota waiting to shoot a scene in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey. As the hours dragged, she got chatting to a couple of extras, Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, two Native American men who’d grown up on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation. “It was one of those situations where we started talking, and we just didn’t stop,” Keough says. “Then lunchtime came, and I found myself going, ‘Can I sit with you?’”Keough and the two men swapped numbers and, after shooting wrapped, she flew from Los Angeles to the reservation for a holiday – joined by her friend and producing partner Gina Gammell. For a couple of weeks, they drove around, having fun, messing about making music videos for Sioux Bob, a musician. “We were 26 and had nothing to do, so we just spent the summer hanging with our friends. It was a beautiful summer friendship.” Continue reading...
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