ALISON PILL
INTERVIEW BY JOSH CLOSE
-
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA WOLF
STYLING BY LAURI EISENBERG
HAIR BY SONG HEE FOR KERASTASE
MAKEUP BY KRISTIN HILTON FOR BENEFIT COSMETICS
—
I first met actor and karaoke-singer extraordinaire, Alison Pill, in New York after seeing her in the play, “Reasons To Be Pretty,” written Neil LaBute and directed by a mutual friend. The opening scene is like watching a bomb go off, only sans countdown. Here’s this terribly cute young woman whom I’ve heard about several times – “She’s amazing,” “You have to see her in something… anything… she’s the best,” “She’s my favorite,” – punishing this guy on stage in a heated argument. Finally, here I am, getting a glimpse. It’s hard to call her an actor. I feel like there’s too many of those roaming around in LA. She’s that… and something more. Magician. Tightrope walker. Explorer. The next time I met Alison was equally impressive. Here was this young, pretty, intensely smart young woman drinking Black Label and belting Sam Cooke in a five-by-five private karaoke room in the East Village. A cheesy Eighties line popped to mind, “Gee whiz, what a woman!” Since that night, which ended with us listening to classic blues over the jukebox on our who-knows-what-number scotch at the corner bar of Ninth and Avenue A, I’ve leaped into the vast and crowded pool of Alison admirers.
JOSH—Hello?
ALISON—Hello.
J—Hi, How are you doing?
A—Good, how are you?
J—Good, good. What are you up to?
A—Not much, but it’s bitter cold today.
J—Scotch weather.
A—I just have red wine.
J—Right… You’re on the upper west side having wine and dinner parties.
A—Well, the dinner parties haven’t started, there’s still no furniture here. Besides my one chair?
J—[laughs] That’s right. I remember being around in New York while you were shooting the TV show In Treatment. You seem to have this clear attachment to what your character was going through. Also wasn’t it through the writer that you kind of discovered a lot of the character?
A—Yeah, we both related to what she was going through. I think we had both been through enough therapy and knew this type of over-achieving, people-pleasing person with so much indescribable rage. I think in trying to portray that, it’s like one of the scariest things you can do. I think angry young women are terrifying. Especially when on the outside they look so perfect…
J—I agree.
A—You know, here’s this girl who’s doing well in school and has the right kind of life and seems to have everything put together and yet, has this death wish.
J—How do you even begin to carry something like that?
A—It’s always interesting. I think it’s also interesting to play these women because they’re so good at hiding something and there’s nothing more fun in acting than not showing your hand.
J—Yeah. The hiding of it all…
A—…I hate it when actors shout or cry too easily. Too many people think that’s acting. I think that’s melodrama. I think there’s something interesting in trying to figure out ways to play that weight. I watched Inside the Actors’ Studio and I remember Benicio Del Toro talking about always knowing what his characters have in their pockets and that being one of the most important things. I think that’s so important, literally and figuratively. Everybody has secrets and everybody kind of keeps something back.
J—How long have you been acting for?
A—Fourteen years.
J—So, you started when you were how old?
A—Ten.
J—And you’ve been working pretty consistently since then…
A—Yeah, yeah, I’ve never had a real job. [laughs]
J—That’s huge. Do you still get the same sense of nerves that you once did or do you feel it’s kind of diminished in a way?
A—I feel like it’s gotten worse.
J—Worse?
A—Yeah, I think when I was younger I didn’t know that I should be scared. It’s just like, “What? You want me to do this? Sure. Yeah, I can do that.” It was still acting and suddenly it became, you know, at a certain point I had to question whether it was something I did because I was getting work and people thought I was good at it or whether it was something that I, in fact, liked doing.
J—Right.
A—Because if “Yes” wasn’t the answer to either of those questions then why the hell would anybody put themselves through this? And then I realized that I did love it and I’ve taken it more seriously since… you know, the last five years.