Glamour: Was there a label that you were given when you were young that you’ve struggled to escape?
Haley Lu Richardson: When you’re a little girl, you’re cute. When you’re like a toddler or whatever, you’re cute. And I feel like I’ve never really been able to break free of that. Even in my relationships, up until recently, I was seen as cute. Even when I was 20 years old.
I feel like I’m an adult now, you know? I’m in my late twenties. That is an official adult. That’s another thing that I think it’s so unfair about life sometimes: For the past 11 years, I have been working as an adult and have very adult responsibilities, as we all do. On set, I’ve been expected to deliver everything—the hours I work, the emotional depths I go to, the professionalism, all of it—as an adult, yet people don’t see me or respect me, Haley, as an adult woman that has all of the brain power and opinions and thoughts and care and passion as an adult.
How so?
There’s something that happens to me that really is annoying… [Laughs] A producer or someone will want to meet with me because they like movies I’ve been in and want to work with me. They’ll sit there over coffee and give me all this kind of schmoozy stuff about how they think that I make these projects that I work on better and add all of these things to my projects. And then later down the line, they’ll offer me a movie. When I show up, they’re suddenly so shocked that I have ideas and want to be a part of all those conversations. It’s like an inconvenience to them.
It’s like, what did you expect? If I just came here and said the lines and wore whatever you wanted me to wear and had absolutely no brain, I wouldn’t be doing my job. My job is to understand the character and bring them to life in a way that feels authentic. You’re hiring me to do that. That really frustrates me. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens more often than I want. I’m always so confused by the thought process of those people.
I want people to know that when they hire me for a movie, I’m not just going to come in and be bubbly and cute and easygoing—which are things that I am. I am an optimist. I am hopeful. I am positive. I am sweet. I like to be kind to people. I like to be all of those things, but I also want people to know and expect that I’m going to care and have opinions and be smart and want to collaborate.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
