Riley Keough calls media is ‘a vicious place’ for women artists to this day

Riley Keough’s portrayal of the titular character in Amazon Prime’s show, Daisy Jones & the Six, has received high praise.

Based on the book authored by Taylor Jenkins Reid of the same name, the 10-part series, produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, is an exhilarating insight into life in a band at the height of its fame.

In an interview with Net-a-Porter, Keough, 33, shared why doing this role meant so much to her. The Girlfriend Experience star said she wanted Daisy to have a sense of “journey.”

“I wanted to make Daisy very human and have moments of being silly. I wanted to see other sides to her before she ends up this quintessential f--ked-up rock star on drugs,” explained Keough.

“Being excitable and seeing the wonder in the world, but really struggling with how she wants the world to be, versus what she’s being handed, is something I can really identify with,” she told the outlet. “I also really identified with the way she wasn’t being taken seriously in her art. I think a lot of women at the time probably weren’t – and still aren’t.”

“I was watching a video on Instagram the other day, of women on late-night talk shows from 2008 or something, and the questions they were asked were so appalling and disgusting,” she continued. “It was shocking. For women, [the public eye] was a vicious place for many years – and it still is.”

The Zola actress also narrated how she lied about knowing how to sing to get the job, despite being the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and the granddaughter of Elvis Presley.

“I called my agent and I was like, ‘I don’t know how to get my voice to do that,’” said Riley, who is soft-spoken. “They said, ‘Try singing a Lady Gaga song and see what happens’ – and I was like, ‘Sing Lady Gaga? Are you out of your mind?!’ I sat in my car and cried because I was like, ‘I can’t do it’. I hated not being able to do it.”

However, she nailed the role with the help of a singing coach after several gruelling rounds of audition.