Page 148 - Flaunt 170 - The Phoenix Issue - Kiernan Shipka

SHE HAS HER EYES ON NEW FRONTIERS, ROLES THAT OFFER UP NEW CHALLENGES, “I’M ITCHING TO PLAY GRITTY ROLES AND GROUNDED THINGS. THAT’S CALLING AT THE MOMENT, BUT THAT’S NOT TO SAY I WOULDN’T WANT TO RAISE HELL IN A Where do we go from here? Australia is on fire. Burgers are made of peas. We live in the era of the Yin and Yang—so much good betwixt so much horror. All this presents very peculiar challenges for the artist, particularly the young artist. Does the Millennial or the Gen Z go in for all out nihilism and Social Media lobotomization? Or straddle the phoenix of hope and compassion, rebirth, and courage? Of course, the intuitive choice is the latter, but the demons loom large and are easily found—in subtle and less subtle crevices of culture. Maybe the artist—if young—ought or need to be precocious to a degree rarely seen, weaned in the sphere of limelight to be able to make the woke choice right off the bat. After all, is time running out? How about 5 months old for the gates to be opened? That is the age when Kiernan Shipka—artist and actor in question— got her first taste. Cradled in the arms of Julianna Margulies in an episode of the 15-season-spanning medical tour-de-force, ER, eyes not fully formed, still looking like soft galaxies from the womb, not akin to her eyes today, which are strong galaxies of hazel brightness. Poetry aside, Shipka has been at it a while, even though she is 20 years old, a Scorpio that is living fiercely, channeling the creature not hiding in darkness, but present to the contemporary reality. She has had a career that most could retire on and call a great success. “Bold,” she says, “my word for the year is ‘bold.’ I don’t have resolutions cause I’m constantly trying to better myself, but I want that to guide me wherever I go and any decision I make. There’s no more playing it safe...” Good God what might that look like? She’s already had a ten-year run as the precocious Sally Draper, on the stratospherically lauded Mad Men, the multiple Emmy-award- winning show on cutthroat advertising agencies in the ‘60s, and even more cutthroat ethics. She’s played across heavyweights like her past life was lived out as Marlene Dietrich. Shipka has been in multiple award-winning films, like The Silence with Stanley Tucci, playing a deaf teenager, and as Cathy in Flowers In The Attic with Ellen Burstyn, a harrowing tale of a group of siblings captive in their grandmother’s attic. Currently Shipka is finishing up her role as the eponymous character in the final season of the young adult Netflix show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the wildly successful series that brushes the line between comedy and horror splendidly. She has her eyes on new frontiers, roles that offer up new challenges, “I’m itching to play gritty roles and grounded things. That’s calling at the moment, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t want to raise hell in a superhero film.” Shipka’s exploration of the self seemed to manifest off- screen too, playing with names and musing over Tinseltown as a kid. “Everyone calls me Kiki, but I went through like six names growing up. I was enrolled in school for a short period of time as Tess. I did summer camp as Maxine. I just wanted to be Hannah Montana, cause I wanted to live a double life,” she confesses, “and since I can remember I had this acting bug I couldn’t shake. I was obsessed with it. I wanted to do it and had grand dreams of moving to Hollywood.” In acting there is a saying that the role picks you, as opposed to you pick the role, but for Shipka, the process is multi-layered, weighing practical and existential feelings, “There is an innate reaction when I read something,” she says, wind off the beach, gliding through her trailer, “something that piques my interest,” she ponders. “A lot of depth. I know instantly. Then I evaluate the pros and cons. Where is it filming? Does it work with my schedule...who is the director...are there other actors I enjoy? Is it something I want to devote my time to, cause I devote a lot of my time exploring a role. But when I read something, I know in a gut instinct whether that role is for me or not.” Sabrina is a role that Shipka relishes in playing, for its beatification, but also for its ever-present challenge of saving the damn world, “We’re playing stuff that is extremely intense and the stakes in our show are pretty much always life or death. It’s easy to get used to it. It has posed challenges in that way. Our show can be campy and big so it’s about fine-tuning the tone in a lot of ways. There are definitely scenes where I think ‘oh god how am I going to do this?’ but those seem to be the scenes that are the most rewarding in the end.” Alas, art imitates life, and life in 2020 is dodgy, uncertain, and fraught. Shipka nods in agreement. “Sometimes when I feel like talking about apocalyptic things or smashing the patriarchy in the show it can feel all too real. Even though I’m in a very fictional world there is a deep relevance to it.” A piece of the enviable path of Shipka’s career is that she has worked heavily in films and television. She admits to having her eyes on the theatrical stage, claiming doing a play in New York to be a touchstone moment for any actor. This medium spanning experience has created a different kind of well of reference for her, “TV is so great as you get to evolve with the character and there is time to grow. The first time we saw Sabrina she was 16. I adore her. To see the character grow and to play that is really fulfilling. I feel like you can get something different out of each medium. Movies are amazing. It’s like a sprint. You can put all your energy and resources into a role for 40 days, you can exhaust yourself and do your best possible work. But it’s not the same stamina as television, where you get a bunch of chances to explore the role and constantly grow as an actor. And I grew up doing improv so I love hearing an audience reaction while I’m doing something in a theatre.” The snake of performance is constantly moving around Shipka, providing new feelings of how to be, all the while keeping her feet grounded in preparation, “I work on the script two hours every weekend. Dissecting. Learning. Being as prepared as possible is number one,” and after the work is locked in she lets it fly, or lets it dance, “and it gives you all the room to play around. This year I’ve grown to love being really free with it. I don’t want to be set in my ways when it comes to how to play the scene. Across the board as an actor; as long as I come in super prepared I can let go of everything.” Being an artist is about work. We hate to admit it. The red carpets come later, not before. Although this ooze of social media glitz is unrelenting, creating a fantasyland monologue that YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE THERE! WHY AREN’T YOU FAMOUS ALREADY! But no matter your age, teen or geriatric, we come to the mountain when the mountain is ready, or when we are ready. And through Shipka’s success she has kept a tight support system, creating a backbone of positivity and integrity SUPERHERO FILM.” 142