by Gill Pringle in LA
In portraying Julianne Moore’s live-in personal assistant, it helped that Australia’s Milly Alcock was naturally in awe of the Oscar-winning actress. “I didn’t have to reach for anything. I was just terrified,” explains the actress who stars opposite Moore in Netflix dramedy series Sirens.
But if ever there was an icebreaker, then it would be the first scene they filmed together where Moore’s Michaela “Kiki” Kell removes chewing gum from her mouth and passes it to Milly’s Simone, declaring her breath to be a 6 out of 10.
“Terrifying. It was also hilarious,” laughs Alcock, 25, who played a young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the first season of House of the Dragon.
The relationship crosses so many boundaries, that Simone even sprays Michaela’s underwear with perfume, sexts her husband on her behalf, and cuddles her when she can’t get to sleep, finessing every tiny detail of her billionaire employer’s life.
“The way that Julie played Kiki was illuminating,” says the actress who grew up in Sydney’s Inner West, and as a young teen made her TV debut in Wonderland, swiftly moving on to presenting on the Disney Channel before a breakout role in Upright with Tim Minchin.
“Working with Milly was such a dream,” says Moore. “She’s so talented, and has so much life and emotion. It was very easy for me to connect with her.”
With Meghann Fahy portraying Simone’s sister and Kevin Bacon portraying Kiki’s husband Peter Kell, the stunning oceanfront Long Island locations in New York made every day a fun day at the office.
As an audience member, it doesn’t take long for Sirens to lure you into its world of luxury with its serene setting, overt glamour, and otherworldly accents.
But, amid the pretty pastels, the cast of characters – who are just as colourful as the candy-coloured hues that they don daily – are not all as sweet as they appear.
From showrunner Molly Smith Metzler – and based on her play Elemeno Pea – the darkly comedic series is told over the course of one explosive weekend at the Kells’ lavish island estate.
Co-produced by Margot Robbie’s Lucky Chap, Metzler couldn’t quite believe her luck when Moore agreed to play Kiki in the limited series.
Drifting around her opulent mansion in designer gowns, Moore’s enigmatic socialite spends her days rescuing injured birds and holding fundraisers – gaining a cult-like following among the island’s wealthy housewives.
However, she is ultimately beholden to her uber-wealthy husband for her riches.
Moore immediately captured the essence of Kiki as a goddess-like creature. “It’s easy to understand why a whole community would want to be with her, she’s just the dream for this role because she does feel ethereal – she is from another kingdom,” says Metzler about Moore. “She’s just so knowing as a human and as a performer.”
A sexy and darkly humorous exploration of women, power and class, Moore is frustrated when women are unfairly blamed by men for life’s problems. “I thought it was really fascinating that, so often, you hear about how a man says: ‘She made me ruin my life; she did it. I left my happy family life for this woman who ruined me…’ And you think, ‘wait a minute, I think maybe you had some choice here.’ It’s like, ‘where do your actions count?’ So, you find all of these women are kind of stuck in this position where people are saying it’s your fault. And then, when you really examine it, you wonder, ‘well, huh, who was the active partner?’” muses Moore, 64, who was delighted to reunite with Bacon, her co-star in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
But there’s something wrong in paradise, and certainly with the central marriage. “When you learn more about Michaela, you see that she followed this relationship right into disempowerment. That was something that was interesting to me, and I think that it’s something that can easily happen to people where you think like: ‘well, if I want this, and they’re asking me to give this up, I guess I will.’
“And you see how disenfranchised she becomes, and her lack of autonomy ultimately leads to her own disenfranchisement,” says Moore.
“I think that money gives you power. Michaela is someone who does very, very little and is able to command attention because the whole structure of their world, is theirs. They’ve created it. She doesn’t need to do anything to gain everyone’s attention. She just has to be there.
“But we learn that the truth is more complicated than that, and that Michaela’s power is precarious. It’s not her own, even if she’s someone who is always a center of attention. She’s second in command, but she is ultimately powerless, because it’s still hierarchical,” Moore argues.
“We’re talking about the power of capitalism, power of money, the kind of hierarchy that we create in our society, where the so called 1% control so much.
“I think that we tend to villain-ise women who are in positions of power or perceived power, and that is a result of the patriarchy,” she says.
Recalling that awkward chewing gum moment with Alcock, Moore cringes. “That poor girl! I really felt for her. Oh my God! We had to drive her really quickly in a golf cart and then put my gum in her mouth. It was just awful. But she was a very good sport about it,” she recalls.
Alcock’s Simone becomes so much more than a personal assistant, filling in for the frequent absences of Kiki’s billionaire husband.
“We talked about her sense of isolation and loneliness, because the relationship is somewhat inappropriate. It’s like, here’s this woman who’s living this big life, whose best friend is a very young assistant.
“I think it’s her isolation that creates that intensity in the relationship,” says Moore.
Digging deep in her portrayal of Kiki, the actress tells us that she didn’t base her on anyone in particular. “It was apparent who she was in the writing, in Molly’s writing. That’s really what I use. I was interested that our perspective changes as the series develops, and you learn more about Kiki. What do you reveal as an actor? There’s a point of view early on where you almost see Kiki from a distance. There’s something really comedic about it too, about a lot of her actions.
“But then as it goes on, you sort of see what her real dilemma is. And that changes your characterisation a little bit,” Moore teases.
Sirens is streaming now
