Lilliya Scarlett Reid isn’t afraid of the dark
TALENT LILLIYA SCARLETT REID ART DIRECTOR ELLA MCNANEY 1ST ASSISTANT CATHERINE FORSYTH PHOTOGRAPHER RIE RASMUSSEN FASHION STYLIST CHARLENE ROXBOROUGH FASHION STYLIST ASSISTANT OLIVYA SOTH FASHION STYLIST ASSISTANT EMMIE RAY HAIR STYLIST BRIDGET BRAGER MAKE-UP ARTIST JO BAKER PRODUCTION VENI MAGAZINE INTERVIEW ROSE GARDNER
Out of darkness comes light. In her new Netflix series Chambers, a mysterious supernatural thriller, Lilliya Scarlett Reid plays a dead girl, and loved every second of bringing her character to life onscreen. As an artist, Reid finds inspiration painting sinister subjects, and after a gloomy period of auditioning throughout her adolescence, at the age of 18 she ia now blossoming into a promising young actor, thanks to her passion and perseverance.
VM: Tell us about your background.
LR: I’m from Livingston, a small town in Montana. My parents are both writers, so I grew up surrounded by creatives. I’ve been reading, looking at art and photos, watching movies, and absorbing culture my whole life. I was also raised so that most of my childhood was outdoors. It all gives me a different perspective from people born and raised in LA.
VM: And your art?
LR: I’ve been drawing my entire life. My paintings are on the darker side, inspired by my surroundings, people I see, and books I read. My studio is my bedroom currently, and I have all these scary faces staring back at me – they’re quite jarring to people! I sometimes use surgical pictures and autopsies as reference, but mostly it’s out of my mind.
VM: Your new show, Chambers, is supernatural too. Is there a theme here?
LR: When I read the script, I felt so connected to it. I’ve always loved thrillers — The Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorites — and I also love this Swedish movie, Border, that just came out. I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts. My favorite book is The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. So I’m interested in really twisted stories!
VM: Are you attracted to darker roles in your acting?
LR: I like digging into multi-dimensional characters. My character in Chambers, Becky, is dead. As you watch the show, you find out more, and it was really amazing for me to bring her to life. I actually had a lot of freedom to create her as a person – her favorite movies, music, foods, mannerisms – and I loved doing that. I feel so alive being able to study a character in that way and create a whole person.
VM: Was it difficult breaking into the industry?
LR: At 5’11” I’m very tall for an actor. When I was younger and
auditioning, they kept saying, “You’re too tall to play 13, and you’re not 18
yet.” They want to cast someone who’s over 18 to play a 13-year-old now.
That was a big struggle for me. That’s how I got involved in modeling: someone
just asked me to do it because of my height. But acting always came first for
me.
VM: You recently appeared as the face of Versace’s Versus campaign.
LR:It was a campaign that really focused on being able to be me as a young person in LA. They touch on all the things I’m doing, so it was really cool to be able to do a modeling campaign and have the focus not just be on my physical appearance, that I’m more than that. I really loved the photographer too, Benjamin Toms.
VM: Who inspires you?
LR: I love Jodie Foster and Charlize Theron, a fellow tall woman and amazing actress. And Uma Thurman, of course. I really admire their careers. I feel like they’ve played super-strong roles, and they’re very natural and real.
VM: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
LR: I had really good advice the other night in an Uber. The driver guessed my birthday, then asked me questions that were weirdly applicable to my life and very personal. It wasn’t creepy to me at all though; it was like he was psychic. He said, “You’re surrounding yourself by people who are holding you back, rather than people who are motivating you.” That struck me as super-accurate. I realized it’s something I do, and I think a lot of women do it. It’s about not letting other people have the power.
