Unbelievable’s Kaitlyn Dever on her breakout year and the power of the perfect playlist

Share

28th Oct 2019

As the lead in one of this year’s most talked about TV shows—Netflix miniseries —as well as a star turn alongside Beanie Feldstein in this year’s popular female buddy comedy, , it’s fair to say that 22-year-old Kaitlyn Dever is having a breakout year.

The talented 22-year-old plays the role of Marie in the Netflix series and delivers a performance and, indeed, a show that is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon. Based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning article, and a podcast episode—which were inspired by real events—the series tells the story of Marie Adler, a teen who claims she has been sexually assaulted by a masked intruder but when she files a police report, the police investigating Marie’s case and those around her doubt her story. 

Like the real-life story it’s based on and the series’ name, the show is shocking. Dever’s performance is incredible, authentic, heartbreaking and hard to watch at times because it’s just so searing.

Equally compelling is Dever’s other standout performance this year in where she and Feldstein show off their comedic skills to laugh-out-loud effect in the Olivia Wilde-directed coming-of-age high school comedy.

Speaking to over the phone, Dever shared how she prepared for the role of Marie, how music helps her get into character and why filming was the best summer of her life so far.

“It was daunting because I’d never played a character like this before and also I knew how much it mattered to me, the story itself and Marie’s story. I had a lot of source material already on Marie… I [listened] to the podcast and read the article and just wanted to get a better idea of what Marie’s life was like before the assault and then how it affected her life post [the assault].”

“I was just soaking up as much information as I could. And then really once we started shooting I just trusted that I had done a lot of research. I actually also, before this, had done a movie called and I had done a lot of research on the foster care system at that point in time. So I kind of had a head start in that area. I just had to trust my gut and trust that I’d put in the work.”

Kaitlyn Dever in a still from Netflix's Unbelievable. Image credit: courtesy of Netflix

“I didn’t want to wind down too much because I knew that if I did that, I would be taking myself out of the emotion and the state that Marie is in and possibly sacrificing doing my best work for her. Because I feel like going into it, I knew I had to give it my all.”

“When doing something like this, and I haven’t ever done something like this before, so it was all new and I was learning every day that you really can’t escape it sometimes. You can’t escape the feeling, you can’t escape that deep rooted emotion. I was in that state the whole duration of the shoot. But little things I did here and there, I would go home and eat dinner with family. I listened to music.”

“I created the playlist because I do that with everything I do now. I created the playlist [for ] because I thought it would kind of keep me in the mind zone that Marie was living in at the time. I made a playlist of several songs from the 2000s [including] Avril Lavigne. It ended up actually being like my place I went to cheer myself up a little bit [when] I was listening to that playlist.”

“I learned the trick from Jason Reitman actually… The first movie that I did with him, was called and before we started shooting Jason was emailing the whole kids cast—like 10 kids on this movie—emailing us all and one of the very first initial questions he asked us was ‘What is your character’s favorite song right now?’ And this just really stood out to me. That’s what inspired me to start creating playlists for characters I played. Because I feel like the music that I listen to as a person is so representative of how I am as a person at this current time, in my life and the emotions I’m feeling. So I feel like… it fills in a lot of blanks that are sometimes necessary or sometimes needed for a role. I’ve definitely been doing that ever since I worked with him.”

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“I never thought to use music in that way or as a tool for my acting but he taught me a lot that Jason Reitman.”

“No. Rarely as an actor you’re given the opportunity to play a character that’s based on a real person and so at the start, I thought maybe I should at least call her or something. But I felt like, because I had already started reading everything, that I, with the material I had, I really had a good grasp on her and who she is. But I also knew that I want[ed] to respect her privacy. It’s really such a privilege that she is even allowing us to tell her story at all.”

“We realised that we were not trying to make a carbon copy of her. And it’s something obviously that would probably be extremely difficult to talk about yet again. So I just wanted to respect that. Also, [ co-creator] Susannah Grant had been talking to her and so I trusted that that was enough.”

“It’s sort of like the best kind of situation. I had such a blast doing and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Really the best summer of my life. From to this, is sort of just a dream come true for an actor I think. You know to be able to do this total comedy and then a really inspiring drama. It’s a dream.”

“Oh gosh. I feel like I would raise my hand for the first question. And then I think I would actually leave it up to Beanie because she is such a mega fan of the show. But I would trust her knowing me and having lived with me. I would trust her and the casting process and just put my hands up and say ‘I give in to whatever she decides.’”  

is on Netflix now.