Under The Bridge follows the real story of Rebecca Godfrey investigating the murder of Reena Virk. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Riley Keough (Daisy Jones And The Six, The Lodge) was drawn to accept the role of Rebecca because of the connection she felt to the character.
As THR reports, This connection sprung from a conversation between Keough and the series’ showrunners, Quinn Shephard and Samir Mehta. “I was drawn to the project as a whole because I found my initial conversation with Quinn and Samir about the story, about the plan for it holistically, to be inspiring,” she said. “I thought Reena’s story, first and foremost, was a story I wanted to honor. I thought the way they planned to handle her as a character and as a human being was really different to what I’ve seen in the true-crime genre. And I found Rebecca’s character to be really interesting because she is representing the way a lot of people feel. She’s kind of inserted herself in this situation, and I think in the beginning, you don’t know why and maybe it feels exploitive, and maybe it feels like she’s found this story that she’s using to be inspired to write her book, but I think that ultimately she’s going through her own personal journey that I don’t think she quite understands.”
Keough also told THR that she connects to the character because of her personal relationships with people convicted of crimes. “I typically don’t take my own stuff and put it into my roles, because I try and have empathy for the character and it’s actually more effective for me to have a feel for the person I’m being as opposed to my own stuff,” she said. “But the one thing I do have experience with is that I have had friendships and relationships with people who have been convicted of crimes. And I have had experience with inmates and done a little bit of prison reform work, and I think those experiences really informed me as a human being, but also just my perspective on these things, which informed Rebecca’s.”
The full interview can be read here.