After landing her first Oscar nomination for her starring role in A24‘s dark comedy If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Rose Byrne spoke with Deadline about the timeline for production on Platonic Season 3, her new Peacock series The Good Daughter, tackling her first play in around five years, and more.
With regard to the latest season of Platonic — the Apple TV comedy about a platonic friendship, where she stars opposite Seth Rogen — Byrne said, “I think we’re going to start shooting in the summer.”
Before that, though, she’s set to start rehearsals on a production of Noël Coward’s play, Fallen Angels, where she’ll star opposite Kelli O’Hara. She said the play, to be performed on Broadway this spring at the Todd Haimes Theatre, is “razor sharp” — the kind of “big theatrical comedy on stage” which has been a bucket list item for her.
Regarding The Good Daughter, an upcoming Peacock limited series where she stars opposite The White Lotus‘ Meghann Fahy, Byrne said, “Meghann, just look out, man. She’s unbelievable. Talk about range, talk about unexpected. She’s just so captivating on screen. She gets to do so much in this.”
Byrne said of the show, “It’s a really great genre piece. It’s six episodes, very tight, very tense, a lot of great tropes, very twists and turns, playing with timeline, and also very moving.”
The actress is coming off her first Golden Globe win for If I Had Legs, where she mentioned in her acceptance speech that her partner Bobby Cannavale missed the show to pick up a bearded dragon at a reptile expo, in a moment that got some traction online. Speaking with Deadline from Australia, in the middle of the night, Byrne confirmed that the new pet has made is “adorable,” indicating that it’s made its way home.
In the incredibly tense If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, written and directed by Mary Bronstein, Byrne plays Linda (Byrne), who with her life crashing down around her, attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist, played by Conan O’Brien.
Of her nomination, Byrne said, “It feels so surreal, and I just screamed. I screamed, I screamed, I screamed. I just cannot believe it. It’s such an honor and there’s no words to describe the feeling.” It felt good, she said, to see this “tiny movie” — “a real art piece” — recognized alongside major studio titles, exactly a year after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
“Being trapped inside this character was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done and also the most liberating, in a way,” Byrne added. “Like, I got to do everything. I got the opportunity to try to do everything, and it’s just stretched me in a way, creatively and technically, that I’ve never had before.”
While one of Byrne’s first big breaks came with the FX legal thriller Damages, for which she picked up multiple Golden Globe nominations, she’s become better known since then for turns in comedies like Bridesmaids, Neighbors, and the series Physical and Platonic, both for Apple. Expressing the belief that “expectation is a curse,” she told us she never expected to become a breakout comedy star, and embarked on her career as an actor open to whatever the universe presented.
“I just wanted to work. I just loved the work so much,” she said. “I wanted to discover it and see.”
Going forward, Byrne’s immediate goal is to “get a good night’s sleep.” Apart from that, she just hopes to continue to be able to show the full range of what she has to offer as a performer.
“I feel lucky to have been able to try so many different genres and I guess [I’d like] to keep doing that, to keep trying to carve out different things, and search for things that are challenging, and say no to the things that aren’t,” she said. “But I just can’t anticipate anything. I’ve given up trying.”
Byrne’s nomination for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You marked the sole recognition for the film this morning. Her competitors in Best Actor include Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia).
Early in her awards run with If I Had Legs, Byrne picked up the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. Her work has also earned her Best Actress noms at the likes of the Actor Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, the Gothams and the Independent Spirit Awards.