Steven Prusakowski
Ryan Kiera Armstrong has made her mark on FX’s The Lowdown, the Tulsa-set neo-noir dramedy created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs). Armstrong plays Francis Raybon, the sharp, soulful teen who has her dad’s back (Ethan Hawke) through all his partially self-inflicted adventures as he tries to solve a twisting murder mystery. The series wrapped this week with a finale where Armstrong’s performance taps directly into the emotional stakes of their family relationship as Francis recited a poem about a redbud tree planted by her father in bad soil outside her bedroom window. Like the redbud tree, the young artist continues to flourish.
At just 15, her growing list of career work includes standout roles in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, It Chapter Two, and Anne with an E, alongside the lead role the highly-anticipated Buffy reboot (which she discussed during the interview), showcasing her remarkable versatility. Awards Radar sat down with Armstrong to talk about her bond with Hawke, trading in the Big Apple for Tulsa’s unique vibe, and the finale scenes that pushed her to new heights.
Armstrong’s chemistry with Hawke fueled their father-daughter dynamic, which exposes what is behind the often rough, battered and bruised exterior of his character – a relationship that captures their commitment and love for each other. “Ethan is so cool. I’m a huge fan of him. And he obviously was a child actor as well. So he gives me all these stories of Dead Poets Society and all these fun things and how he used to mess around. He’s just so cool. I feel so lucky that I get to work with him and to hear his insight into the industry and watching him on set,” shared Armstrong.
“It’s so beautiful because he’s so just honest and everything comes from a really, really truthful place. He kind of just lets go and what happens, happens. Every take is just so different. He executes all of his ideas so amazingly. And I feel so lucky that I got to watch that in person and I learned so much,” she expressed.
The chemistry between Armstrong and Hawke on the set of The Lowdown carried over into their off-set interactions and vice versa, creating a natural and authentic father-daughter dynamic for the Raybons. This is something not always achieved in film and television, but as the emotional heart of the series, their relationship was vital to make it all work. “I think at the end of the day, Frances could have given all the weird worst looks to her dad, but everything really does come from her heart, though. At the end of the day, she really, really cares about her dad and just wants him to be safe and okay. But I think in real life, I have a really cool father-daughter relationship. And I would say acting is my journey with my dad. Going on that journey with Frances and her becoming kind of a sidekick, it was really fun. Ethan is just so great and working with him. He’s so playful and it gives me so much to work with.”
Thanks to Harjo’s encouragement for his cast to explore their characters, every day brought unscripted elements and levity to her performance, even some fun challenges. “So much improv” sparked the set, especially in car scenes with Hawke and Michael Hitchcock. “Working with Michael and Ethan, they are hilarious on set,” shared Armstrong. “I learned so much about improv just working with them and how creative they are. They’re so inspiring. Even some of the takes, I’m sure some of them weren’t usable because I’m laughing, but they’re geniuses,” she laughs. “Francis is kind of thinking, ‘Oh, these children.’ She has to not think that they’re funny but I’m just crying. It’s so funny, but it gives you so much as an actor to work with.”
To play Francis, Armstrong took what was on the page, not only for her character, but also tapping into the heads of the parents who raised her. “The whole time that I just kept thinking about how Francis’s mind is kind of her mom’s, but she still has the same interests that her dad has. She has a stronger composure and she holds herself stronger than he does, maybe just more put together. Then when she’s with him she’s kind of like, ‘oh my gosh, he’s a lot.’ Then again, that nurturing thing kind of comes out,” she reflects.
As a self-described city girl, Ryan Kiera Armstrong found herself charmed by Tulsa’s unique vibe while filming. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know too much about Tulsa before going,” she admitted, initially anticipating a slower, laid-back country atmosphere reminiscent of her cottage up north in Canada. Instead, she discovered that “it’s actually really artsy in Tulsa,” with “beautiful places to go to” like The Gathering Place, which became one of her favorites, and “really, really great food experiences too,” giving her a stronger connection to the city she called home for the series shoot.
The actress even found art imitating life during a bathroom scene where Francis applies makeup to her dad’s many bruises, their parent/child roles flipped. “One of my favorite scenes was the makeup scene where I’m doing makeup on my dad (Lee). I’m kind of sitting on the bathroom sink and it just captures Lee and Francis’s relationship so well. How she’s the one looking after him and protecting him. It’s funny and I love it.” Ryan has had some experience with makeup though it perhaps didn’t go as well as on the set. “For my birthday, a couple years ago, I was like, ‘Dad, all I want to do is do your makeup,” she gleefully reminisced. “So I got to do it once when I was 12, and he has never let me do it again.”
Makeup seemed to be a running theme of our conversation, reflecting on Francis, she beamed, “My favorite part of playing Francis? There’s so many favorites. This is gonna sound cheesy, but I really like the makeup and how she chooses to express herself. You really get to see how she evolves as a person and how almost she’s an old soul and how she almost nurtures her dad in a way. It’s just fun doing that journey. And of course, just working with the incredible cast.”
The finale, though, is where Armstrong’s growth shines brightest, with a dialogue-heavy scene where she reads her red bud tree poem that encapsulates her less than ideal family life, challenged her to stretch further than ever, and like the tree, to prosper. “I just had never done a scene like it. I don’t even know how I can,” confessed Armstrong. “There’s just a lot of text to memorize. I was nervous, but it went really well. And I was really happy,” she says. Francis’s role in these scenes feels like a culmination of Armstrong’s arc as an actor, blending vulnerability, strength, and a newfound maturity.
The Lowdown’s finale leaves you craving a second season to see where Lee and Francis go next. In the meantime, it’s no wonder she’s been tapped to slay as the new lead in the Buffy reboot, as her work here proves she’s ready to stake her claim.
Watch the full video interview with Armstrong (below) where she discusses more The Lowdown as well as sharing the emotional moment she learned she would be the new slayer for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot in the video below.
And be sure to watch The Lowdown (on Hulu) because we need a return trip to Tulsa.
Comments
Loading…