From The Hollywood Reporter · Nicole Fell · · 1m 20s
Malia Pyles is done playing it safe
The Cape Fear star found her joy in characters nobody would call likeable, and she wants to go further.
In brief
The Cape Fear star found her joy in characters nobody would call likeable, and she wants to go further. Pyles builds her career on morally complex characters, and playing someone she can't justify is exactly the point. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Nobody planned this
Malia Pyles never set out to specialize in roles far removed from who she actually is. The pattern formed on its own, one part at a time.
The mess is the fun
Somewhere in the drift, she found real joy in complicated characters. At 26, she has a run of morally tangled people behind her and no interest in stopping.
“I have played a couple of morally complex people at this point, and I just have so much fun with them”
Cape Fear is the proof
Apple TV's version of Cape Fear is where that instinct shows clearest. Pyles calls it a shining example of the work she keeps being drawn to.
Meet Nevaeh Valentine
Pyles plays the mysterious Nevaeh Valentine, a young woman shaped entirely by her father and moving through the story on her own strange logic.
Warped into faith
Her read on Nevaeh: a person bent by her father into something close to a religious experience. The damage and the devotion are the same thing.
“She's someone that's been deeply warped by her father and is having almost this religious experience because of that”
Hard to justify, on purpose
Pyles admits she cannot always conceptualize or defend what Nevaeh does. That resistance is the draw, and she wants roles that push even harder.
“It's hard to conceptualize and it's hard to justify a lot of the things that she does”
In short
Pyles builds her career on morally complex characters, and playing someone she can't justify is exactly the point.
