Lily Allen has never been better. She arrives at GLAMOUR HQ to film our Unfiltered interview in a Victoria Beckham black dress with glam squad, PR entourage and a handshake for everyone in the room. Having encountered Lily over the years during her wilder, hard-partying popstar days – back when journalists could always rely on an acerbic one-liner lobbed their way from the notoriously loud-mouthed Lily (as I did) – I was slightly apprehensive of the interview, given all the many personal subjects I wanted us to cover. But I needn't have worried: open, insightful and pretty damn inspirational, Lily was brilliant. As she also is in her TV acting debut, Dreamland.
Set in the seaside town of Margate, and named after the town's famous themepark, the comedy drama centres around a dysfunctional family of four sisters, their single mother and grandmother. The six-part series manages to hit the sweet spot of being fun and funny, while also tackling a diverse range of important issues: from betrayal and infidelity to alcohol and drug abuse to single parenthood, racial politics, queer identities and class issues.
We first encounter Lily's character, Mel, arriving unannounced at her sister Trish's (Freema Agyeman) baby shower, swigging a can of Stella having returned home from living in Paris, after failing to cut it working in the fashion industry. Wherever Mel goes, chaos seems to follow and her arrival throws a grenade into the family unit that impacts every member and tests the sisters' relationships to their core. Lily, who has now been sober for four years, tells me how triggering playing Mel was at times.
It looks so good.
“There's one scene in particular, it's a flashback to the night in question where everything goes wrong for Mel, and she makes a really, really monumentally bad decision,” she says. "But it was really, really difficult. I've been sober now for nearly four years. And it was incredibly triggering actually to go back to that kind of a night."
The show - that also stars Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Gabby Best as Mel's other sisters, while Frances Barber plays their mother and Sheila Reid their grandmother - is from Sharon Horgan's (Catastrophe and Motherland) production company, Merman, and had an all female writers room.
Dreamland is also somewhat of a love letter to Margate - which was also celebrated in the Sam Mendes directed film Empire of Light starring Olivia Colman and Colin Firth - and features excellent cameos from local legendary drag queens, including Dame Jame while also making fun of the ‘Down From London’ hipsters who have descended on the town in recent years.
Ending on a cliffhanger, Dreamland is poised for a second series and Lily has said that she would love to return to Margate to film more if it's commissioned. In the meantime, however, following Lily's West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story in 2021, she will be treading the boards once again in London this summer, starring in the award-winning play The Pillowman.
For the latest episode of GLAMOUR Unfiltered, Lily talks music, MeToo, mental health and marriage to Stranger Things actor, David Harbour.
Well, yes, I have been a singer for, I don't know, 15, 20 years maybe. And I don't think I'm very good at that anymore. Yeah. I find it really hard writing in this current political climate maybe. And I still love performing and I still love playing with stories, telling stories and making sense of humanity on some level. And acting enables me to do that, but not have to take responsibility for the words or the subject matter. I've just absolved myself.
I have a sister, actually I have quite a few sisters, but one on my mum's side who I grew up with. And we lean on each other a lot. We've had our ups and downs and have definitely had periods of time where we haven't been so close. But we are in a pretty good place now.
I guess, the thing that makes me feel confident, I guess, that's I have confidence in two different areas of my life, professionally and at home. And I guess, my children thriving and both of them being happy makes me feel confidence. It makes me feel like I'm doing my job correctly. And I guess, maybe in work and professionally, good hair and makeup, style, awards make me feel confident [laughing] or just the nominations are enough actually. So yeah, award nominations!
I guess, I've done a bit of stage acting recently, a couple of years ago I did a play in the West End [2:22 A Ghost Story]. And I think when you can see that the audience are really engaged and having a great time, well, not necessarily a great time, but just engaged and engrossed in whatever it is you are doing, yeah, that feels really empowering.
I manage my mental health with medication and also therapy. I go to therapy once a week at least, sometimes more. Because we sometimes have family therapy as well. And also I try and be in the habit of writing gratitude lists before I go to bed every night. And I find that really does keep me in check more than anything else actually. I think sometimes you can get bogged down with the negativity in your life. And especially with social media and stuff, you can convince yourself that your life is not in a good place. And so if you could just cut off and take stock of all the really good things and all of the great people and the blessings that we have, then that definitely helps me get to sleep for sure.
I've definitely had quite a complex relationship with drugs and alcohol throughout my life. It was actually really hard. There's one scene in particular, it's a flashback to the night in question where everything goes wrong for Mel, and she makes a really, really monumentally bad decision, although it's not really a decision, it just happens. And yeah, I could definitely relate to that. But it was really, really difficult. I've been sober now for nearly four years. And it was incredibly triggering actually to go back to that kind of a night. Yeah. I did not find it remotely enjoyable at all. I do not miss drinking and drug taking in the slightest.
Oh my goodness. Sobriety has just changed my life immeasurably. I don't think I'd be married to my husband. I don't think that my kids would be thriving in the way that they are. I don't think that I'd have gone into finding acting and how much I enjoy that. I definitely wouldn't be getting as much sleep. I go to the gym four times a week. Pretty much every aspect of my life has changed as a result of my sobriety. I actually don't even know if I'd be alive if I'm honest if I hadn't got sober. So yeah, that's definitely at the top of my gratitude list when I go to bed every night is my sobriety.
Thank you.
Oh gosh, awful. I absolutely detest and loathe social media and pretty much everything about it. I think what it's doing to us as a species is just awful. I think the way that we are interacting with each other ... I just loathe it. I'm sorry. I know you're probably watching this via social media, but you shouldn't be, you should be out there doing something better! Yeah, I think it's really, really bad. I hate it. I really, really hate it. And I really struggle with it because it's very hard to do anything creative and not be a part of it. Anyone that wants to fund anything, you want to get things commissioned, people are always looking at that number next to your name and how interactive you are with other people. I think that's why I love the theatre so much actually is because you get up there, you do your job, people stand up and give you an applause or not. And that's it. There's no number. People don't come out and rate it and like it. I love it for that.
I don't know. I think it's just all nonsense. I shouldn't let any of that stuff affect me quite frankly. Yes, people do like to comment on the way that people look on social media. Yeah, it's so destructive and I wish that I didn't interact with it. But sometimes I'm not very good at not reacting. I'm a reactive person. I wish I wasn't. I'm hoping I get to the stage where I can just have somebody else do all of that interaction for me. I probably am at that stage, I just haven't found the person yet. But yeah, I don't know. It's all nonsense, isn't it?
I've had a lot of different experiences related to pregnancy and childbirth. And I wish I could say that I did draw on them. I didn't really. Because without giving too much away, I don't know how much I am allowed to say, she does find herself in the family way. Sorry. That's a horrible phrase. But you don't get to the point of labour with her. I guess, maybe if it gets to a second series then yes, I will probably draw on some of my personal experiences with it.
“So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this.”
I moved to New York a couple of years ago and Roe versus Wade got overturned. It feels pretty Handmaid's Tale-y over there at the moment. I guess, I'm concerned and scared for my children. So, yes. I live in the USA and things are quite complicated at the moment in terms of, I guess, legislation where women's rights are concerned. I have spent a long time using my platform to talk about issues that I feel are important to myself and lots of other people. But I guess, I don't really know how helpful it is at the moment. And I think that that's one of the things that …I like discussing those subject matters in my music, but it's such a hot topic at the moment and I think that people are so into soundbites, and I tend to end up being such a lightning rod and become a character that people have carte blanche to be horrible to as a result of their political stance. And so that's something I'm really excited about where acting is concerned, is that I hope that I can start to talk about these subject matters through this medium rather than just tweeting about it or Instagramming. Because I think it's at the point now where it's oversaturated and getting lost. And as I said to you before, I want to pull away from that part of my public persona or platform. So yeah, I hope that I can just get my teeth stuck into more meatier subject matters and cover those things with drama.
Yeah
Yeah, there were rumors swirling around that I had an album naming and shaming the people in the music industry, which is not really true to be honest. I guess, I did have a collection of songs where I talked about my experiences funnily enough because I'm a singer who writes songs about her experiences. But yeah, there was no ... it wasn't a concerted effort. I don't even know if those songs are going to come out.
Yes. Music hasn't really had the same reckoning in terms of #MeToo as film and TV and Hollywood. And I have many theories as to why that is, but I think that when you are hired as a creative on film or TV, you are taken on as an employee of that production company or that studio. And so you have protections that come with that. Most of these companies have human resources and you can take that route to make complaints or whatever.
And when you are, from personal experience, when you are having problems with people from a record company for instance, as an artist, you are self-employed, so you are out on your own really. You don't have anyone to complain to except for yourself or your Instagram or your Twitter account.
The term ‘nepotism baby’ or its shortened version “nepo baby” are the children of celebrities.
I have complicated feelings about it, mainly because of the complicated relationship that I have with my parents. So I think that, obviously I know that I've been born into an incredibly privileged situation. And I have no problem or qualms with accepting that and the opportunities that have been afforded to me. But I think that that's more of the class that I was born into and where I went to school and the connections that I was able to forge with people as a result of that. There are people in my family I don't really have relationships with, so the idea that they handed things to me on a plate is complicated. But also, whatever. I'm just happy and I'm very grateful, that's all I've got to say on the matter.
Gosh, I wish people could see what me and David talk about in our private time. They definitely wouldn't call us a power couple, they'd just call us a couple of idiots! [laughing].
Yes, actually, we talk about it sometimes. We talk about doing plays together. We really love each other and like spending time with each other, funnily enough. And we don't get to do enough of it. He's always off filming and I'm always doing stuff too. But yeah, we would love to do something together at some point because we would get to work together and then go home together and that would be nice.
Dreamland will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW from 9pm on Thursday April 6 2023.
