Fast five with Riley Keough

Mad Max: Fury Road actress is Elvis Presley's granddaughter

May 13, 2015 06:00 am

1 FAMOUS FAMILY

She is not the infant British princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, but this 25-year-old is also a descendent of a "king". Elvis Presley, that is. Keough is his eldest grandchild, the daughter of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough.

2 NO DAMSEL

The gorgeous model-actress, who made her big-screen debut in The Runaways, plays crimson-haired Capable, one of the women Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa rescues in Mad Max: Fury Road.

In director George Miller's reboot of the sci-fi classic that starred Mel Gibson which opens here tomorrow, Furiosa takes revenge on diabolical warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) by taking away his precious wives, Capable being one of them.

Furiosa - aided along the way by the titular Max (Tom Hardy) - searches for a safe haven for Capable and the other four wives (played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee and Courtney Eaton) in a post-apocalyptic desert world.

The film, starring Constance Wu, and Henry Golding, grossed US$239 million (S$325 million) globally.

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3 NOT JUST PRETTY FACES

While the original Mad Max movies revolved around Gibson, this update centres on the women. To prepare them to be more than just eye candy, Miller sent the "wives" to Sydney for an intense workshop with The Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler, who briefed them on her experiences working with Congolese women who survived rape. Said Keough to New York Daily News: "When you ask George (Miller) about the role (of the women), you realise there's more going on than 'Here's hot girl number one and hot girl number two.'"

4 BFFS FOR LIFE

Keough told Vogue that she made some of her best friends while filming Mad Max, particularly after six months of intense shooting in Namibia. "Everyone was so cool, and we're all really, really good friends now," said Keough. "You do a lot of movies, and you become friends with people...I made best friends on (Mad Max)."

One such gal pal is Australian model Lee, whom Keough was particularly close to. Lee even served as Keough's bridesmaid, when she married Aussie stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen in February. The couple met on the set of Mad Max.

5 DEALING WITH FAME

Being famous is something Keough - who has two other movies, The Greens Are Gone and Love Song, in the works - learned to live with from a young age, telling Glamour that "it just was part of" her life.

She also told the New York Daily News she has got "used to the attention".

"It definitely helps that I'm not as weirded out or as uncomfortable being in the public eye."

FACT FILE

Name Danielle Riley Keough

Born May 29, 1989, Los Angeles, US

Filmography The Runaways (2010), The Good Doctor (2011), Jack & Diane (2012), Magic Mike (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)