Inside Lady in the Lake Star Dylan Arnold’s transformation into Stephen
Dylan Arnold‘s chilling role as Stephen in Apple TV+’s Lady in the lake required a physical – and emotional – transformation.
During an exclusive interview with We weekly Ahead of the Apple TV+ show’s premiere on Friday, July 19, Arnold, 30, broke down the dedication it took to bring Stephen to life on screen.
“[I spoke with director Alma Har’el] about what Stephen would physically look like. She wanted me to lose some weight for the role – and we didn’t have much time – [but] she wanted me to do it in a healthy way. So that was definitely a challenge,” Arnold recalls. “I feel like getting to that place has brought the character closer to me.”
Arnold wanted to make sure he portrayed the character well, which started with his appearance.
Apple TV+ Apple TV+’s upcoming series Lady in the Lake perfectly combines history and mystery. The seven-episode show, set in 1960s Baltimore, is based on Laura Lippman’s 2019 novel of the same name. According to the synopsis, Lady in the Lake focuses on the murder of a young Jewish girl […]
“There’s a kind of vulnerable element to him and the fact that I felt more vulnerable than normal really helped me get there. But physicality was the most important thing. And Alma introduced me to some really amazing, incredible people who are coaches who helped me move and speak,” he noted. “The physicality, in my mind, is how I got into the mental space. There is a sense that Stephen has of feeling trapped. So as much as I could bring that into my body, I found that it opened up the rest of the world to me.
The actor emphasized how important it was for him and for Har’el to lose weight in a healthy way.
“When I got to Baltimore, Alma had a doctor that I met who made sure I was in a good place, and I was. [They] also gave me great literature on how to maintain it, because we were filming over the course of six months and I was going back and forth,” he recalled. “So that was probably the biggest challenge [where] I’d have to figure out how to last that whole time. But I did a lot of research on my own and tried to make sure I wasn’t starving myself.”
Based on Laura Lipman‘s 2019 novel of the same name, Lady in the lake revolves around the murder of a young Jewish girl and the disappearance of a black woman, which is inspiring Natalie Portman‘s character, Maddie, to investigate the possible connection between the cases. Arnold, meanwhile, plays a fishing store employee who is the last person to see Tessie before the child went missing.
The first two episodes of Lady in the lake, currently streaming, doesn’t offer too much information about Stephen other than the fact that he’s a suspect in Tessie’s murder. However, the show still found subtle ways to point out Stephen’s declining mental health, which ended with a standoff with the police. It took Arnold a lot of effort to channel Stephen’s emotional headspace.
“That’s something I really appreciate about having Alma by my side: that she really cares about her actors. She thinks it’s really important that they feel good about the work, so she walked me through some great breathing exercises and physical exercises when we needed to get there emotionally, which is just a gift,” he noted. “You often don’t have that time on a production, but she scheduled that time to really make sure we didn’t feel rushed.”
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Arnold pointed out that feeling “physically limited” enhanced the emotional element that came with the role, adding, “It was very important for us not to psychoanalyze the character in any way and just focus on his behavior and his experiences and how they come through him in a physical way.”
In order to portray Stephen well, Arnold also didn’t judge the character, despite his sometimes questionable on-screen behavior. (During the second episode, Stephen put on a gas mask while sitting in his bathtub with some fish.)
“I think the simpler you can sometimes approach it, the better. I was trying to figure out what he was looking for and what he wanted,” Arnold explained before alluding to Stephen’s apparent trauma. “We focused on what happens to him and his behavior and let that describe the character, rather than having some kind of analytical judgment about who he is.”
While Lady in the lake is inspired by real true crime cases, but Arnold didn’t let that get in the way of his performance.
“It’s loosely inspired by real events, but it’s fiction. So I think I mostly focused on the material of the scripts,” Arnold shared Us. “I’ve looked [the person] upwards. There is little to be found about him online. But I think the character is its own character. It’s not based on that person. So I didn’t want to get caught up in trying to recreate what I thought it should be. I wanted to go into it with a fresh mind.”
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Arnold also made it a priority to monitor his mental health when he wasn’t filming.
“At the time I really enjoyed what I was doing. That gave me fuel. But when I look back on things, I always think about what I could have done differently and how I could have been better for myself. I really tried to make sure that I forced myself to do other things in my spare time,” he shares. “I didn’t just focus on this project because you can only give so much energy. And I didn’t want to overdo it.”
He continued: “Honestly, it was a very tough space to live in. [That was] strange, because I find that very funny about being an actor. Somehow you can get into these really dark, intense characters and be in these really heavy scenes, but somehow it’s still fun. It’s very bizarre. But I just love the work so much that it helps me stay grounded.”
The first two episodes of Lady in the lake are currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes are available on Fridays.
