On the subject of Toronto teenagers Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) in Netflix‘s new collection “Wayward,” the phrase the actors behind the characters repeatedly use in dialog is “codependent.” Sure, the duo are greatest buddies and chosen household — however they will’t survive with out one another in a method that has already impacted their futures, particularly on the disquieting Tall Pines Academy.
Abbie and Leila’s want for one another is established from the beginning of Mae Martin‘s Netflix thriller collection, which sees the women locked up and subjected to abusive behavioral remedy as soon as they attain the Academy. Earlier than that, Abbie is being ruthlessly scrutinized and managed by her mother and father, whereas Leila’s mom has largely checked out after her elder daughter’s sudden dying.
“Once you don’t have that love from from a member of the family, or from anyone that’s blood-related in your life, you then type of seek for it wherever else,” Lind advised IndieWire in a joint interview with Topliffe. “I feel she discovered Abbie at a really younger age, and simply was like, ‘You’re mine,’ and latched onto her.”
Chosen household is a serious theme within the collection, from Abbie and Leila to their friends on the Academy to Alex (Martin) and his experiences rising up queer within the Midwest and spouse Laura (Sarah Gadon) remaining near her personal Academy cohort.
“You might have a household that’s your blood, however on the finish of the day, it’s in regards to the folks that you simply select to be in your life and folks that you simply love in that method. Abbie is Leila’s chosen household,” Lind mentioned.
The theme was naturally mirrored behind-the-scenes, the place the younger solid shortly bonded and turned their traumatic on-screen experiences into Canadian summer time camp with the cameras off. As creepy because the Academy set was (“I like ghosts, it felt haunted,” Lind mentioned), it helped actors faucet into the precise head area earlier than clocking out to benefit from the area journey an hour exterior of Toronto.
“Once you’re in a extremely severe place, particularly with these two women, they discover the levity in it, even in a horrible scenario,” Topliffe mentioned. “There have been a pair scenes that have been actually intense, just like the Sizzling Seat scene days have been exhausting, these have been lengthy days.”
Episode 6 traps the kids within the Academy for what quantities to a jail riot, with lots of the college students and workers performed by precise stunt performers. Previous to that, Topliffe was among the many actors who took an out of doors journey when the Academy workers leaves them within the wilderness.
“That was a whole lot of enjoyable. We’d be climbing these hills like on our stomachs, after which we might simply discover empty beer bottles and break our — properly, I most likely shouldn’t say that for insurance coverage,” Topliffe mentioned. “However that was actually enjoyable. All of us received a whole lot of mosquito bites, but it surely was nice. I cherished being soiled.”
After filming the pilot collectively — to not point out going by their closing spherical of auditions, switching between Abbie and Leila and never realizing they’d nabbed the roles — Lind and Topliffe’s on-set destiny mirrored their characters’ as they needed to work individually.
“Within the story, we’re one another’s safety blankets, so it seems bizarre after we’re not collectively. That got here by in actual life,” Lind mentioned. “By the second episode, it was like, ‘Wait, the place’s my buddy? I don’t understand how to do that with out her!’ It was like beginning an entire new present.”
“Wayward” hits a candy spot for each actors; Topliffe performs a highschool pupil in Aura Leisure’s “Doin’ It,” now in theaters after its 2023 SXSW premiere, and 18-year-old Lind has one way or the other logged her third time taking part in a teen battling dependancy.
“I don’t know why I maintain getting typecast as this, however… I like with the ability to sink my tooth into it, so maintain casting me because it,” she mentioned. “I’ll attempt to ship in the easiest way attainable. It’s fantastic. Straightforward roles are boring, so it’s actually enjoyable.”
With “Wayward” out on the planet (and a few potential for a second season), the enjoyable is precisely what each actors keep in mind, and what they hope to search out in future work.
“I’m positive the crew hated us as a result of we have been simply so annoying,” Topliffe mentioned. “We took the work significantly, however we additionally didn’t wish to sit in that each one day, so we might make silly films.”
“We’d be sobbing and crying and upset in a scene and going by all these feelings — after which Sydney could be like, ‘Do you wish to fake to be Zac Efron on that hill over there and do ‘Wager on It’?” Lind recalled. “I’d be like, ‘Sure, I do! Wager on it, wager on it!‘ It was my favourite a part of the entire expertise. It was a lot enjoyable.”
“Wayward” is now streaming on Netflix.