Lady Phoebe Steals the Show on 'You' Season 4
Each new season of You—the Netflix psycho-thriller starring Penn Badgley as the infamous and obsessive Joe Goldberg—introduces us to a whole new array of regulars in his life, since his habit of murder tends to leave him on a constant run. From New York to Los Angeles and the suburbs outside of it, the latest season hauls us to London, where Joe transforms himself into Jonathan Moore, a literature professor at a local college.
Still reeling over his obsession with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), he quickly falls into a group of wealthy Londonites, spending his first night blacked out at a Soho House–esque club. He’s immediately drawn to the serious Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), his neighbor and best friend of Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth, the bubbly socialite who claims Joe said something profound to her that he cannot seem to recall the next day.
“It was my number one question of the whole show,” Tilly Keeper, the 25-year-old British actress who portrays Phoebe, tells BAZAAR.com. “I don’t care who dies, I don’t know who the murderer is, but what does he say to her?”
It’s a question that remains unanswered during the first part of the series but leads to an immediate closeness between the two that makes Joe a member of the group as they deal with a murderer on the loose, one who also has their eyes set on Joe.
Ahead of the release of part two on March 9 (part one is available to stream now), we speak with Keeper about what drew her to the role of Lady Phoebe and how she suggests you should spend the monthlong break between the two parts, which she knows you’re going to need.
“Have a breather and mull over the thought of what Joe will do next,” she says. “Because whatever you think he’s going to do next, they’re upping the ante.”
Before You, you were on a British soap called EastEnders. It’s been on for 30-plus seasons, so it’s giving Grey’s Anatomy, but you were there for four years. What was that like, and how did it prepare you for your current roles?
I didn't go to drama school. The years that I would have gone to school were the years I was on EastEnders, and they were such formative years for me, not just for growing as a person but for developing my skills as an actress. They'd schedule 15 scenes on one day and you could work across four units; that's working across 16 episodes, potentially, on a busy period of the year. It drills the acting skills into you, and they become second nature.
I saw an interview the other day about Margot Robbie and Babylon, and she started on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. In the film, she had to do a crying scene, and she was like, "When I was on Neighbours, I could train what tear would fall out of what eye at the exact line." I'm not saying I can do that, but it becomes like a sixth sense. I feel like I know what I need to do to achieve the scene and make sure everyone goes home on time as well.
So when I got the part on You, the technical side wasn't an issue for me; it was just like, "Now I can just enjoy this, and I can focus on the character."
What ended up drawing you to the role of Lady Phoebe?
After I left EastEnders, I had quite a few auditions for Ladies of London. I wasn't getting them, and then Phoebe came through, and I was like, "I want this one." I enjoyed playing the upper-class-removed-from-reality character and poking fun at it.
With Phoebe, she's privileged, and she's unaware of any real-world problems. Her main problem is booking in a blow-dry or making sure her boyfriend texted back! But there was a caveat of her being lovely and genuine. All she wants is to feel accepted, seen, and loved. I felt very attached to her. And then in my script, it said she enters in a tiny sparkly dress and I was like, "Oh, I want to play that."
I was surprised by how much I loved Lady Phoebe. The series does a really good job of creating very unlikeable characters or making you love a character and killing them off. Were you worried about that? When you auditioned for Lady Phoebe, did you know what her outcome in the show was going to be?
I didn't know what the outcome was going to be. I was worried that she was going to fall for Joe, but also, because Lukas Gage's character, Adam, was in my audition script, I knew that her main arc was going to be focused on that relationship. So I thought she was safe.
When I got the part, I had a meeting with Sera Gamble, our showrunner; John Scott, our director; and some of the other writers. I was like, "Okay, so she's nice," and they were like, "No, she's genuinely lovely," and I was like, "Sure." And, of course, I thought that because we were all duped back in Season 2. We thought Love was adorable and lovely until she turned on a dime.
In the first part, we see that Phoebe isn’t Joe’s love interest, but her best friend, Kate, is. Instead, Joe just seems to genuinely like Phoebe. What was that dynamic like?
Kate and Phoebe's friendship is really important for the story and both of them individually, because you see a soft side to Kate around Phoebe, and the two characters complement each other. I know it sounds crazy, but I like that she's friends with Joe.
In every season, Joe always finds a friend who he secretly loathes because they're such a nuisance to him, but aside from the initial judgment of her, he does think she's a nice person. I know that doesn't say much coming from a serial killer, but I think it's lovely that she wants the best for him, and he genuinely thinks that can do a lot with her life and roots for her. I'm not saying that redeems him at all, but I do think it's quite sweet.
How did you prepare to play a socialite? I think of a “Lady” like an influencer, but is that wrong?
It's a different vibe. Phoebe might straddle the line of the two slightly more, and I don't know whether that's because we're watching it through Joe's lens. But in London, more so in the '90s, there was this culture in the tabloids about our royal family and the people associated with them. A lot of them were very beautiful, young women all enjoying their wealth, their status, and going to the best clubs in London, having fun, and getting photographed. These girls were put on a pedestal. They're the party girls, the cool girls.
It's a bit more Paris Hilton than an influencer, but Paris Hilton in her New York club days. There's another socialite in England who passed away a few years ago named Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and I got a lot of inspiration from her and her talk show appearances.
Since the series is coming out in two parts, do you have any advice for how people should spend the monthlong break?
It's going to be a lot to digest. You won't expect it. Go outside and take a walk—when I'm stressed, just imagine me with a face mask surrounded with crystals—and wait for March, when it comes back.
Do you think Lady Phoebe would be into crystals?
I think Phoebe is into crystals. Maybe it's like in White Lotus Season 2 when Jennifer Coolidge gets that meeting to get her tarot cards read, and when she doesn't like the answers, she kicks her out. I think that's Phoebe.
I was going to ask about The White Lotus because of Lukas Gage. Did you see him in the first season, and did you know about it all before he was cast?
I saw White Lotus. What was weird is when I was auditioning for the show, I was trying to cast everyone. "Who's gonna play Kate, who's going to play the boyfriend?" And I kept thinking, Who is someone around my age who is doing well for themselves and it would be such a catch to get him in this role? And I was like, "That guy from White Lotus!" Whenever I met him, I was like, "Listen, you've got a very hardworking team, but I manifested this."
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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