Haley Lu Richardson is studying to be herself, on digicam and off

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The 30-year-old actress performs a personality allergic to Wi-Fi in “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.”

Haley Lu Richardson is on a Zoom name from a New York resort to advertise her new film “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” and she or he’s two-and-a-half weeks right into a illness she can not seem to shake.

“I’m on literally every drug that the doctor has to give,” says the actress, combating by means of the congestion in her system. “I’ve been on antibiotics for a week, I have like three different cough suppressants, three different nose sprays, I have an inhaler steroid, and I’m on my second matcha of the day.

“And I’m PMS-ing,” she says, matter-of-factly.

Other than that, things are going wonderfully for the Phoenix native. She broke through playing a best friend role in 2016’s “The Edge of Seventeen” and has been steadily climbing Hollywood’s ladder ever since.

She was a teenager with cystic fibrosis in 2019’s young adult romance “Five Feet Apart” and a pregnant teen in 2020’s “Unpregnant.” She stole scenes as the aimless assistant to Jennifer Coolidge’s character in the second season of “The White Lotus,” and she’s one of the stars of Peacock’s “Ponies,” which debuted last month, in which she and Emilia Clarke play secretaries-turned-spies in 1970s-era Moscow.

Now comes “Good Luck,” through which Richardson performs Ingrid, a loner who’s recruited to assist save the world when Sam Rockwell’s unnamed time traveler busts by means of the door of the L.A. diner the place she’s consuming.

Richardson says she was drawn to the “bats–t insane” satirical sci-fi black comedy because it was the most fun script she’s ever read, while also being unsettling and thought-provoking and thematically heavy and…

“Uh-oh, I’ve to sneeze,” she says, bracing for a sneeze that, maddeningly, never arrives. “You know when you must sneeze, and it will not come out, and it hurts? Oh, Lord!” Another pause. “OK, I assume it handed.”

More: ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ review: A bonkers apocalypse comedy

Richardson isn’t afraid of detailing her sinus functions or stripping away any sense of glam from her persona.

She’s the identical one who titled her debut guide of poetry “I’m Sad and Horny,” and promoted the book by going on talk shows dressed as a clown. She also made a memorable appearance twerking on NBC’s “Today” show during her “White Lotus” run.

“I sort of black out on these discuss reveals, after which I’m finished and I’m like, ‘what the heck did I simply say?'” she says. “Did I discuss in regards to the film in any respect, or did I simply discuss farts and crocheting and the Jonas Brothers?”

Richardson — she goes by Haley, “however I do really feel like my persona is in keeping with a Haley Lu,” she says — is doing her best to just be herself, she says. And that’s an ongoing journey in and of itself.

As a child, she started off dancing and appearing in theatrical productions, and she landed her first professional acting gigs in 2012, when she was 17-years-old.

Now at 30, she says she’s learning to follow her instincts and go with the flow.

“I simply actually need to belief my intestine, as a result of I’ve been growing a extremely good relationship with myself,” she says. “I really feel like I’ve surrendered extra lately to the truth that our identities change on a regular basis. So I’m not being arduous on myself when I’m not the identical particular person with the identical desires that I used to be after I was 22.”

Some of her relationship with herself got here from her expertise taking pictures “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” which confronts our obsession with phones, our inability to pull ourselves away from screens and the complacency society has been lulled into as a result.

Making the movie — the film was shot in Cape Town, South Africa — made Richardson reevaluate her relationship with her device, she says.

“I feel this film actually did have an effect on me,” she says of playing a character who is literally allergic to wi-fi. “I spent like 20 hours a day, 5 days every week, with out my telephone. And it undoubtedly made me extra observant, extra current, in a ravishing means.”

She also ditched Instagram while filming, and said the lack of social media dopamine and distraction made her feel more connected to herself and the world around her.

“It makes you’re feeling your emotions extra. It lets you be extra productive, extra artistic, extra impressed, all of that,” she says. “But additionally you have gotta face your emotions, as a result of you do not have something to distract you from them. So it was an instigator of dealing with my emotions, and it began an entire journey for me.”

Now, Richardson says, she’s journaling extra, writing extra poetry, and digging deeper together with her therapist.

“I’m dealing with actual issues inside myself and connecting extra deeply in my relationships, as a result of I’ve met myself extra deeply. It was actually eye-opening,” she says.

And she’s hoping that may information her, each professionally and personally. She’ll seem within the upcoming “zi,” her third collaboration with “After Yang” and “Columbus” filmmaker Kogonada, which premiered at last month’s Sundance Film Festival.

After that, “I really feel like I’m open to what’s proper for me,” says Richardson. “I’ve been extra open to essentially studying and being current, and I’m excited to maintain being open with yearly and day by day.”

agraham@detroitnews.com

‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’

Rated R: for pervasive language, violence, some grisly images and brief sexual content

Running time: 135 minutes

In theaters