Riley Keough has spoken out about her experience filming Daisy Jones and the Six, stating that Sam Claflin tested positive for Covid-19 at a critical time.
The highly anticipated TV series, based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel of the same name, follows a fictional rock band in the 1970s, documenting their ascent to prominence from humble beginnings to one of the world’s largest groups – and the tragedy that led to their demise.
Sam portrayed leader Billy Dunne, while Riley played his bandmate Daisy Jones and Camila Morrone played his partner Camila.
Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse, and Sebastian Chacon played the remainder of the band, with Nabiyah Be playing a fellow musician.
Although being set in the 1970s, the performers admitted that it wasn’t as glamorous as the show and required some late-night shooting.
Riley, granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, spoke about the concert video at a screening and cast Q&A on Monday at 92NY in New York. ‘We filmed all of it over one week, but it was all night shoots,’ Riley said. Sam got Covid…’
‘I don’t know where it came from,’ he interjected as the audience laughed.
‘We showed up at this stadium that we’d been preparing to shoot at for years,’ she continued. ‘We get there and we’re all in our trailers, like “Oh my God, you guys, this is it!” We’ve been preparing for these performances for years.
‘We’re in our trailers and I just remember this woman came knocking and I opened the door, the look on their face. I was like, “Someone has Covid”. They were like, just stay in your trailer.’
‘Things happen, as we all know,’ her co-star insisted.
‘But it ended up being over this week, the most important week, and we were shooting from I think around 7pm and wrapping at 8am,’ Riley said. ‘Essentially playing a live concert all night, which I don’t think bands typically do… It was like a nine-hour performance.
‘I opened a little shop in my trailer where I was giving everyone B12. It was really wholesome and it got us through the night.’
Josh joked: ‘You should’ve seen us knocking on the door, like “We’re ready for our B12!”’
The sickness caused havoc behind the scenes, according to writer Scott Neustadter, because they were working on a tight deadline.
‘We took over this football field, and we had our production designer Jess Kender who was a super genius,’ he said. ‘She had to build this stage, like a rock concert stage.
‘It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen, it probably took three days to do. When we got there that day, we were like let’s go.
‘We also knew it was like a ticking clock when they’re going to be filming stuff – we’d all have to be out of there by Thursday or whatever it was.
‘And they’re like, “Okay, we have a slight snag. The guy playing Billy won’t be able to be here. Is there any way you could film around him?” In the concert footage?!’
Sam poked fun of the situation that he inadvertently caused, and jokingly added: ‘I do remember offering [myself] up, like, “I feel fine, this is a really big stage. Can I stand 12 feet away from everyone and we’ll shoot pick-ups of Riley later.” No one went for that.’
Luckily, they were able to get production back on schedule, with the 10-part series premiering this week.
Daisy Jones and the Six premieres on March 3 on Amazon Prime.