Oklahoma natives April and Violet Brinson are not just co-stars on HBO’s drama, Sharp Objects, they’re sisters and best friends! The duo spilled all about working together on set—where they play teen trouble-makers Jodes (April) and Kelsey (Violet)—alongside award-winning actors, like Amy Adams. Plus, check out their most embarrassing moment on set! Catch these two in HBO’s Sharp Objects, Sundays at 9 pm. ///by Daisye Rainer
Their real-life friendship helped them connect with their characters.
April: Violet and I play Kelsey and Jodes, and we’re best friends with Amma. For me personally, Jodes is very different than how I am in real life and very different than how I would ever act. So that aspect of it was a little challenging. But it’s really fun to get to explore and do things you would never get to do in real life. In Sharp Objects, you can get an insight into Jodes, Kelsey and Amma’s friendship. It’s so much of a pecking order, and I feel like Jodes is at the very bottom and gets picked on by Kelsey and Amma. I could instantly connect to those moments in my life where I’ve been made to feel less than or that I need to suck up to my friends so that they like me. So in that aspect, I could relate.
Violet: I had a lot of fun playing Kelsey. Since April and l are so close as sisters, we grew really close with Eliza Scanlen (Amma) during filming, I feel like I had a very good starting point to lean on between Kelsey, Jodes and Amma. They’re best friends; they tell each other everything. They do everything together, so I felt like that was very helpful in bringing their friendship to life. But as April was saying, their dynamic is very much like a pecking order, and I had to connect to the times in my life where you felt the peer pressure to do things you didn’t always agree with or to please someone you looked up to, and it was quite fun getting to play that other side.
“Believe in yourself and go for it. Be fearless. You’re never going to get something if you never try, so don’t be afraid to fail.” —Violet
Working on set together was more than just fun!
V: It’s such a great experience, and having April by my side to go through it with was so amazing, because now it’s a shared experience that we can look back on together and never get tired of hearing each other’s stories from filming over and over again. But it was really nice having a buddy and a best friend on set with you all day.
A: I also think it was helpful to have someone who understands exactly what you’re going through on a day-to-day basis and isn’t just hearing it secondhand. We’re experiencing working with Amy [Adams] and Patricia [Clarkson] and we have a lot of scenes together, so we have similar days. Being able to talk about our characters or the scenes that we have coming up and bounce ideas off of each other on a regular basis was really, really nice.
Working closely with actors they look up to, like Amy Adams, was amazing but nerve-wracking…
A: Working with Amy is a dream come true! She is really an incredible actress, and I’ve grown up watching her in so many different movies and really looking up to her, so getting this experience was so thrilling. Not only is she a great actress, but she’s a really, really great person. I was so nervous to be on set because there are so many great actors, and you really have to step up to the plate to prove that you belong there.
V: I grew up watching these people. It’s really nerve-wracking, but Amy is so sweet, and it really put both of us at ease to be able to do our very best work.
“If you love something, stick with it even when things are hard. Things don’t have to be going perfectly to mean you’re moving in the right direction. Sometimes failing is a step forward.” —April
They’ve both embarrassed themselves on set…roller skating isn’t as easy as it looks!
A: There was an episode where we wear day dresses that are really long and really heavy and have a lot of layers. We have to take a van and park on this dirt hill to get to set, and I was riding up there without Violet and Eliza, and I was going up there with Chris [Messina] and Elizabeth Perkins and some other people, and I was trying to get out of the van in this long dress, and I tripped and fell in the dirt and rolled a couple of feet down, and it was so embarrassing. Here I was in this big white dress, covered in dirt, and everyone was dusting me off!
V: We were in the middle of filming a scene, and we were all in roller skates. and I rolled over a rose stem or something, and my feet flew out from under me,. I fell straight on my butt in front of everyone in the middle of the scene. Everyone ran towards me…and we had to change my pants! I was all dirty, and it was very embarrassing. There were definitely a few times where we fell on the roller skates.
Three words to describe each other
A: I would say Violet is thoughtful, passionate, and melodramatic!
V: I would describe April as intellectual, witty, and bossy.