Riley Keough took care of everyone on Daisy Jones and the Six set after Sam Claflin tested positive for Covid ahead of crucial scene
Riley Keough has opened up about filming Daisy Jones and the Six, revealing that Sam Claflin tested positive for Covid-19 at a crucial point.
The highly-anticipated TV series, based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, follows a fictional rock band in the 1970s, charting their rise to success from humble beginnings to one of the biggest groups in the world – and the devastation behind their downfall.
Sam took on the role of frontman Billy Dunne while Riley played his bandmate, Daisy Jones, and Camila Morrone appeared as his partner, Camila.
Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse and Sebastian Chacon rounded out the cast as the rest of the band, alongside Nabiyah Be who starred as a fellow musician.
Despite being set in the 70s, the cast revealed that it wasn’t as glamorous as the program show, and entailed some long night shoots.
Appearing at a screening and cast Q&A on Monday at 92NY in New York, Riley – granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of Lisa Marie Presley – recalled of the concert footage: ‘We shot all of it over one week, but it was all night shoots. 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!”’
Writer Scott Neustadter revealed that the illness caused chaos behind the scenes, as they were working with a strict timeframe.
‘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.’
Thankfully, they managed to get production back on track, with the 10-part series hitting our screens this week.
Daisy Jones and the Six premieres on March 3 on Amazon Prime.
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First appear at Riley Keough took care of everyone on Daisy Jones and the Six set after Sam Claflin tested positive for Covid ahead of crucial scene
