"Mare Of Easttown" Star Angourie Rice Shared Her Favorite Theory, And It Was 100% Not What I Would Have Expected

If you've been watching HBO's Mare of Easttown, I can almost guarantee you're still sitting with your jaw on the floor. That's pretty much an evergreen feeling watching this dark and twisty murder mystery that only gets better with each episode.

But amid all of the murder, there's one piece of light — Mare's teenage daughter Siobhan, played brilliantly by Angourie Rice. From her band Androgynous to her budding romance with Anne, Siobhan always manages to bring a little bit of levity when we need it the most. That's a huge credit to Angourie, who you've seen in massive projects like the Spider-Man movies as Betty Brant or opposite Miley Cyrus in THAT Black Mirror episode.

We caught up with her to talk all things Mare of Easttown — from working opposite Kate Winslet to her favorite theories. Here's everything we learned:

1. Her relationship with her mother, for sure. I think that is such an interesting relationship. And for it to be opposite Kate Winslet as well was so amazing.

2. Another thing that drew me to the character was her relationship with her grandmother. Just that dynamic of three women living in a house together. Like, what's that like? How do they all interact with each other? How does each generation understand and process grief and happiness and joy? How does each of them understand their problems and negotiate their problems with each other as well?

3. The fact that she's in a band. I love that. I thought that was so exciting and interesting. I really love music. I'm nowhere near as cool as Siobhan, though. Like, I played violin in orchestra and did singing and choir — much more classical music. But I loved that she was in a band, I really enjoy singing. So, I was so excited to give that a crack.

BuzzFeed: Did that push you out of your comfort zone a little bit?

Definitely out of my comfort zone. But we had band rehearsals, which was really helpful. We were coached by Michelle from Japanese Breakfast, who is such a legend. She's so cool. She's the coolest person I've ever met in my life. So she was really helpful in making us look cohesive and look like a band.

4. The fact that she's dealt with so much in her life, and that she's found a way to process and understand her grief in a way that's creative and feels productive as well. And I really wanted to treat that with respect and nuance, because it's such a heavy topic. And it's so important to her life. It's a big part of her backstory. So, I wanted to really honor that and make sure that that's an important part of her character.

5. And the final thing that intrigued me about her character is that she gets a love story. Despite all the chaos in this town and how her mother feels like her life is falling apart. You know, the relationship between her mom and her dad is really strained. She's partially taking care of this 4-year-old kid. And meanwhile, she still manages to have a really sweet love story and kind of a coming-of-age arc, which I really loved.

BuzzFeed: Those are definitely the scenes in the show where I kind of feel like I get to exhale...

AR: Yeah, it's a bit of lightness to the show, which is really nice. I think that's what makes Brad [Ingelsby] such a great writer, is that he can show the light and the dark in tandem with each other and show that they exist at the same time.

1. To always have a good laugh. She would just always be doing funny impressions or showing me silly videos on set and having a good laugh about things. And I think that's really important, especially when working on a show that's quite dark and sad. It's good to just shake it all off at the end of the day and have a good laugh, and sit down and chat about things that aren't the show — that was really nice. She's great at making jokes and making everyone laugh.

2. I admired the dedication she brought to set. You know, every day she would come in committed to this character and committed to this world. And I think you can see it in the show, you can see how much she brought to this character. And how intricate and complex Mare is and how Kate pulls that off is just astounding.

3. Another thing I learned is energy — bringing energy to set as well. No matter if it was 2 a.m. or freezing cold, she would still be there getting everyone ready to do a take. "Come on, guys. Let's do it. I'm so excited." And I think that's really important too, because it shows that you care and that it's something that's really important to you. And she always had fun with her work, which I think is so important, because we are so lucky to be able to do what we do for a living because it's such a rare and special and exciting thing. So, that was really lovely.

4. And she brought her food to set — she brought her own snacks every day, and I started doing that too. Also, because of COVID restrictions about eating together as a group, we had to make sure that everything was safe, and so I started bringing my own snacks to set, which was handy. I had never done that before. Usually, I would just raid craft services. But I guess that's something that I took on while filming and she did that, so I don't know if it was directly inspired by her or if it was just a change in me. I'm not sure.

BuzzFeed: What were your snacks of choice?

AR: I made my own blueberry muffins and I would bring those in and heat them up. I would freeze them and then I would heat them up in the microwave in my trailer, and then I would have a hot muffin in the morning, which was actually really nice. And I would also bake cookies for the hair and makeup people, that was really nice. Because I brought them in one day, I was like "I just have some left over." And then they really liked them because they were like English shortbread, which in America is kind of harder to find, because a lot of American cookies are chewy and soft. They were different. They were unusual. They were a hit with hair and makeup, which was really nice.

1. Would you rather go to an Androgynous (Siobhan's band in Mare of Easttown) or Ashley O (Black Mirror) concert?

AR: Oh my god, good question. Okay, Ashley O before her rock star makeover or after? Like, pop star Ashley O or grunge at the end of the episode Ashley O?

BuzzFeed: Hmm, I guess I have to say choose between all three.

AR: That is such a good question. Do you know, honestly, I would probably love to go to a pop star Ashley O concert. Because I've actually never been to a concert in my life, which is shocking. I had tickets to go and see Katy Perry in, like, 2014, but then I was working, so my sister went with a friend instead. But I would love to see pop star Ashley O, because I feel like she would have confetti, costume changes, and choreography, and those are the three things that I want out of a concert, so I feel like she would definitely deliver on glitter and costume changes.

BuzzFeed: I mean, I listen to "On a Roll" probably at least once a day.

AR: It was so weird, after the episode came out, a friend of mine messaged me and he was like, "They're playing 'On a Roll' in the club right now." And I was like, "What?!" So brilliant. Makes me happy.

2. Would you rather watch a documentary produced by Siobhan or a Betty Brant news report (Spider-Man)?

AR: Probably a documentary produced by Siobhan. It would make you think — it'd be something really from the heart and really thoughtful. And I think Betty is committed to investigative journalism. Her news report would be, like, interesting. But it might also be a bit clickbaity, you know. And I feel like Siobhan's documentary would be very heartfelt, so probably Siobhan's documentary.

3. Who is a better parent: Mare Sheehan or Holland March (Ryan Gosling's character in The Nice Guys)?

AR: Oh my god. Well, it's hard to compare. They've both been through grief. It's also hard because The Nice Guys is a comedy, so he couldn't be too terrible. I would say Holland in The Nice Guys. I think he figures it out sooner, if that's an answer. Because it's a movie, it's a comedy, he figures out what he needs to do as a parent sooner than Mare does. Mare's struggling for a long time, and there's a disconnect between Mare and Siobhan for most of the series, they have this tension. Whereas with Holly and her dad, I feel like he catches on sooner. He's like, "Okay, I need to do this to connect with my daughter."

1. The first one that comes to mind is in our first week of pre-production, me and the band went to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which is a really beautiful art gallery. And I love art galleries. Any city I go to in the States, I find the best art gallery there and I go and visit it. So I loved the Barnes Foundation. It was so beautiful. And that was so nice because we all went as a band and hung out and then went for lunch and dinner. That's a really good memory because we really bonded as a team, which I think is very important when you're playing friends in a band.

2. A lot of my really good memories come from spending time with Izzy King, who plays little Drew — the 4-year-old boy. Oh my god, I just love him so much. So we had a massive dinosaur on set. Originally, it was a prop. But then Izzy was like, "No, I love this dinosaur." So, I don't know if it's even in the show or if it was his play thing behind the scenes or both. It was a big T-Rex, and it opened its mouth and you could put things in its mouth. And then they would slide down the throat and then go into the belly, and then you'd open a trapdoor in the belly, and everything would fall out. So Izzy and I would just spend the whole day behind the scenes feeding this T-Rex little Hot Wheels cars and then watching them fall out the bottom trapdoor. It was the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life. That was a really good memory. He brought out the child in me, and I just love playing with toys and Legos and building blocks, so that was really fun.

1. I'm going to give you a silly answer. I recently tweeted, like, "send me your theories," because I wanted to see what people were saying. And I'm having people send me screenshots of subreddits and articles that, like, go through all the suspects. But at least three people said "I suspect the turtle." And I just thought that was really cute and funny. And that's genuinely my favorite theory. The three people out there who suspect Kevin the turtle.

BuzzFeed: You can't really rule it out at this point.

AR: You never know what's going to happen in Easttown, that's for sure.

Be sure to watch Angourie as Siobhan on Mare of Easttown, Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET and streaming on HBO Max.