Sisterhood can be a bitch – at least that's what Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock will tell you.
Their Netflix TV series, Sirens, boasts a dysfunctional relationship of two sisters at its centre. It doesn't shy away from the many ways that siblings can misunderstand, irritate and feel like they can ruin you. But at the end of the day, as Meghann's character Devon says: "No one knows you like a sister, know one knows you better".
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We see Devon travel out to a beautiful island in upstate New York to track down her distant sister Simone, who has taken a job assisting a wealthy socialite and conservationist Michaela, played with superb intensity by Julianne Moore. A weekend of mysterious events unfolds on the island, with the sisters forced to come to terms with their love and frustration for each other and their life choices.
Meghann and Milly sat down with GLAMOUR to talk about why we love watching rich people behave badly, the poignancy they felt playing sisters and the best advice they've received to date as part of our interview series Girlhood Firsts.
GLAMOUR: The series deals with wealth and social class in a massive way. What do you hope it says about us wanting to watch rich people behaving badly? We love to watch shows like The Perfect Couple, The White Lotus. What do you guys think that is all about?
Milly: I think because we kind of worship the culture and worship money as a society.
Meghann: There's something very universal about the experience. It's like if you identify with the community that is being poked at, there's something fun about that. You feel like you're in on that joke.
Milly: Yeah.
Meghann: And I think if you don't identify as being a part of that community that is being poked at, then you get a release as well, on the other side of it, if that makes sense.
Milly: Yeah. And I think we like to see people that are flawed, people that pretend to have it all, people that have it all seemingly kind of be just as broken and kind of human as we are.
Meghann: I mean, listen, visually, it's fun to look at. It's fun, it's gorgeous. Of course, we want to watch people bop around the nicest hotels in the world on The White Lotus.
GLAMOUR: What do you hope that audiences take away from Sirens when it comes to its portrayal of sisterhood and its dysfunctional side?
Meghann: Well, I think one of the themes of the show is not only making peace with who you are, but making peace with who your loved ones truly are… regardless of how it makes you feel.
Milly: I hope people see a reflection of their own love that they have for a sibling or a family member or a friend, where you want the best for someone so badly that you can end up suffocating them, and you can end up squashing them and making them feel small. So I hope that people take that away to accept people for who they are and not who you want them to be, and what they can be.
Meghann: Yeah. Exactly. I think the show deals a lot with perception as well in a very interesting way. So I hope that people will finish the show and think like, “Wow, how do I operate my perception out in the world, and how can I be less judgmental and more open-minded about people generally?”
Milly and Meghann sat down with GLAMOUR to talk their Girlhood Firsts…
GLAMOUR: Who was the first woman whose career you looked up to?
Meghann: I mean, not not Julianne Moore.
Milly: Not not Julianne Moore.
Milly: I'm trying to think who was mine… Who was I obsessed with? Probably Audrey Hepburn, which sounds crazy.
Meghann: That doesn't sound crazy.
Milly: Or Gena Rowlands.
Meghann: Yeah. Also good.
GLAMOUR: What was your first summer job?
Milly: I worked at McDonald's.
Meghann: Nice.
Milly: I did the drive-through.
Meghann: I knew it. Why did I know it was going to be the drive-through?
Milly: Because I feel like I've told you this.
Meghann: Oh my God. Imagine getting handed a bag of McDonald's from this queen?
Milly: But I was like 14.
Meghann: That's so cute.
Milly: I was tiny and I would do different accents with different cars, because I was bored, and then I would forget.
Meghann: That's an acting thing to do.
Milly: I know.
Meghann: You nerd.
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Milly: I know. And then I would forget which car was the accent that I did.
Meghann: Girl, you got to keep that story straight.
Milly: I know. And I didn't. And I got fired from McDonald's.
Meghann: Why?
Milly: I think I broke my arm and then I couldn't work, and then they just fired me. That was my first job.
Meghann: Wow. You should have sued them for firing you, for having a broken arm.
Milly: This was Australia.
Meghann: Mine was babysitting.
Milly: That's good.
Meghann: Yeah.
Milly: That's harder than you think it is.
Meghann: It is. That's always kind of been the thing that I did when I wasn't-
Milly: Acting.
Meghann: Acting.
Milly: Nice.
Meghann: I was a nanny for many years and I loved it. So gratifying.
GLAMOUR: Do you have a favourite piece of clothing or outfit from childhood? The first one that you really remember loving?
Meghann Fahy: I had some Skechers sandals, which had platform heels mimicking all of the Spice Girls. They were bright, bright blue, and they had a big Velcro strap over the top. And yeah, I mean I can still remember the way that I felt when I was wearing those. I was a Spice Girl. I was in the band.
Milly: You were like, "I am."
Meghann: Yeah.
Milly: I was such a tomboy growing up, so I was really anti... I don't know. I have two younger brothers, so I was very anti fashion and all that as a kid, but now I love it. But I think for me it was, we didn't have Heelys growing up, but you could buy from Target, just the wheel element from the Heely, and you would just strap it over your shoes. And my mom worked in retail and we would all just run around the shop until it was time to go home. So we would go up and down the street on these Heelys.
Meghann: That's cute.
Milly: They were purple and they lit up.
Meghann: That's so cool. Light up Heelys… You felt so cool when you were a kid, getting a new pair of sneakers before going back to school was a huge deal.
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GLAMOUR: What was your first act of feminism or activism?
Milly: Living. Existing in the world, I don't know…
Meghann: When I was younger and stuff, if there was a girl sitting alone at lunch, I was always sitting there. Which is definitely being a girl's girl.
Milly: I knocked my brother's tooth out.
Meghann: I mean, I remember marching the Women's March in New York, which was a really moving and lasting moment in my life that I will always remember that, and my best friend and I went. And that was beautiful. That was the first time I've really experienced that kind of peaceful protests, but also a real sense of community with all of the women who were there that day. That was really special.
GLAMOUR: What is your first memory of sibling rivalry or conflict?
Milly: I mean, we both grew up with brothers, so we don't have sisters. I would get into physical fights with my brothers as kids, because that's just what you do. But there wasn't really any sense of rivalry growing up. We were all very different, all do very different things. And there was never a pressure to outdo each other or to compete in that kind of way. My brothers were both very... One of them is a professional athlete now, but were very good at athletics and sport and I wasn't so I felt very, I was okay, but that I just wanted to be better than them. And I wasn't.
Meghann: My brother is four years older than I am, and it's just the two of us, so I was pretty safely in the baby sister category forever. We didn't fight, he never was mean to me and stuff, because I was just the little sister by enough years that it was like, we were never in school at the same time or anything. So yeah, I didn't really have that. But my best friends are twin sisters and I learned everything I know about bitching at your sister from them… I genuinely pulled inspiration from moments that I've witnessed between the two of them in this show.
Milly: Really?
Meghann: Yeah. Totally.
GLAMOUR: What kind of moments?
Meghann: Well, can I say, bitch?
GLAMOUR: Yeah you can.
Meghann: There is a moment in the show where I call Milly... Well, I don't call Milly, I call Simone [Milly's character] a stupid bitch.
Milly: Stupid bitch. You dumb bitch.
Meghann: Dumb bitch. And that is something I've definitely witnessed my best friends call each other. But it's like that loving sisterly thing where you could say literally anything because it's your sister, you can never say it to your friend or whatever. And so at first I was like, 'oh my God, that's such a crazy thing to say to someone'. But in the context of it being the sisterly thing, it was so much fun to say.
GLAMOUR: What's the first piece of advice you remember getting?
Meghann: Ever?
Milly: Ever in my life?
GLAMOUR: Well, your first significant memory of feeling like, okay, that was a great piece of advice.
Meghann: When my therapist was like, ‘not everybody has to like you’. I was like, 'what? That's crazy.' No, I'm kidding. I'm not kidding. That's great advice.
Milly: That's good advice.
GLAMOUR: And the hardest advice to take.
Meghann: Becoming comfortable with that… Yeah, it's fully like... I mean, this was years ago that she said this to me and actually I walked into therapy and I described myself to my therapist as a people pleaser. And she was like, 'there is a difference between being a people pleaser and wanting to control people's perception of who you are'.
That was an incredible piece of advice that she gave me, that I still actively practice to be okay with just letting things go quickly instead of hanging onto them and rerunning things in my head and creating anxiety. I'm trying so much more now to release the things that have already come and gone or haven't happened yet. Or that you don't have any control over.
Milly: Yeah, my mum would always say to me 'if all those idiots can do it, why can't you?' Honestly, really solid advice. Yeah. Because I was so scared to drive and then I was like, if that idiot can do it, then why can't I do it?
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Meghann: That's great advice.
Milly: I can do that. Why not? Someone has to do it.
Meghann: Totally.
GLAMOUR: And in one word, what was it like to work with Julianne Moore?
Meghann: Inspiring.
Milly: Easy, but that's the wrong word, but it was just like-
Meghann: Effortless.
Milly: Effortless.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Sirens is available to watch on Netflix now.
