She’s sitting atop the call sheet. She’s tackling an iconic character. She’s plastered across billboards in Hollywood. Oh, did we mention she’s only 11 years old?
Alice Halsey is taking on the Laura Ingalls mantle in Netflix’s new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie, which premiered July 9. “There’s never really been a billboard of me before, so this is insane,” the 11-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s mind-blowing.”
Halsey had the Little House books in her house growing up, but she didn’t read them until she got the audition for Laura. “They’re so good,” she says. “I feel like Laura has this power to pull people in with all the details and the descriptions and everything. She definitely has a lot of power with her words.”
The actress took preparing for Laura seriously. She read the script a lot, listened to podcasts and read books related to late 19th century era in which the show is set. “I just wanted to get a sense of who the character was, how I would play her,” Halsey says. She’s impressively earnest and focused for such a young star.
Being on set and in costume helped immerse herself in the world. Halsey says was happy the whole day getting to be Laura. “The prairie can be really wild,” she says, recalling her time shooting. “It feels like it’s all alive when the breeze goes through and everything moves. It’s really magical. But it’s also really unpredictable.”
Halsey experienced that unpredictability while the show filmed — including the opening scene of the series, where the audience sees her character for the first time, slingshot in hand.
“This warm wind came in — it’s called a Chinook wind and it comes in every year,” Halsey says. “It hit us and tents were blowing and rows were flying away and everybody was freaking out. I was just cracking up because it was all the chaos. I just found it so funny.”
Halsey felt a bit of pressure working on Little House, as she is at the top of the call sheet. “It’s definitely a big responsibility,” she says. She also can’t stop raving about what a good environment the set was. She says everyone was putting their heart and soul into the project, which made them like one big family.
“That definitely helped relieve some of the weight off of my shoulders,” she says. “It’s pretty easy to act with all the people that I’m acting with. They are all such amazing actors and so good at their work.”
Halsey is aware of the legacy of Little House on the Prairie. “It’s a story that’s been beloved to so many people over generations and generations. Part of it is because of Laura’s words and Laura’s tale, but also it’s relatable in every time,” she says. “No matter what year it is, no matter what’s going on at that time, there’s always something in Little House that’s a comfort and relatable to what you’re experiencing.”
Halsey already has a few years of acting experience under belt. Her first gig was Lessons in Chemistry with Brie Larson, but where she got the most experience was on soap opera Days of Our Lives. The 11-year-old credits her time on the show as helping her become the actress she is today.
“There are so many amazing actors and actresses on that show that I was privileged enough to work with, and they’re all really experienced,” she says. The older actors helped her learn to find her light and to work under the show’s impressively packed schedule. “There’s one take per scene. That’s all you get,” she says. “On a regular show or movie, it’ll be like you have multiple takes, and you have to be really good on each one because you don’t know what the editor’s going to pick.”
She adds of her work on Days, “It was a great learning experience. Having a schedule that’s so fast-paced — you would shoot a couple episodes in one day — was very new to me. It kind of whipped me into shape.”
Next, she’s set to been alongside Viola Davis in Amazon MGM’s Ally Clark. “Acting with Viola is like stepping into another dimension. You look into her eyes and there’s a whole other world inside them. It’s almost surreal,” she says. “She’s also super funny and nice, and I love working with her.”
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