Our Summer Romance with Trieste Kelly Dunn
by James Patrick Herman Photography by Jeff Vespa
TV binge-viewing is our current obsession—and we’re loving Alan Ball’s Cinemax series, Banshee. Costar Trieste Kelly Dunn gets out of her comfort zone—not to mention her polyester cop costume—and in touch with her feminine side especially for VERGE.
You made quite an entrance with your first line on Banshee: “If you fight me again, I’ll remove your testicles.”
“It’s my nature to play a more masculine female roles than the pencil skirt-wearing types. Don’t get me wrong: I love doing network shows where I get to be, like, a hot lawyer. They’ll blow my hair out for every single scene! But playing a cop is more fun and exciting by far. Season two premieres early next year and my character will have even more of an edge. She’s aggressive—and she takes matters into her own hands.”
For example?
“I’m currently rehearsing for an upcoming fight scene and it’s intense. You can’t fake it, so there’s no way to avoid actually being beaten-up. After getting thrown on the ground, I was limping and seeing weird flashing circles in my pupils. Sometimes I am actually scared.”
Then I won’t tell you to break a leg.
“Yeah, I know, right? I’m more worried about my nose or a black eye. I seriously just left the physical therapist’s office. Will you pray for me?”
You got it. Your film Loves Her Gun won an award at South by Southwest. What’s the best thing about Austin?
“You can buy margaritas in movie theaters there! Texans aren’t shy about their drinking.”
Where did you grow up?
“Provo, Utah. Before I became an actress, I wanted to be a park ranger. That’s my real dream.”
What actresses inspire you?
“I like all the strong and androgynous female characters played by Hilary Swank and Sigourney Weaver. But what really seduced me was seeing Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire when I was 16. That’s what you want to be as an actor—raw and liberated. This sounds so clichéd, but I became obsessed with Brando’s work after that. The Godfather made me want to join the mafia.”
Did the filming of United 93 give you a fear of flying?
“Absolutely! And I’ve been paranoid ever since. We’d sometimes improvise the terrorist hijacking three times a day. Now whenever there is bad turbulence on a plane, my palms sweat. While everyone else is calmly reading books and magazines, I’m having a mild panic attack. The last time it happened, some guy in the seat next to me grabbed my hand and said: ‘It’s going to be OK.’ ”
What would be your dream role?
“I want to do a western but not play a wife or a prostitute. I want to be the one riding horses in the mountains, drinking out of creeks and shooting guns and arrows.”
Tell me about your big break.
“The first job I got out of college was a TV pilot for Showtime called What’s Not to Love starring Jonathan Ames, the novelist who wrote Bored to Death. It was crass, quirky and a little pervy. I remember one scene that featured a vagina helmet and a dildo mountain. It didn’t get picked up.”
How did you make ends meet before your acting career took off?
“I was a cater-waiter at fancy barbecues in Long Island. I’d also do humiliating promotional liquor kinds of things. Like getting dressed up in crazy outfits to pass out drinks at a sophisticated club in New York. But nobody wanted shots of Bacardi Límon from a girl wearing a wig and six-inch white go-go boots.”