Pop-Culturalist.com

Get ready to meet Bethany Antonia! The talented British actress is one of the scene stealers of 2020, making her debut as a series regular in Netflix’s Get Even. Based on a widely popular book series, Get Even follows a group of four girls who form a secret society to deal with the injustices they’re witnessing on their high school campus. The show originally premiered in the UK in February, quickly garnering rave reviews and catching the streaming giant’s eye. Pop Culturalist had the chance to catch up with Bethany for an in-depth conversation about Get Even, her character, and why the show is more timely than ever.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for acting?
Bethany: I was fourteen when I decided that I wanted to be an actor. I always used to watch television programs and recreate what they were doing on the screen. I would write out the scripts and perform them for my family. Then one day, I was watching this TV program and I realized that there were children in the show. They were all my age. I was like, “Oh, I want to be doing what they’re doing.” I decided in that moment that I was going to be an actor. I still don’t think I realized it was a job or anything at that point. I just knew that I wanted to pretend to be different people like they were doing.

I basically started then, but I think the actual wanting to act started much younger. I actually spent a few years in France when I was little. We lived there about five years. Over there, their approach to academics is really different to how it is over here in the UK. They are much more free about education. There’s much more of a creative focus. It was very much “Let’s go do a play. Let’s write. Let’s make a dance routine and perform it on the street.” It’s very free and liberal. I came back to the UK and that wasn’t the case anymore. Suddenly, I had to do fifteen different subjects, and none involved acting. I quickly realized that my drama lessons were my little safe haven. I would look forward to them so much. But looking back, that was definitely where it all came from.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Bethany: Personally and professionally, my upbringing and having those influences so early on definitely sparked my interest. Also, having a support group that never told me that I couldn’t do anything. I’ve had the most incredible upbringing and a mom who has supported everything I’ve ever done and said. Even if it was crazy or ridiculous, she’s gone along with it. When I ran downstairs one day and was like, “I want to be an actor,” she was like, “Okay, how do we do that then?” She went with it. She never said no, and she didn’t ever hold me back, which I know a lot of people experience when they start out young. They experience a lot of reservations from their family who want them to pursue academics first. I was so lucky that my mom let me pursue this dream that I’ve had from such a young age.  

Get Even

PC: Your new series, Get Even, is out now in the US on Netflix. Tell us about the show, your character, and what drew you to the project.
Bethany: Get Even is a ten-part drama series, and it’s based on a novel of the same name by Gretchen McNeil. The show is about four teenager girls and they’re in this really elite high school. They’re all from completely different backgrounds and walks of life. They join together to form a secret society because they want to do something about the injustice that they’re seeing in the school. They feel like nothing is happening and no one’s doing anything, so they join together and they vow to tackle everything that they see happening that they don’t agree with. They call themselves DGM because they don’t get mad, they get even. That’s what they do. Everything’s going to plan until they accidentally end up in the middle of a murder investigation.

They end up trying to clear their names in the middle of this whole thing. I play Margot Rivers. Margot is the genius within the group. She’s the brains behind DGM’s operations. She’s super smart and really intelligent. She’s quite reserved but really loving. She just moved to England from America. So she’s had quite a hard time making friends, and DGM becomes the only place that she gets to be her true self in school.

PC: How familiar were you with the source material?
Bethany: I hadn’t read or heard the story until I had my first audition. After my first recall, I got hold of the books. I read both of them because there are two books: Get Even and Get Dirty. The show is a mix of the two, mainly Get Even, but it has a few implements from Get Dirty. I read both of them before my final chemistry reads, so I was really familiar with them by the time I met the other three girls, which was really useful because I knew the vibe that they were going for with the show. When we were filming, we were all reading them, having a little race to see who could finish them first.

PC: This is a breakout television role for you and your debut as a series regular. Did anything surprise you about the experience? What was the biggest takeaway?
Bethany: It was so exciting. As a young actor, it’s what you dream of getting, but you can’t control if it’s going to happen or not. You go through your career and you think, “I might get a role like that one day. If not, that’s fine, but I would really love that to happen.” For it to happen so early on felt like such an honor. Every day, there were new things that I was learning. There were new challenges that I was facing. I really learned about stamina as an actor, how difficult it is to do a full series regular role, where you’re filming every single day in comparison to doing day roles or a couple of a couple of days throughout a shoot or something. All the pieces fitted together for the first time for me on this job. I felt like a working actor.

PC: Which of Margot’s relationships was your favorite to explore and why?
Bethany: Besides the relationship with the girls, which is the obvious answer, I would say Margot’s relationship with Ed, who is played by Dylan Brady. He plays Margot’s only other friend in the school. That was my favorite to explore. The first reason is because we did all of that audition together. He was the other actor that I knew throughout the audition process. The first scene that I filmed on the whole shoot was our audition scene, so that was really special. It was one of those relationships and moments that you will never forget. Their scenes together were super cool. It was like having a friend from back home for Margot that she could have with Ed. I love all the dialogue that we got to do.

PC: The series touches upon a lot of really important themes. Which one resonated with you the most?
Bethany: I love the theme of taking things into your own hands. Girl power and not taking no for an answer is what runs throughout the whole thing. If anyone takes anything from the show, I want it to be that. I hope it’s that. These are four girls that come from quite privileged backgrounds and really have no reason or need to want to dive in and get involved or be part of the solution. They could live their lives and be happy just as they are, but they do it anyway because they care about it. That’s the most important thing about the whole show for me is the idea of not being a bystander and taking things into your own hands.

PC: The series premiered in the UK before it hit the US. It’s only grown in relevance. Have you noticed a different response to the show?
Bethany: Yeah, for sure. The show came out in February over here and it did really well. There were lots of people that were watching and talking about it. But having it go internationally, I’ve seen a huge contrast in the things that people are talking about internationally. People seem to be really excited about the fact that it’s a diverse cast because that really isn’t the case in a lot of TV shows. When you put that out to so many different countries, the response you get really mirrors that. For a lot of people, this is the first time they’ve seen someone like themselves on screen. One of the four main girls is a Filipino actress. I’ve seen so many tweets from young girls who are like, “I’ve never seen an actor that looked like me on TV!” That’s definitely been the biggest thing that I’ve noticed, especially with the movement. I think people are thinking about race and culture more than ever.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Bethany: Dr. Who.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Bethany: I watch The Holiday like in summer all the time. That’s my guilty pleasure.

PC: Favorite book?
Bethany: The Harry Potter books. No matter how many times I read them, I still feel like I’ve missed something and have to read them again.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Bethany: Merrily We Roll Along is my favorite musical in the whole world.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Bethany: I’m a massive fan of Take That.

PC: Who would play you in the story of your life?
Bethany: Taraji P. Henson.

To keep up with Bethany, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Binge-watch Season 1 of Get Even on Netflix today.

Photo Credit: Michael Shelford