Mood | Interview with Lara Peake (Carly)

Tell us a little about Mood?

Mood is about Sasha, a wannabe singer/songwriter who spends her time stalking her ex-boyfriend online and smoking weed in her bedroom. She meets Carly Visions, my character, and I think Sasha fulfils something in Carly that was missing, and together they go on this journey which turns out to be quite disastrous in some ways.

Can you tell us about Carly, who is Carly?

Carly is a social media influencer. She’s got a lot of followers. She’s young, she’s fun, she’s outgoing, she’s very charismatic. She’s very complex though. Deep down I think she’s quite troubled and tends to have quite a destructive nature. But it’s not until you see the cracks that start to show, that you realise Sasha is being enveloped into all of this behaviour as well. I think she’s so desperate for the friendship and the intimacy with Sasha that she is willing to go to any length to try and keep her as close as possible.

What attracted you to the role, and why did you want to play Carly?

She’s like nothing I’ve ever played before. She’s a character that is very complex and charismatic. It was very interesting how Carly is so involved with social media, and how the series explores people’s relationships with social media, which I find extremely fascinating at the moment. She looks completely different to me too, so the transformation of even just my appearance alone was great for me as an actor because I could really then slide into the mindset, as well as the physicality of her. Music was a huge thing for me in terms of getting into character, so I made playlist after playlist and, and used that to draw me further into Carly.

What research did you to do play Carly?

In the beginning it was mainly working through the script a lot, re-reading episodes and making notes. Then it would be exploring certain websites online, spending time on those to draw inspiration from them. And playlists too, I listened to a lot of music which helped me click with the character.

Why is it important to tell the story of Mood?

I think people on social media are idolising not necessarily the right kinds of people, maybe not the best role models. And I think it’s really shining a, a light on that sort of thing at the moment. And there’s a real threat I think for mental health with social media online; the constant comparison, the sort of procrastinating and scrolling, the cancel culture. I think it’s, it’s probably the most anxiety inducing thing to be at the forefront of people’s minds at the moment.

Can you sum up the series in three words?

I would sum up the series in three words as provocative, daring and colourful.