Kiera Allen On Her Breakout Year, Upending People’s Views About Disabilities, Her Film ‘Run’ and Her Dreams for The Future
I am excited to close out the year with a great conversation with Kiera Allen. The New York-based actress and writer (who is also currently studying at Columbia University) has had a breakout year with her starring role in the thriller Run (Hulu), where she plays opposite Sarah Paulson. I talked to Kiera about how she’s taking in this incredible moment, her love for New York, shattering people’s views about disabilities and what she dreams to do in the future.
Kiera was photographed in Bryant Park by Alison Engstrom; she was styled by Emily Sanchez; makeup by Jessi Butterfield at Tracey Mattingly.
Kiera is wearing a dress by Joostricot; tights by ITEM m6; shoes by Sam Edelman; earrings by White/Space jewelry; rings by Lelia & Mae; coat by Max Mara.
You’ve been a very busy lady doing your firSt ever (and incredible) press circuit for ‘Run’. You’ve Been featured in ‘the New York Times’, have had billboards in times square and appeared on ‘Ellen’. Has it all sunk in just yet or is it all a surreal experience?
It is starting to wind down because the holidays are coming. It’s been an amazing, amazing experience. I am lucky for the timing of it because it’s finals now at school, but I don’t think it has all fully sunk in yet. I think so much of it has to due to the pandemic and everyone is remote. I have been doing most things on Zoom or by phone so in a practical sense, a lot has not changed for me. I am sitting in my bedroom while I am doing this and then after, I’ll go and open my computer and work on my neuroscience presentation for tomorrow. Even though all of this cool stuff is coming out I don’t think it has hit me yet because I am still living my day-to-day life and doing press around it. It’s surreal at times, but I think my brain is very much like, get to the end of the semester before I can take it all in. I have a to-do list of things to process—I haven’t processed being on Ellen yet, when did I have the time to process that? (laughs) When I am not in survival mode with my insane schedule then I will sit with it and say, wow.
It’s such a sPeCial moment, drink it in! As a born and bred New Yorker, would you say the city has had an influence on your school and career aspirations?
Absolutely, I think growing up in New York has been a huge part of who I am and for my growth as an artist, a writer, and an actor. It’s such a rich place with varied cultures; there are so many people in the city doing what I do, so there are many people to look up to. A lot of people grow up dreaming of coming to New York, entering that scene, seeing a Broadway show, and being a part of that community. I was very lucky that I was already there and exposed to it. My family really loved theater and we went to a lot of shows. I am now at school at Columbia and the creative writing program there is so wonderful with many great people on the faculty. New York is the best place in the world. I really believe that.
It’s a playground for dreams. I was that kid growing up wanting to come to New York.
I was born in the city and lived here for the first eight years of my life and I was living in the suburbs by the time I was going to school. I moved around as a kid and the city felt like the one constant; whenever I was in New York that was the hub—the place we had friends and family—and the place we kept coming back to. It’s a bit funny to me when people come from outside New York and say, it’s so overwhelming, it’s so loud and so smelly and there are so many people doing weird things on the sidewalk (laughs) but for me, it feels so calming. It’s obviously in a very different state now, which is very sad for a lot of reasons. The restaurants and the theaters that have closed down really breaks my heart.
I know, it’s very heartbreaking, but hopefully now that we have a new president, we can repair things for the city. So I’d love to learn what inspired you to pursue creative writing as a major?
I wanted to be a writer for a very long time. I decided I wanted to go to Columbia when I was 12. I am a little bit crazy like that (laughs). I was thinking way far ahead and I knew I wanted to write. I looked into the program and it was one of the best programs out there and it was where I wanted to be. It’s quite remarkable that I never changed my mind after that—I didn’t know anything when I was 12! (laughs). I am a completely different person than I am now. Whatever it was that drew me to it has remained a constant in who I am. I came expecting to do both creative writing and theater but I wanted to put my attention into creative writing—on campus theater is a huge time commitment and I decided that I was going to put my time and energy into the creative writing because it’s such an extraordinary program and so many extraordinary people to learn from. Then I trained outside of school for acting.
When did you first dip your toes into acting?
I started acting professionally in 2017. It’s kind of crazy looking back because I auditioned and started shooting Run in 2018. At the time I thought I had been acting forever, because of local productions, school productions, and writing things and performing them with my friends. It had been part of my life for years and years. I only realized quite recently that I had only been doing it a year before. In the spring of 2017, I made my off-Broadway debut with a company called Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) and had just an amazing experience. After growing up and watching theater in New York, it was really amazing. I took a gap year after high school and that’s when I really started pursuing it. I got very lucky that the role for Run came along not too far after that. The rest is history.
I am very inspired and moved by people who don’t get defined by their circumstances, rather they rise above them and live the life they dream. You were asking me on our shoot why I started ROSE & IVY it was because I was diagnosed with MS and it changed my life and I wanted to inspire others to not let anything stop them—it’s one of the reasons I am so excited to meet you!
Thank you for saying that. I became disabled when I was 16 and I had been acting for forever. I always loved doing this. When this change happened, for me, I think one of the biggest challenges was convincing people that I was still capable of everything that I was still capable of before. I wasn’t a different person, all of the skills and the reading and practicing I had done on acting didn’t disappear when I became disabled. I was just using a different mode of transportation. I saw it as, I am still the same person, I am still able to do this and I am not going to let other people’s beliefs about my capabilities stop me. It was pushing through some assumptions. It ended up in a good place because I was able to meet a lot of people who really saw that and who understood that I am still me I am just moving around in a different way. Acting is about accessing human emotions, the human spirit, and the human experience. I have no less of that than someone who is walking on their feet. That’s why I have been able to do a lot of work that has been really rewarding and exciting for me.
I might get a bit cheesy here but I think our relationships are a huge part of that too. So much of us is contained in the people we love, how we invested in those relationships and the people who understand us. I find that the people I love can often see me in ways that I can’t see myself. I don’t think we are bound to one small idea of who we are, even our own ideas of who we are. That’s one of the things I really love about acting is that I am always called upon to expand myself and to be more than I thought that I was because you have to access parts of yourself that you don’t use in everyday life like depths of emotion and different parts of your personality. In order to play a role truthfully, it has to come from somewhere in you. After you are done playing a part, you can take that with you and be bigger than you were before.
So let’s talk about Run! How did the part of Chloe Sherman come to you, were you acting seeking roles?
I was actively seeking roles at the time, in a modified way because I was still in school. This came around in July of 2018; it ended up being a three month, four-part audition process. My manager submitted me for this role and I got a request to do a self-tape for it. I set up my iPhone stand and my mom read the lines off camera and I was very excited about it. I never had an opportunity at this level before. I had auditioned for small parts in big projects or big parts in small projects but never a major motion picture level. I was excited just to be seen for it. After that I had a Skype call with Aneesh Chaganty, the director, who gave me notes; then they sent me the full script. Have you ever gotten so excited about something that it really starts to scare you?
Yes, almost every day!
I wanted this part so badly; I am so invested in this now that I read the script and it’s so good. I love this film and story so much that if I don’t get it, I knew this would crush me. Luckily, it ended up in a positive way. I went back to school; I did my last two rounds of auditions while I was in school. I was flying out to LA on the weekends and reading for Lionsgate—but then it got picked up by Hulu because of the pandemic. I did a chemistry read with Sarah (Paulson) then I’d get on the red-eye on Sunday night and go to class on Monday morning. The director texted me and asked if we could get on Skype because he said he wanted to see my face when he told me, you are it! Within a week, I was on my way to Winnipeg.
AWeSome! Representation is something that is talked about more and more because it’s important for everyone to feel seen not only in life but in art and entertainment. It’s so awesome that in Run, you are the first major thriller in over 70 years to star a real wheelchair user. Anyone who watches the film and follows your career is going to feel seen, which is so wonderful.
It is really exciting to be a part of this film; it’s also been very gratifying. I’ve been getting a lot of messages on social media and people saying things to the effect of I felt seen. I got another comment that said, whenever I feel self-conscious about using mobility aids, I just think of you. I feel like it is very little to do with me because I am just doing my job. I’m being an actor and taking on a role that I was excited about but there has been so little of that in this industry. Of course, there have been amazing disabled artists—I mean Ali Stroker was that person for me. I remember seeing her on The Glee Project and I saw her twice in Oklahoma on Broadway. She’s so extraordinary; I remember sitting there in that theater and being like, this whole room of people are sitting here with me and watching this amazing woman, who is using a wheelchair, kicking ass. They are watching her blow the roof off this place. They are seeing everything that I fight so hard to have people see in me. She is showing this whole room everything that I want people to see in me that so often gets overlooked that to me was very powerful. If there is one person out there who has that same experience of watching Run, I think that’s incredibly powerful. I think it sends the message that you belong here and you can do this. Your story, our stories are important, everyone’s story is important. This is all part of the human experience; stories are about reflecting the lives of the people who live on this planet and disabled people are among those people. For so long and in so many ways, that hasn’t fully been reflected in film and theater and the arts in general.
When you look out on the horizon of your career, what types of genres or roles would you dream to play?
The thing that interests me most is just working with really good people, I am less tied to genres. I want to work with really good actors with really great directors on great material. This role was a dream for me for so many reasons, including since I got to be part of this amazing team. It’s so incredible to work on a script that was that good and a co-star who is an absolute legend and for good reasons. I also want to write my own material one day as well, which is something I am very much looking forward to.