Kaylee Bryant Opens Up About Bringing Dark Josie to Life in "Legacies"
Dark Josie is finally here and she's ready to stir things up at the Salvatore School. After Josie, Alaric, and Lizzie's trip to the prison world, Josie has officially returned with a new look.
While visiting the set of Legacies, Seventeen got the chance to talk to Kaylee Bryant who showed off her new look for people outside of the show for the first time.
"Black hair and everything. It's like I can't even exist on social media right now, 'cause like, I'm a walking spoiler. This is a wig. I wish! I really like the dark hair. I mean, hair would hate me. They're like, 'You've dyed your hair purple twice now. Can you stop?'"
For fans, Dark Josie might feel like another familiar part of The Vampire Diaries universe, while for Kaylee, it's something that she's been waiting for since finding out that she was going to be on the show.
"It's kind of crazy. I've been talking about Dark Josie with [creator and executive producer] Julie Plec and [executive producer] Brett Matthews since basically I got cast in the role and knew I was playing Josie, because in the first episode I set Penelope on fire. So clearly there's something in this girl that's really dark and so I kind of had this image of what Josie going dark would mean to me," Kaylee told Seventeen on the Legacies set. "Then that kind of mixed in with hair and makeup and wardrobe and all their input and then Julie's input, so it kind of cultivated into this like gothic Katherine Pierce schoolgirl look. So yeah, it's been a very interesting ride. She definitely doesn't start off what she ends on, if that makes sense. As much as Josie's gone on a journey, Dark Josie also goes on a journey so it's very interesting."
As a big fan of The Vampire Diaries long before she joined Legacies, Kaylee knows all about Katherine Pierce, so she had a big moment when she found out how much she influenced her new look.
"Oh completely [it was a pinch-me moment]. It was one of those things were it's like I had seen Caroline lose her humanity, Katherine Pierce, Kai Parker, all of these really iconic characters within the TVD universe that had very obvious darkness in them and those were always my favorite characters. I had to talked to Julie and Brett about that constantly so I knew that it was in their plans for my character to do that, but actually seeing it all and the fact that my character is now considered a monster of the week is so exciting," she said. "And when Scott Spencer Miller, who does my hair, was like, 'I think I wanna take your hair black.' I was like, 'Oh, I never would've thought of that, but it sounds really cool.' And he's like, 'Yeah, and Julie is using this one reference photo. She wants it to be a little bit longer and just look at the photo.' And I look and it's Katherine Pierce. And I was like, 'Oh my god! Okay, here we go.'"
Despite wanting Dark Josie to be a thing for so long, Kaylee says that she was still super surprised to see it finally happen.
"It was one of those things where people had prepared me very subtly to be like, 'You know, I think you're really gonna be excited for this script.' And I was like, 'Why?' And they were just, 'You know, read the script when you get it' I'm like, 'Is Dark Josie in this script?' And they're like, 'Just read it,'" Kaylee continued. "And I was like, 'Is Dark Josie in this script?!' So when I actually saw the word Dark Josie written as the character name I was like, 'Oh my god, I've been joking about this name since episode 1.' So the fact that it is like her title is Dark Josie is hilarious to me. Yeah, I freaked out."
After playing Josie for so long, fans might think that it would be super hard for her to play a different version of her character, but Kaylee says it was pretty easy thanks to her preparation for the role.
"Oh, it's way easier to go dark. It's one of those things were it's like I kept diaries of Josie's inner monologue since before I started season 1 and she's so angry. But she tries to put all of her anger [away] and that's always the hardest part about playing Josie is hiding that anger," she said. "So the fact that I can have that anger and twist it and kind of have humor along with it is just very fun to do. So it's almost more fun than regular Josie."
Things haven't been going so well with Josie through the entire season, so it's not too surprising to see her finally make a turn like this. Kaylee even noted that she's been working her way up to playing Dark Josie with how she created her character especially this season.
"This whole season has been very interesting for me to kind of play. I initially walked into this season with every time she forgave somebody, I almost walked into this season writing her as if she was a sociopath. So every time she was seeking empathy was a way for people to think of her as a very empathetic person, when in reality she was a sociopath. I've been told that's not true by the writers, I might have played it that way," Kaylee revealed. "So there are a few moments especially within that scene that I think she wants to be okay with a lot of things that are going on, but when your very recent ex-boyfriend is now back together with the love of his life who you used to have a crush, I think there's a part of her that wants everything to be okay, but on the inside she'll always be just a little bit heartbroken and trying to kind of move forward as much as possible."
Josie's big turn will obviously affect the rest of the Saltzman family, as they try to work together to bring them back to their world.
"Alaric always tries to kind of take control of situations as much as he can as a human, even though he has had such a past of all of these amazing magical beings, so he has such a deep understanding of what is going on and has seen worse things. I mean, he literally met the Devil at one point in The Vampire Diaries. So he sees this as a real threat and it's really difficult for Alaric specifically because he sees his daughter who he feels like he's neglected and has seen always be the kind of easy one and now he realizes that he has done a lot that wasn't correct in Josie's mind," Kaylee said. "So I think that he feels very regretful about a lot of stuff and is just trying to fix it without hurting anybody else. As for Lizzie, I think that Lizzie is always kind of had this insecurity of not being the strongest witch amongst Josie with the merge and everything. So with Dark Josie kind of gaining more and more power, it brings a lot of that sort of power dynamic to the surface of who is stronger and who is more willing to fight back when it comes to the merge."
When asked if Caroline being around would've made a difference in how Josie turned dark, Kaylee says that she doesn't think her presence could have changed things.
"I don't really think so. It's one of those things where I think that a lot of this is so in Josie's mind and so much of it is her not voicing what's been going on for her entire life that there are times where she has wanted help, but she hasn't [looked for it.] So with Caroline being there, I think she still would've gone dark. I think that all these things still would've happened. You would have the extra layer of 'Okay, would it be easier to tie her down with a vampire that she might be more willing to listen to?' You can say the same thing about Hope or MG, literally the entire school is full of vampires, so you can't really take the vampire aspect of it into account. All the vampires in the school can't really tie down Dark Josie. But I do think that her having her mom tell her, 'Hey, it's okay. I'm here for you.' I think that she feels the void of her mother quite a bit."
Kaylee also opened up about another Josie-centric episode, "Since When Do You Speak Japanese?", which shocked several viewers as they watched, but became a big episode for her and showing another part of her identity.
"It's kind of interesting 'cause a lot of people were really impressed with my pronunciation and very impressed that I can learn Japanese that quickly. The reality is that I have been speaking Japanese for quite a while and my grandpa is Okinawan so I've heard Japanese my entire life. And so it was just a lot of fun to have Soji Arai, who is from Japan, and I got to speak and kind of get back into my conversational mode with my language skills that have very much gone very poor over time," she said.
"It was really interesting to kind of see everyone's reactions of kind of being like, 'Why is this white girl speaking Japanese?' And I'm like, 'white passing.' [laughs] It was definitely really interesting and it was kind of fun for me 'cause I think a lot of people get into their heads about what it means to be Japanese or what it means to be Josie Saltzman. When the reality is I'm not seeking to be the face of anything or any movement. The reality is if a mixed girl sees me on screen and goes, 'Oh my gosh, she kind of looks like me and she can speak multiple languages like me and that makes me feel more comfortable in my skin,' then that's all I can ask for. So I really loved it!"
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