Lola Kirke Turns Being Pissed Off into an Art Form

Lola Kirke is the perfect poster girl for all the women fed up with the year 2017. The only things in her suitcase at the moment are a bunch of dirty laundry, some fantastic vintage clothes she found in Tokyo, and a pair of killer black denim pants that are “way too tight” in the waistline. “In this world of totalitarianism and dictatorship, I think there’s a major politics to fashion. Fashion is a way of expression and showing individuality that liberates women,” says the Mozart in the Jungle star, on her way to LAX after a brief stay following a publicity stop in Tokyo. (She knows of what she speaks, rocking unshaved armpits and a "F*ck Paul Ryan" button on the red carpet.)

The fourth season of the Golden Globe–winning Amazon dramedy premieres in February and sees Kirke’s oboist character start “conducting, which actually is a really big deal and was a real challenge both as an actor and as a woman,” she says. “It really opened up classical music to me in a way that pretending to play the oboe could not.” Even her acting coach was challenged, she says, “as there has never been a maestra on the silver screen,” and women are seldom seen leading real-world orchestras. “Conducting is like acting, except your back is turned away from the audience. So your hair better look fucking fantastic.”

The creative arts run in her family. Her dad is the drummer in the band Bad Company; her mom once owned a vintage clothing store called Geminola, a mash-up of Kirke’s name and those of her two sisters, painter/actress Jemima and singer/doula Domino. At 27, she has released a four-track EP and is dropping her first full-length LP this spring; has appeared in films including Gone Girl, Mistress America, and American Made; and stars in the upcoming Gemini, a neo-noir set in Los Angeles, with Zoë Kravitz.“I play the female Philip Marlowe,” says Kirke, whose role shifts from personal assistant to amateur sleuth. “When you’re on the hero’s journey, you have to go through every neighborhood in L.A., especially the dingy parts. And in real life, I’m a Gemini rising, AKA I am a Libra.”

Lately, the actress/musician, who lives in New York City’s East Village with her partner, musician Wyndham Boylan-Garnett, has been binge-watching Twin Peaks and Broad City, and binge-reading My Ántonia by Willa Cather and 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by prizewinning playwright Sarah Ruhl. “They’re all under two pages, and all about reversing the patriarchal society of Western literature and storytelling into a much more matriarchal one,” Kirke says of the latter. “It’s perfect for anyone pissed off in our generation.”

Fashion Editor: Liz McClean; Hair: Blake Erik at Statement Artists; Makeup: Regina Harris; Manicure: Kayo Higuchi For Chanel Le Vernis at Defacto

On Lips: Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Lipstick in So Marilyn; On Hair: Wella Professionals EIMI Extra-Volume Strong Hold Volumizing Mousse