‘City on Fire’ Actress Alexandra Doke on Cast Parties, ‘He Went That Way,’ and 2000s Rock
Following her performance in City on Fire, Alexandra Doke is taking her talents to the big screen.
Alexandra Doke isn’t a New Yorker, but in the Apple TV+ series City on Fire, you’d believe she was any other NYC transplant looking to chase their dreams in the Big Apple. If you haven’t seen City on Fire, you’re missing a gritty crime drama set in the underground music scene of post-9/11 New York City. Moving between two timelines, the series follows Charlie (Wyatt Oleff), a teenager looking for answers after his friend Sam (Chase Sui Wonders) is shot in Central Park on New Year’s Eve. As Charlie learns more about Sam’s connection to the band Ex Nihilo, he meets Sewer Girl (Doke), real name: Lorraine, a young woman coerced into joining the band’s off-stage criminal activities.
Just ahead of the show’s season finale and the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her upcoming movie, He Went That Way, starring Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto, L’OFFICIEL spoke with Doke about City on Fire’s twist end, her love of thrillers, and the acting tips she’s learned along the way.
L’OFFICIEL: Can you tell me a little bit about how you got this role in City on Fire? Did you get a call or was it an open audition?
Alexandra Doke: So I got the audition. I think it was my first audition of the year actually. I remember seeing the role and I had read the pilot previously because I auditioned for Sam [played by Chase Sui Wonders] back in October of maybe 2021. I remember loving the pilot, so I was excited to get an audition again and I loved the role of Sewer Girl. So I sent in my audition. I want to say it was a month later I got a call from my manager. I did the director session the next morning. That's where I met [the show’s creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, director Jesse Peretz, and casting director Patrick Rush.] We did the scenes, changed up some things, and then we got off the call. I felt really good about [it]. I loved the character, but I didn't want to get too attached. I was already feeling myself getting attached. And then thankfully, my manager called me that following Monday and he was like, “Ok, so good news is you're testing for it.” It was my first time testing for a role. Since the callback was taped over Zoom, they just sent in the recorded callback so we didn't have to go and do the scenes again. It was just kind of a waiting game for that week. I want to say it was that Thursday. It was a couple of days later—the longest three days of my life. I was trying not to think about it, but so excited. Of course, the five minutes that I'm not checking my phone—I put it on Do Not Disturb and just go sit in my room and relax—I come back and I have missed calls from my agent and manager and I call them back and they're like, “So, we have everyone on here like, what do you think that means?” And I was like, “I don't know, tell me!” They told me I booked it and it was very, very exciting. I was so ecstatic.
L’O: That sounds like a whirlwind of a few days.
AD: I have never done so much meditation. Because you know how it is—it's the ones that you get super attached to you won't hear from. Or at least that's how I've always pictured it. So I was trying so hard not to think about it, but it was all I could think about. I just, I was so drawn to the story and the character and I'm glad it all worked out.
L’O: I thought it was so cool that they set it in this post-9/11, early 2000s era, even though the book is set in the ‘70s. Had you read the book?
AD: I did. I thought it was really cool that they changed it to the early 2000s, especially like that—post-9/11. It just, I feel like it adds another level of fear amidst all of the fires that are going on and everything happening throughout the story. And on top of that, I feel like Y2K fashion is really coming back around and I think this was the perfect time to put something in an early 2000s setting.
L’O: What was it stepping back into that era? I think it’s such a fascinating period.
AD: Oh yeah, 1000 percent. I mean, same here. I thought it was really cool to get to step back into a time period that I was alive for but barely and not in New York. It really felt cool to do a period piece that I was at least alive for, if not, you know, if barely. It made me really fall in love with the time period and I'm already a big, early 2000s rock fan. So all the music was right up my alley and it just, it felt very right. I loved it.
L’O: What kind of music are you into from the early 2000s?
AD: I love LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes. I'm also into ‘70s rock too. A lot of Led Zeppelin and things like that. But more recently The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, and Pixies.
L’O: One big thing that I noticed was how music, obviously, is at the center of the story, but just like the book’s original time period of the ‘70s, the show is set in this very pivotal moment for music in New York. Did you feel that when you were reading the script or when you were doing research into that time?
AD: Definitely, I felt that the essence was very much there. And I, I do think like the music really brought everything to life in a sense.
L’O: Now, I wanna talk about the end. I kept thinking when I was watching it, If I'm a director or producer, I’m probably going to film all the stuff that's happening on New Year's Eve at one time. So when in the process did you find out how everything was going to end?
AD: I read the novel before I got to New York, but I was shocked, to say the least, but I was like, Maybe they're gonna change it, because I know page-to-screen does that sometimes. I was thinking that that was what was gonna happen. But then I got to my first director's meeting and Stephanie came in and we're asking, “So who did it? Tell us,” and she said, you know, that was what was gonna happen at the end. I was beside myself, I was super excited. I was ready to see how it was gonna play out. And I thought it was a really cool idea. I was so excited to get to bring that to life and see the reasoning behind everything. We still didn't know details because we were kind of getting episodes as we were going on, so when I finally got the draft for Episode 8, I loved how it played out. I loved that [Sewer Girl] confessed and she gets some redemption and everything. But there's still that twist and I think it was perfect.
L’O: If there is a second season, what would you like to see for your character?
AD: I would love to see, you know, that redemption continue. I would of course love to see her finally get to apologize to Sam. I would love to see more of her just growing and sticking with people that love her and don't take advantage of her and not getting into any more dangerous crowds of people.
L’O: Is there a particular memory from shooting that sticks out to you?
AD: Oh, absolutely. So me and Max [Milner]—Max plays Nicky Chaos—I lived below him in this walk-up building and so we were neighbors and he had the top floor that led into the rooftop. One time, we threw our own party where it was basically three floors of a party. It was mostly at his house on the rooftop and then mine was just for an extra bathroom or whatever. But it was so fun. A lot of the cast and crew came and Max was getting into DJing. So he spun some records for us and we all went up to the rooftop and we watched the sunset and we just had the best time. It was super fun, especially because there were some cast members that, you know, at the time our stories hadn't merged yet. It was my first time getting to know Omid [Abtahi] who plays Parsa and Kathleen [Munroe] who plays McFadden, and seeing us all come together and just dance the night away. It was very, very fun.
L’O: You’re also in the upcoming film, He Went That Way, with Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto. Can you tell me a little bit about the film and your role?
AD: So it's a 1960s thriller. It's based on a true story. Jacob Elordi’s character, Bobby, is the serial killer. He hitchs a ride from Zachary Quinto's character Jim, who's a famous animal handler. He picks Bobby up, clueless as to what he's capable of, and what starts out as a hitchhiking trip turns into something a lot more catastrophic. I play Whitney. I have a twin sister, Amy. We're in high school and we meet Jim and Bobby while they're on their road trip. Jim has Spanky the Chimpi, the famous chimp with him and we're immediately infatuated because we love Spanky. We've seen him on TV. So Bobby uses that to lure us back to their motel room, and I'm definitely the more adventurous one, I'm ready to go. Even when we get there and things are a little off, I don't mind because Bobby seems interested in me and I'm kind of flirting, feeling adventurous and it's not until things get out of hand that we're kind of ready to be on the defense and get out of there.
L’O: Both these projects are thrillers. Is that something that you're drawn to?
AD: I've actually always loved psychological thrillers. [They’re] one of my favorite genres in film. So I felt very honored to be a part of my favorite genre. Not once but twice, which was great. Maybe it's just that I've always watched that and somehow I ended up gravitating towards those roles. But I'm very excited and I think that it’s always so much fun when there's an element of mystery. Especially when you know what happens at the end. It's one of those moments like when you're watching a movie with a friend and you've already seen [it] so you know the twist, but you can't wait to see their faces when they see the twist, whatever that may be. So it's like that, but this time I'm in them. Which is really cool.
L’O: Between everything you've done, you've worked with some really top-notch actors. Is there any tip or lesson that you've learned from one of them that’s stuck with you?
AD: Oh, definitely. There's actually one example that I always think of. It was from when I did this movie when I was 12, I want to say, and it was called The Playroom and John Hawkes played my dad and he is just so phenomenal to watch. And he did this thing, I remember we had this dinner scene and he was just trying to think of little things he could add. He was like, “Oh, I'll go for the salt and pepper for this line and then I'll do this for this little thing,” and it was just little things that made the scene that much more real that I would have never thought of. And I like to keep little things like that in my back pocket.
And on top of that, I definitely have adapted to the idea that you need to relax and that's the number one rule. You just need to relax and be present. I noticed that a lot on Grey's Anatomy actually. I remember we were running the first scene just for a rehearsal and I didn't even know they had started the scene because they were so real. I thought that one of the characters was just asking the other guy a question.
