“I did it for you,” are the words spoken by Izzy G. as Kelly Ellard at the end of the third episode of Hulu’s limited series contender, Under the Bridge. The line is said simply, and it changes the course of the lives of all the young people in that scene as the mystery truly begins to reveal itself. In the hands of another actor, this line might be met with too much intention or rely too heavily on darkness, but Izzy G.’s Kelly says it to Josephine Bell as a reminder that she has her back. This is a confession of sisterly love and devotion.
Kelly Ellard is a difficult role to play. She is a young woman born into privilege with adoring, supportive parents, but she chooses to spend time with the young women of Seven Oaks because she feels like she can be herself around them. There is a hardness and toughness that comes out when Kelly is away from her parents, especially if she feels someone is threatening her friends or the found home that she finds herself so comfortable in. Most unsettling at all is how Izzy G. deftly shows how skilled and intelligent Kelly is at masking her true feelings or how she uses her emotions to manipulate the adults to feel sympathy for her.
One of my favorite things about her performance is how she displays that Kelly is still a young girl trying desperately to act older. Whenever Josephine Bell mentions that Rebecca Godfrey might take her to New York, Kelly’s face nearly falls out of fear that she will lose her best friend before shrugging it off as an everyday announcement. That vulnerability being stuffed aside is difficult to showcase in a subtle way, and Izzy G. does it with a skilled hand.
There are two moments that should be considered side-by-side. In episode one, after all the teens are taken into custody for questioning, we see Kelly alone as Rebecca sees her through the window of a locked door. Her hands clutch the side of her face as she emotionally bawls, and, as we near the end of the season, we realize that this might be an act. Is she trying to gain sympathy as a scared little girl to anyone who passes by? The other moment that is thematically similar is when we see Kelly alone is on the stand. She is in a crowded room, yes, but she has to answer questions for herself without the guidance of a parent or lawyer to immediately interject. It leads to one of the most explosive scenes of the series, and it comes entirely from Izzy G.’s performance and how Kelly reacts to the line of questioning.
Great friends may be hard to find, but sometimes those friends can lead to a dangerous, slippery path towards a loss of innocence.
Under the Bridge is streaming now on Hulu.
