When it comes to Toronto teens Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) in Netflix‘s new series “Wayward,” the word the actors behind the characters repeatedly use in conversation is “codependent.” Yes, the duo are best friends and chosen family — but they can’t survive without each other in a way that has already impacted their futures, especially at the disquieting Tall Pines Academy.
Abbie and Leila’s need for each other is established from the start of Mae Martin‘s Netflix thriller series, which sees the girls locked up and subjected to abusive behavioral therapy once they reach the Academy. Before that, Abbie is being ruthlessly scrutinized and controlled by her parents, while Leila’s mother has mostly checked out after her elder daughter’s sudden death.
“When you don’t have that love from from a family member, or from anybody that is blood-related in your life, then you kind of search for it anywhere else,” Lind told IndieWire in a joint interview with Topliffe. “I think she found Abbie at a very young age, and just was like, ‘You’re mine,’ and latched onto her.”
Chosen family is a major theme in the series, from Abbie and Leila to their peers at the Academy to Alex (Martin) and his experiences growing up queer in the Midwest and wife Laura (Sarah Gadon) remaining close to her own Academy cohort.
“You could have a family that’s your blood, but at the end of the day, it’s about the people that you choose to be in your life and people that you love in that way. Abbie is Leila’s chosen family,” Lind said.
The theme was naturally mirrored behind-the-scenes, where the young cast quickly bonded and turned their traumatic on-screen experiences into Canadian summer camp with the cameras off. As creepy as the Academy set was (“I love ghosts, it felt haunted,” Lind said), it helped actors tap into the right head space before clocking out to enjoy the field trip an hour outside of Toronto.
“When you’re in a really serious position, especially with these two girls, they find the levity in it, even in a horrible situation,” Topliffe said. “There were a couple scenes that were really intense, like the Hot Seat scene days were hard, those were long days.”
Episode 6 traps the teens in the Academy for what amounts to a prison riot, with many of the students and staff played by actual stunt performers. Prior to that, Topliffe was among the actors who took an outdoor adventure when the Academy staff leaves them in the wilderness.
“That was a lot of fun. We would be climbing these hills like on our stomachs, and then we would just find empty beer bottles and break our — well, I probably shouldn’t say that for insurance,” Topliffe said. “But that was really fun. We all got a lot of mosquito bites, but it was great. I loved being dirty.”
After filming the pilot together — not to mention going through their final round of auditions, switching between Abbie and Leila and not realizing they had nabbed the roles — Lind and Topliffe’s on-set fate mirrored their characters’ as they had to work separately.
“In the story, we are each other’s security blankets, so it kind of feels weird when we’re not together. That came through in real life,” Lind said. “By the second episode, it was like, ‘Wait, where’s my friend? I don’t know how to do this without her!’ It was like starting a whole new show.”
“Wayward” hits a sweet spot for both actors; Topliffe plays a high school student in Aura Entertainment’s “Doin’ It,” now in theaters after its 2023 SXSW premiere, and 18-year-old Lind has somehow logged her third time playing a teen struggling with addiction.
“I don’t know why I keep getting typecast as this, but… I like being able to sink my teeth into it, so keep casting me as it,” she said. “I will try to deliver in the best way possible. It’s fine. Easy roles are boring, so it’s really fun.”
With “Wayward” out in the world (and some potential for a second season), the fun is exactly what both actors remember, and what they hope to find in future work.
“I’m sure the crew hated us because we were just so annoying,” Topliffe said. “We took the work seriously, but we also didn’t want to sit in that all day, so we would make stupid movies.”
“We would be sobbing and crying and upset in a scene and going through all these emotions — and then Sydney would be like, ‘Do you want to pretend to be Zac Efron on that hill over there and do ‘Bet on It’?” Lind recalled. “I’d be like, ‘Yes, I do! Bet on it, bet on it!‘ It was my favorite part of the whole experience. It was so much fun.”
“Wayward” is now streaming on Netflix.
