New ‘Lioness’ Star Elizaveta Neretin Reveals a Personal Connection to Her Character

Another ferocious woman joins the fold on Lioness‘ latest episode, and, like the others who’ve been abruptly brought into the inner circle of this operation, whether they like it or not, we don’t yet know whether she can be trusted. Warning: Spoilers for Lioness Season 3 Episode 3, “The Bear Is Infected,” ahead!

Oleksandra Balakin, portrayed by Elizaveta Neretin, is a Ukrainian double agent who, after the attack on Joe (Zoe Saldaña) at her home, is immediately suspected and interrogated by Kyle (Thad Luckinbill), with Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) standing guard. This mysterious newcomer was the one who gave Joe the intel on where to apprehend the Russian asset in the premiere, so presumably she had something to do with two of their henchmen showing up at Joe’s door. As Oleksandra is raked over the coals, she also has to watch on video feed as her mother and sister back in Ukraine are held hostage by Grady (Ian Bohen) and Goose (Matt Gerald).

Luckily, she passes their test by refusing to beg for her family’s lives and taking very visible offense to being labeled a Russian sympathizer. She’s then interrogated by Joe, personally, and ingratiates herself to Joe by revealing her theory: that Joe was only suspected of being the Lioness leader before she shot those two men, and now the Russians know for certain.

Oleksandra, who reveals she’ll go by Alessa as a nickname, is then brought in to explain herself to the others, who have obvious reservations. She informs them of her read on the multi-pronged offenses against the United States using a metaphor: The U.S. is the bear, while Russia is a wolf pack, and China is a tiger. The wolf pack and tiger can’t defeat the bear separately and can’t work together, so they must infect the bear with disease… in this case, disinformation and double-crossing from the inside. She gifts the group with packets of intel on Americans of prominence who’ve been “infected,” so the team now has a list of individuals to target. But should they?

To break down the violent introduction of this newcomer character and unpack her very personal connection to it, TV Insider caught up with Elizaveta Neretin!

Generally speaking, what was your experience with Lioness before this? Had you watched it before you were cast?

Elizaveta Neretin: No, I hadn’t actually. I hadn’t watched it before I was cast. I knew about it, but I was at school. I did a four-year theater degree, which was very intense. So, there wasn’t really time to commit to any shows. I remember not committing to a single show for four years. But once I found out that I was going to be in it, I watched it three times. I watched it over and over again. The pilot is my favorite. It still stands to be my favorite episode of the series.

Your character is a little bit duplicitous in the sense that we don’t actually know, even when she says things, that she’s actually being honest. Can you talk about just delivering that kind of complex performance where she has to be able to be both believable and unbelievable at the same time?

I hope I can say this, and that it’s not a spoiler. I mean, you have to play the truth of the moment. You simplify it for yourself, I think, a little bit. Because I feel that even people in this kind of line of work, you have to convince yourself, even if it’s not … so much that it is true. It’s that kind of lying… if she is lying. But as an actor, you gotta play what’s on the page, and as long as I know the page, that’s what I’m going with. We’ll see where that takes me.

I want to talk about the interrogation scene with Kyle. Obviously, that’s a tough one, but there is a moment when she seems like she may be ready to just accept worst-case scenario and that her family could be hurt in this process, rather than be framed as a Russian spy. Was she just that triggered when he said, “You’re a Russian”?

Yeah. So, I’m half Russian, half Ukrainian. So, I have experienced both of my families’ [perspectives]. I think it’s incredibly triggering. I think it’s incredibly triggering because the kind of wounding that has occurred is very painful because Ukrainians and Russians were always considered to be brothers and sisters. So, the wounding that has happened to the people, I think that that becomes very, very, very, very triggering. And then, in terms of accepting the fate… I mean, if you open the news [and] do some research, there are many places on Earth where this is happening. I think a part of you gives up. It’s very difficult to believe in the better world when you see the terrible things that are actually happening and that are done to children, to mothers, to families all around. So, I think yeah, there was a moment… She mentions that, “It wouldn’t be the first time. You want to do something to [her]? You think you’re so special?”

Going off that when she says, “You’d just be the first Americans to do this,” I wonder if that changed her opinion, having that experience of the brutality from Kyle, of the Americans, or if that’s something like she already understands. When she gives that speech about how she understands their objectives, does that mean she still feels the same way, or has she changed her mind?

It’s interesting because I think what she’s going through, and in the later episodes, I think she understands how the American mind works, or at least she thinks she does. From her perspective, she understands how it works. So I’d say it’s not surprise. I wouldn’t say it’s surprising. I would say, “Of course, you’d do this.” It’s a little bit more of that. I think that’s what I leaned into…. I think that one thing that you can never take away — I don’t know, maybe not never, but — I would say that the physical abuse, it snaps you back in the present moment in a very different way. So while your mind can rationalize, and you can have ideas about people, and you can do all of these things, when something happens physically, it’s a very awakening sort of moment. And when that happens, you begin to speak not from the mind anymore. Then everything’s coming from the gut. We’re not holding things back.

That makes sense. I like the speech she gave about the tiger, the wolf pack, and the bear. That was really informative, actually, and kind of clarified things in a really interesting way. You just mentioned your background as a Russian-Ukrainian. How much input did you have in what she says and how she says it with regard to these things?

Well, I just learned Taylor Sheridan‘s words. I didn’t write any of those. But I think it was an interesting perspective. I’ve never thought of it in that way either. It was an interesting choice… I feel like every nation has animals, like a spirit animal in a way, if you want to say that. So, it was an interesting perspective. I hadn’t thought of it in that way, actually.

Did you identify with the way that she sees the situation, the global balance of power, and what’s going on in the world?

Well, like I mentioned, I’m half and half, and I always say that I’m half and half since I was a young kid, actually, since before the war, and when I’m asked questions about picking a side, I have a hard time with that because I don’t agree with what’s happening in the politics, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the people. And so, because of that, what I tried to do very well is I tried to honor her perspective, her specific perspective that I’m intimately familiar with. Because my mother is Ukrainian, I’m very intimately familiar with that pain, and I would never want to take away that pain or that rage from a person who has suffered as much as she has suffered.

The moment when she goes toe to toe with Zoe, with Joe, that must have been really fun for you and an interesting introduction into this world.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I mean, even just the act of sitting on the chair with your hands bound in the back for like quite a while. Sometimes I would just stay there instead of going to the waiting area. I would just stay there because it’s really a body experience. And then Zoe’s very fun to play with because she doesn’t hold back, and because of that, it becomes easy in a way, right? Because you’re just reacting to stuff. We played quite a bit with that scene, actually. It’s almost like she encouraged me to play more, to like improv. She improvised quite a bit as we were working on this scene, and it was actually like a lot of fun doing that.

It looked fun. It’s fun to watch, too. The episode ends with her giving these packets of Americans with “the disease.” What would you tell fans to expect from what’s going to happen after this from her journey after this episode? Should they trust her or not trust her?

I think the fans need to trust their own gut about trusting her or not and just look at the evidence. The evidence is all there. You can kind of figure it out if you’re very attentive. That’s what I’d say.

Lioness, Sundays, Paramount+