The actor tells&nbsp;L'OFFICIEL&nbsp;what it was like to portray his "self-destructive" character, Marcus Baker, in crisis mode throughout the Netflix show's new episodes.

PHOTOGRAPHY Sela Shiloni
STYLING Monty Jackson

When he learned just how dark things would get for his&nbsp;Ginny &amp; Georgia&nbsp;character, Marcus Baker, in Season 3, Felix Mallard wasn&rsquo;t fazed. In fact, the 27-year-old Australian actor was downright excited. &ldquo;As an actor, that&rsquo;s exactly what you want&mdash;for your characters to go through high highs and low lows,&ldquo; he tells&nbsp;L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m lucky that, with Marcus, we get to explore all of that. We go as deep as we can to reflect the uglier side of growing up when you don&rsquo;t have an anchor or&nbsp;guidance.&ldquo;
Marcus isn&rsquo;t the only one adrift. Chaos abounds in the new season of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/tags/netflix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netflix</a>&nbsp;dramedy, which is out today and centers on the titular characters&mdash;Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey), a fiercely protective single mom with a shady past, and her teenage daughter, Ginny (Antonia Gentry)&mdash;and those in their Wellsbury, Massachusetts, orbit. &ldquo;We kind of go in&nbsp;a lot&nbsp;of crazy places,&rdquo; says Mallard, laughing. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m eager for fans to continue their relationship with the show, but there&rsquo;s also a lot of apprehension about what people will think.&ldquo;
The first episode picks up shortly after the events of Season 2, which ended with Georgia being arrested for murder in the middle of her wedding to the town mayor. Now, as the Millers navigate Georgia&rsquo;s trial&mdash;and face the prospect of the manipulative matriarch being sentenced to life in prison&mdash;their friends and neighbors are dealing with trauma of their own. And no one&rsquo;s journey is more heartbreaking than that of Mallard&rsquo;s character. Last season, Marcus&rsquo;s ongoing struggle with depression led him to break up with Ginny (a character who&rsquo;s on her own mental health journey this season, seeking therapy for self-harm).&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/tags/shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Season 3</a>&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t find Marcus in a better place; the teen turns to drinking while failing out of school, and he continues to push away the loved ones who are desperate to help him.
&ldquo;For every character, so much of the season is about facing truths,&ldquo; says Mallard. &ldquo;Georgia has been running from a lot of truths, and they're catching up to her. Ginny's been running from a lot of truths, and now she's trying to face them. Marcus's truth is somewhere in the middle: He keeps throwing up coping mechanisms and masks and different reasons for why he might feel the way he feels, but you can't keep running forever&mdash;things will always catch up with you. The whole season is really a reflection on what happens when those coping mechanisms and things that we rely on to survive don't serve us anymore.&ldquo;
Here, Mallard opens up about embracing the YA genre, showing young men that there&rsquo;s power in vulnerability, and the delicate nature of portraying a character in crisis. Warning: spoilers ahead.

L&rsquo;OFFICIEL:&nbsp;First thing&rsquo;s first&hellip;Marcus&rsquo;s long hair is gone at the beginning of season three, and it&rsquo;s such a big change that another character immediately comments on it. What was behind that decision?
FELIX MALLARD: I know! We were joking that Georgia gets arrested, and the first thing Marcus does is book a haircut. [laughs] I actually came to the season with pretty short hair, because we just didn't know when we were going back. But Marcus is in a very delicate place at the start of the season, and he's very impulsive. So maybe it&rsquo;s the male version of the breakup haircut. I think he's just doing anything to make him feel fresh and new and alive. Obviously, it doesn't work.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;This is easily the most intense season yet&mdash;everyone's pretty much in crisis mode the whole time, and a lot of the show&rsquo;s past light-heartedness is gone. Did you feel that shift at all? Was there a different vibe when you were filming?
FM: Everyone who comes to set is so professional and prepared. When you have heavier material, you want to respect the dialogue and the space that you're going into. There was also an understanding that we're going to a deeper place than we have before, and when you're doing those intense scenes and crying for six hours, your body doesn't know that it's fake. You&rsquo;ve really got to remind yourself. At the same time, though, we&rsquo;re lucky to be able to do this. There was a lot of joy in being able to reconnect with everyone after two years, so there were lighthearted vibes on set, too. It wasn&rsquo;t maudlin all the way through.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;Marcus turns to alcohol as he continues to battle depression this season, leading to some incredibly raw scenes for you. How do you approach portraying mental health struggles like depression and addiction with such nuance?&nbsp;
FM: I think you have to approach all of this with a level of respect, love, and care. With&nbsp;Ginny &amp; Georgia, we're always trying to make people feel seen and heard. So if we're going to represent a lived experience that a lot of people struggle with onscreen, there needs to be a level of understanding. As an actor, going into those scenes, you're trying to understand how someone could end up this way and what it feels like at exactly that moment. A lot of the time with Marcus, he's feeling lonely and sad and scared. So it's examining all of those things, and hopefully trying to represent it with truth and kindness.

L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;We don&rsquo;t see as many teenage male characters who are as in touch with their emotions as Marcus as we should&mdash;and there&rsquo;s a lot of power in bringing that to a show with such a massive reach. What do you hope is the takeaway, in that sense?&nbsp;
FM: I think you hit the nail on the head. As with any representation, the hope is to reflect an emotional journey back to people that either they've been through or never considered before. So, especially for young men, if you can see yourself reflected in someone onscreen, it provides an example of how to deal with the situation in either an unhealthy way&mdash;like Marcus is doing&mdash;or the healthy way. The only way you can look at that is through lived experience, whether it be seeing it on screen or seeing it in real life. Again, the goal of any representation is always to make people feel understood or to understand others. But particularly with Marcus and these heavier, more nuanced mental-health storylines, it's just to make people feel seen and less alone. It&rsquo;s to show any other young men who are going through substance abuse or mental health issues that there are ways out of it. And also maybe showing that that behavior is hurtful, too. With these self-destructive behavior patterns, it's not just yourself that you&rsquo;re hurting&mdash;you're hurting everyone else around you. And that's hard to see when you're in it, because your pain is so great.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;And Marcus&rsquo;s drinking does take a toll on the entire Baker family&mdash;especially his relationship with his sister, Max (Sara Waisglass).&nbsp;
FM: Yeah. So much of the Baker dynamic this season is kind of examining the fact that sometimes, when you love someone and want to help them in the long run, it&rsquo;s going to hurt them a little bit in the short term. Marcus feels intensely betrayed by Max [when she tells their parents about his drinking], but she's coming from a place of,&nbsp;I love you so much that I actually don't care that you're not going to speak to me.&nbsp;And at the same time, Max is struggling with her own sense of isolationism and not being understood and feeling like she has to play a role. So the whole season was very much trying to approach these questions and wrestle with them and see how we can play with those kinds of emotions.

L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;Do you ever find it triggering to go back into that high-school headspace at 27 years old?
FM: Big time. My high school experience was very different from the quintessential American hanging-out-by-the-lockers experience that we're trying to portray, and I'm grateful for that, because I think it would be a lot more triggering otherwise. But just to go back to that regiment and that headspace is still a challenge. You're in a literal high school wearing a backpack at 27&mdash;that's an objectively weird thing to do for a living. But as an actor, it&rsquo;s a gift to go into a scene where you get to go as far as you can with your emotions, and in high school, your emotions are 10 out of 10, all the time. Everything is life or death. In my life, the stakes have never been as high as when I was 15 and trying to figure out my place in the world. There's a reason everyone comes back to the YA genre: Everyone examines this time in their life, and the coming-of-age story is so pivotal. It&rsquo;s the first time you start to notice yourself and how you want to show up within the world. And you&rsquo;re&nbsp;learning all of it through trial by fire.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;What do you do to unwind after a day of filming particular tough scenes?&nbsp;
FM: I think it's really important to separate yourself from the character and for you to make a mental health distinction that it is just make-believe, it is just&nbsp;play.&nbsp;For me, part of that is having routines after we wrap, which could be 10 p.m. or 5:00 a.m. So I&rsquo;ll take my makeup off and stop talking like an American. To go back to being an Australian at the end of each day is a reminder that we're playing dressup. We're not saving lives. I usually just go home and doom-scroll for a good two-and-a-half hours. I don't know if that helps, but it lets you disconnect from the day, big time.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;You&rsquo;re also in a band, Enemies Alike. Is that another outlet for you?
FM: With any creative thing that you do, it's nice to have a separate creative outlet that isn't your job. Music gives you an understanding of timing and listening to one another and being present; there are so many allegories, and it&rsquo;s such an exploration of the self. For me, it&rsquo;s really a meditation on trying to understand my feelings, whereas acting is very much trying to pull those feelings and fill other people's stories with them.&nbsp;
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;A scroll through your Instagram shows that you also seem to express yourself through fashion. Has your style changed at all since moving from Australia to L.A.?
FM: There is something about having to dress for sun all the time&mdash;especially coming from Melbourne, where a big jacket and a nice boot will get you through a lot of the year. You can't do that here, so, L.A. definitely changes people's fashion. If I'm not going to be seen by anyone, my personal style is track pants all the way. If I have to go outside, then living here, I&rsquo;m definitely a victim of the baggy pants and the '90s revival. You just have to dress for the lifestyle that you have, and the more I get into surfing, the more surf-y outfits come out. But I do think it&rsquo;s interesting to look at fashion as another form of expression and telling a story. At photo shoots, I love being able to pretend it&rsquo;s another character. I&rsquo;ll have an outrageous Dior outfit on with a big leather jacket and it&rsquo;s like,&nbsp;Who is this person and how do they behave?

L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;Do fans come up to you a lot and talk about the show?&nbsp;
FM: In L.A., I think it's kind of the cool thing to&nbsp;not&nbsp;go up to people. But now that we're in season three, it's a part of life that I can't ignore. It's just kind of an awareness, and it&rsquo;s a bizarre thing. I certainly understand why people at different levels of fame struggle with it. I heard&nbsp;Toni [Antonia Gentry], the lead on our show, say,&nbsp;It's weird to have to perceive yourself in the third person.&nbsp;Like, that is an objectively weird thing to do! You have to protect your privacy, your heart, and your peace. I think striking that balance is going to be a continual practice.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;Looking ahead to the future of&nbsp;Ginny &amp; Georgia, what is your hope for Marcus and the other characters?&nbsp;
FM: Here&rsquo;s the line where we dance between&nbsp;how much do we care for these characters?&nbsp;and&nbsp;how much do we need a show?&nbsp;Obviously, I think we want all these characters to get into therapy and have healthy relationships. We want everyone in Wellsbury to just get along. But if that happens, we don't have anything to watch. Ultimately, I want Marcus to learn how to love himself and others in a healthy way. I want him to understand his emotions and deal with them as they come up, instead of burying them and then dealing with them when they're too big. If that pulls him towards Ginny, then that's amazing. How long it's going to take to get there and how many times he falls over is yet to be seen. But that's the journey we want to watch him go on.
L&rsquo;O:&nbsp;And until then, we&rsquo;ll continue to watch them all self-sabotage.&nbsp;
FM: Definitely. I mean...why not?

HAIRCUT Candice Birns

Photography by Sela Shiloni, courtesy of Felix Mallard.

Felix Mallard Opens Up About His Heartbreaking Arc on Season 3 of 'Ginny & Georgia'

Felix Mallard Opens Up About His Heartbreaking Arc on Season 3 of 'Ginny & Georgia'

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