How 5 Hours of Billiards Training a Day Turned Lili Simmons into a Pool Shark in Tom Schulman’s ‘Double Down South’

Lili Simmons was just a kid when she hit the big time as young femme fatale Rebecca Bowman in the much beloved Cinemax action series Banshee. The San Diego native didn’t have much experience when she took on the role, but more than held her own with veteran actors like Antony Starr, Ivan Milicevic, Ulrich Thomsen and Frankie Faison.

A decade later, the actress has quite a few more acting notches in her belt, including extended runs in shows like Hawaii Five-0, Ray Donovan, Westworld and most recently, Power Book IV: Force, in which she currently stars.

The actress also stars in a brand new film, the billiards drama Double Down South, written and directed by Tom Schulman, who won an Oscar for writing Dead Poets Society. In the film, Simmons plays Diana, a young pool hustler looking for guidance from the owner of a rundown plantation house. The film opens in theaters and on-demand on January 26. She spoke with us from Los Angeles.

I’m curious to know how you got started.

Well, when I was little, I loved to play pretend. I always wanted to put on shows for my family and my mom explained to me what acting was when I was pretty young. And I was like, “Wait, I can play pretend for a living? What?” That’s kind of how it started.

I did community theater, met my manager and she brought me into a meeting at CESD, my first agency. I was terrified, I had to read a monologue. I was probably terrible, but they took me.

I was also modeling at the time, which paid for acting classes and gas money and all that because my poor mother drove me almost every single day from San Diego to LA and back for auditions. And I was going through puberty, so I was probably not a fun companion.

Sounds like your mom should be nominated for sainthood.

Exactly. The first thing I booked was Disney, God bless them, to get a few things on my resume. Then I did this indie called Fat Kid Rules the World. Matthew Lillard directed, which was so much fun and I learned so much. Then I booked Banshee. I’ve been on that path ever since.

Weren’t you only about 18 when you got Banshee?

I was 18 when I started, yeah. It was terrifying. And the best thing in the world.

I would imagine a good amount of your fan base must come from that show.

Definitely. You know, the fans started calling themselves Fanshees and we love it. I still see on Instagram people saying, ‘We love you, Rebecca!’ The Banshee Fanshees are still around for sure.

Photo courtesy of Lili Simmons.

Let’s talk about Double Down South. How much training did you do for the pool scenes? You look like you know what you’re doing.

Thank you. I did not know how to play pool. I’d mess around at bars with friends, but thank goodness for Tom Schulman’s friend, Matt Craven, who’s actually an actor as well. Wonderful guy. I was so thrilled to have booked the movie already and then Tom was like, “Let’s get you into the pool halls. You’re gonna meet my friend Matt, who’s just a wonderful, patient, lovely man.” We then spent like, five hours a day working.

Five hours a day? You must’ve needed a fair amount of work.

My form with my hand, my bridge, everything was wrong. He basically taught me the basics of pool. Eight ball. Then we had to throw in Keno, which is a totally different touch, so, I kind of had to restart again. But yeah, I totally needed to train. That’s why I look like I somewhat know what I’m doing.

What was it about the film that drew you in the first place?

First of all, hearing Tom Schulman’s name, you know, Dead Poets Society, everything, he’s just a legend. That was very exciting. Then it was one of the best scripts I’ve read in a very long time. And Diana just immediately seeped into my soul. As an actor, you audition all the time and sometimes you read something and you go, “This is mine. I can do this. This has to be mine.”

How often does that happen when you read something? That you get so dialed into a character and then actually get to play her?

Not often. I am working on a show called Power Book IV: Force. It was the same thing. I read the sides and I thought, “I know this girl.” I think a lot of actors feel that way and they do usually book them. Sometimes, though, you feel that way and you don’t book it, and that sucks.

Do you ever take this newfound skill at pool out for a spin? Maybe suggest to other directors that perhaps they should drop a scene into the script with you running the table?

(Laughs) I’m gonna add it to every role now! No, it’s funny, I got pretty good. I hustle my friends sometimes. [Or at least I] try to. (Laughs)

That might be a good way to get cast moving forward. Challenge a director to a game. If you win, you get the role.

I love it. Let’s go. (Laughs)

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