Welcome to “Meet Cute,” where we get up close and sometimes personal with our newest crush. This time around, we’re chatting with Lydia West about her new Netflix series, The Pentaverate.

Name: Lydia West  Netflix project: The Pentaverate Instagram account: @lydiawestie  DOB: June 24  Astrological sign: Cancer Hometown: London Favorite food: Japanese Favorite show on Netflix: Breaking Bad On a first date, I always... split the bill. My perfect date would be... dinner and a movie.  My worst dating experience was... going swimming with someone. Awful. Don’t recommend it.  My current Netflix crush is: Olly Alexander from It’s a Sin.  My love language is… physical touch.  What would your dating app profile say? “Want to chat?”

The Pentaverate is very much a part of the Mike Myers universe — the concept of the secret society is a spinoff of an idea in So I Married an Axe Murderer. And there are all kinds of references in the series — like Shrek, and the fact that Myers is playing multiple roles like he did in Austin Powers. Were you into the world of Mike Myers comedy back in the day?  I loved it. Austin Powers is such a huge kiss to London and the UK. Wayne's World I only watched about five years ago as an adult, and it was so hilarious. I like the fact I saved it [until adulthood] because I was born in the ’90s, so I was a bit young for it at the time... seeing it as an adult was just hilarious. But my all-time fave Mike character has to be Shrek. It’s just my childhood, really. 

This new series is so populated with Myerses — he plays so many different characters. If you were in the position of playing multiple characters, who would those characters be?  I’d want a bunch of strong, powerful women. So I’d say Tracee Ellis Ross, Viola Davis, maybe stick Tessa Thompson in there, Zendaya, Florence Pugh. Must I go on?

So you would want to play all of them? Oh no. I thought you meant my series, playing me.

Love that answer. But, if you were thinking of playing so many characters like Myers in The Pentaverate, what sort of prototypes would you want to play?  A mix of everything. I’d want to be kind of geeky and then fun and then a dancing queen and then the superathlete and then someone who’s weird, an introvert, someone who’s really emotionally unstable, someone who’s really happy and outgoing. I think just a range of every single emotion you could ever encompass. I’d want to play all the characters.

The Pentaverate is about a secret society. If you were to start one of your own, what would the mission of the secret society be? Actually, for my audition, I had to create a conspiracy theory and run with that. I created: What if “Baby on Board” signs were actually surveillance cameras imposed by our government when we’re growing up? And you then find out about it later in life and realize in your teen years that your childhood was monitored. [The government] was watching your every move, especially while you’re transiting, and then maybe feeding you with information on what to say to your parents and how to act and how to behave.

What would that secret society be called?  Booming Babies Society of Conspiracy.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, are there any (besides the one you made up) that you love or appreciate or believe?   [On set during one scene,] there was a poster that said, “Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?” And I thought to myself, “I’ve actually never seen a baby pigeon, and do they exist?” That’s a conspiracy theory I kind of buy into, because no one has ever seen a baby pigeon.

I have. They exist, but they’re hideous.  OK, so they’re like, “Oh, we’re not very attractive. Let’s stay in our nest.’

Zoe Midford/Netflix

Obviously, The Pentaverate is extremely Canadian. What did you do to familiarize yourself with Canadian sensibilities to play Reilly?  I read Mike Myers’ Canada book, which is a love letter to Canada. It has so much relevant information about the history of Canada. And then I worked with a dialect coach. We obviously made Reilly a very, very heightened Canadian and very stereotypical — kind of the Canadian dream. I learned all the sounds and all the rules of the accent and the dialect, and then just played with it and turned it up. At times, it felt kind of too much, but under Mike’s direction, it was what was wanted. And then I just got to know famous Canadians and their work and what they’ve done and achieved. It was so interesting.

When you took your accent from a British accent to a Canadian accent, do you go in stages? Like, “OK, first, North American and then, specifically, Canadian?” That’s exactly the way because it’s more familiar, obviously. And then learning from North American, you can pinpoint the vowel sounds and the relationship between the vowels and the consonants and the way your mouth moves. It’s all very technical and it was amazing to learn because there’s just so many rules.

Did you find yourself saying “soo-ry” and “aboot” in your day- to-day life? I did. And I still actually say “soo-ry” sometimes without noticing. I guess British is like, sore-ry, but it’s quite similar, I find. 

So British is…? Sore-ry.

And Canadian is…? Soo-ry.

And then USA is…? Sah-ry.

Reilly is a different kind of girl than your characters in Suspicion or It’s a Sin. What did you learn about yourself as an actor shooting this kind of comedy?  It’s just a totally different muscle, and it’s my first comedy. It was so amazing to be introduced to the genre by an absolute legend. What was really interesting was, at the end of scenes, we cut and went to improvisation with Mike, rattling off [of] each other. As an actor, you don't really have an opportunity to do that a lot, especially in television and film. I learned so much from him, like how to land jokes. He referenced the “treacle on top.” When you think a joke’s over, add a treacle to it and carry on, to keep the joke going for as long as you can.