Why Karen from Daisy Jones & the Six is British in the show

Daisy Jones & the Six might be an American rock band, but they'll have to start waving that Union Jack.

On the new series, based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the Six's keyboardist Karen has had a bit of an overhaul in that she is now British, as played by Suki Waterhouse. It's not as if it's unheard of to have a Brit in an American band (or vice versa) — see: Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac.

But the change wasn't because of any judgment call made on Waterhouse's ability to do an American accent (and Josh Whitehouse, who plays bassist Eddie, is English in real life, but American on the show). It was a deliberate choice by showrunner Scott Neustadter to hammer home Karen's commitment to music and living a life dedicated to being in a great rock band.

"The Karen character in my head was somebody who had been in a band since she was like 13 and was so good at what she did," he tells EW. "She was very Christine McVie. She would bounce around and everybody was like, 'We've got to have her in the band. She makes the band so much better.'"

"She would've been so far from home if she was British, but living in L.A." he adds. "It shows the commitment. It shows her commitment to loneliness, to focus, and to the music. It's a harbinger of, 'You're not going to change this person.'"

But what about for Waterhouse, the woman behind Karen's keys? Does her national identity change something about who Karen is at her core? She thinks so.

"People are just starting to find out that Karen is British in the show," she told EW about a week before its first episodes hit Prime Video. "There's an upheaval. There's a shock. I'm slightly nervous about it. But, of course, for me, being British as well, there is so much cultural significance."

"Some of the greatest bands in the world are from are from England," she adds. "I had a plethora of English rock stars to look up to for inspiration."

That includes the aforementioned Christine McVie, who died in November. Neustadter says they would have loved to include a tribute to her in the credits, but that the episodes were locked at least a month before she passed away.

Daisy Jones & the Six episodes 1-3 are now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes drop Fridays.

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