Welcome to “Meet Cute,” where we get up close and sometimes personal with our newest crush. This time around, we’re chatting with Alexis Floyd, who portrays Neff Davis in Shondaland’s Inventing Anna.

Name: Alexis Floyd Netflix project: Inventing Anna Instagram account: @alexisgfloyd DOB: Dec. 22 Astrological Sign: Capricorn Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio Favorite food: Italian anything. Pasta all day. Favorite Netflix show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

On a first date, I always: pee first. You never know.

My perfect date would: involve outdoor space, ideally a picnic or at least a walk. Your shoulders go down and you open up when you’ve got real oxygen going on.

My worst dating experience was: back in LA. I was just out of school. I went to a Japanese restaurant with someone I met the night before, going out dancing. We hung [out] the next day. It was full of love, but he did spend the entire date talking about his grandmother. She seemed like a lovely woman, but everything came home to grandma. I had questions. He’s looking for grandma, and I don’t know that I really give “grandma” yet.

My current Netflix crush is: This is a spiritual crush, but [Avatar: The Last Airbender’s] Katara. It’s her groundedness and her sense of confidence, but she has a lot of emotional availability. I am proud of the woman she is.

My love language is: a tie between “quality time” and “words of affirmation.” That’s definitely receiving for me, and I think I might be an “acts of service” and “words of affirmation” giver of love.

What would your dating app profile say? “Let’s try something new tonight.”

Inventing Anna is your first Shondaland project. Are you a big fan? Yes! I’m a big Scandal girl here. 

Even though you’re new to Shondaland/Netflix, people are going to recognize you as Tia Clayton from The Bold Type. Both Clayton and Neff Davis, your Inventing Anna character, are these fascinating, assertive and enterprising young women. Do you think they would get along? They could run a campaign together. They should think about [running for a] New York office. The world needs that.

Ha! They’re also both stylish. How did fashion inform your portrayal of Davis in Inventing Anna? It was actually one of my first ways into Neff. She’s so popping off on Instagram. As you start your dive, you see that she has a really strong relationship with not just style but color. She’s the type of person who knows the exact shade of orange that is her favorite color. The clothes were a really important storytelling element and also a way of getting in her skin — as someone who makes really specific decisions about how she wants to show the world who she is that day with an accessory, an earring, a shoe. It was like a language for her, with me.

David Giesbrecht/Netflix

And she wears it so proudly — in both her hotel uniform and in her personal clothing. She carries herself with confidence and authority. It’s true. She has this nonverbal communication skill, where she enters a room and her energy sort of radiates before her. You know to pay attention.

Audiences will no doubt empathize with Davis — and use her as a vessel to understand why someone would be attracted to and potentially hoodwinked by Anna Delvey. How do you view Davis’ relationship with Delvey? In some ways, it seems like they share a sense of relentless ambition. They celebrate themselves in each other. They were both young women trying to make a splash in a highly male-dominated culture, society and art space. But they had dreams, and they believed in them. They were palpably confident, very sure that they had a place in this world. I think they served as affirmations for one another. And they could really talk. They had real interest in art. They had real interest in that restaurant that looks like it’s in a shoe store, but then you go down and it’s actually an exclusive club. They knew New York so intrinsically, and I think they were impressed with one another’s ability to keep up, stay up and be up. Then, beneath that, they have a real moment. In the middle of the show, you see them in a really quiet space, 3 in the morning, hanging out in the hotel room in robes, just being girls at a sleepover. I think once they impress each other professionally, they connect on an emotional level. It was really enriching to play all of those dynamics. I think that’s where their loyalty for one another stems from.

Aaron Epstein/Netflix

Were you able to meet Davis? One of the first things I did was have dinner with Neff, and she was so generous. We probably sat for three and a half hours that first evening. We didn’t know that we lived 20 minutes apart from each other in Brooklyn, and we met somewhere in the middle. Throughout the process, she really remained a touchstone. We found a nice balance of staying in touch and making sure I was honoring her perspective and giving her voice. Ultimately, the Neff you see on screen is a marriage between the two of us — and maybe even a celebration of the friendship we have. 

You read a script and you have an idea of who this character is, but getting to meet the person — that’s got to be a unique experience. I think what it gave me was an energy to play with. I read her words and I imagined her voice and how she moved through the world, but I was really excited to feel her walk into the room. I remember feeling her from the back of the restaurant. I had an idea what she looked like, of course, but she opens the door and Neff arrives, and the room changes. She was making waiters laugh. People were coming over to say hi, not even knowing her. She’s effervescent and radiant, and that quality is something that I always came home to throughout the work. I wanted to make sure I celebrated [those qualities] as much as I could.

Did she ever finish making her movie? I don’t know that it’s out to release, but it exists, and she’s on to the next. She’s constantly writing. She’s having meetings. She also had a set visit. I think that she’s taking off, in terms of her own artistry. I hope the show is [an] affirmation of what she’s doing in the world, because it’s coming.

Because your Inventing Anna role is so unique, what do you see as the heart of this story? For me, the story rests in the desire to seek power outside of yourself and how that can come to be a torturous experience.