Riley Keough Is Unrecognizable In Throwback Photos From Her Modeling Days

Riley Keough has been in the public eye for most of her life thanks to the actor's familial connections, but we couldn't help but do a double take when we saw throwback snaps of her from the early aughts. Keough is unrecognizable from the star we know today — but that's not to say she looks entirely unfamiliar. In more recent years, the "Mad Max: Fury Road" star has typically favored a very natural makeup look and dark hair. Her signature pose has also been switched up significantly, with the actor typically looking directly at the camera, with her chin parallel to the floor. All of that has given her a very distinct look to her famous mom, who tended to rock a smokey eye and generally posed with her face at a slight angle. However, older modeling pics of Keough show that the distinction between the mother and daughter wasn't always quite as pronounced. 

In fact, our first thought upon seeing the throwback images was that we were looking at a young Lisa Marie Presley. From the pose to the wavy hair and smoky-eye, a young Keough was her mom's twin in the early 2000s — something that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana told The Irish Independent in 2004 that they'd noticed as well. "With her mother's beauty and her grandfather's attitude she is sure to be a star," they noted of the then-14-year-old. Well, the designers weren't wrong. Keough has had a stunning transformation since then and she's certainly gone on to become a powerhouse in her own right too.

Speaking of Riley Keough's bygone modeling days, in a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, she joked about her nerves ahead of her first big gig. While checking out photos from her very first fashion show with Dolce & Gabbana, Riley quipped, "This is really sweet. This was also really cringe." Even so, she shared that it was special for her to be able to do her own thing, without any of her famous family members. Naturally, her confidence gradually grew over the years too. Having said that, Riley has also acknowledged the incredible pressure she faced as Elvis Presley's granddaughter when first starting out in the entertainment industry. Speaking to Vogue in 2004, the "Daisy Jones & The Six" star revealed that as soon as news broke that she'd been signed to a modeling agency, the harsh criticism began, and for the first time, the comparisons really got to her. 

"I read something that said, 'I guess Elvis Presley's granddaughter won't be eating too many peanut butter and banana sandwiches.' Why do they have to start picking on me already?" she lamented (via Elvis Information Network). Riley likely faced a ton of comparisons to her mother and grandmother over the years, as well. After all, we're not the only ones to have spotted the resemblance between Riley and her late mom, Lisa Marie Presley. In 2023, the actor disclosed to Town & Country magazine that in response to all three women rocking black for an event in Elvis' honor, her late brother Benjamin Keough had been truly shocked by the physical similarities, telling his sister, "You guys look so creepy. You all look like different ages of the same person." Of course, Riley had an incredible bond with Lisa Marie, so we doubt she was too upset by that.