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Home / Interviews & Articles / Aussies Have a Hold on Hollywood |
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This page was last updated on 24th September 2006. Page launched on 24th September 2006. Site launched on 8th February 2004.
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INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES
Aussies Have a Hold on Hollywood by Sal Morgan ninemsn.com.au, Australia, 14th May 2006
"What's in the water down there?" joked George Clooney. "You Aussies are all beautiful and talented!"
Clooney may have had us laughing, but he was serious. "Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett - they just keep coming."
The Aussie crush has been happening in Hollywood for some time now and it certainly isn't slowing down.
On Thursday night Australians In Film held their 2006 breakthrough awards in Beverly Hills, where upcoming Australian stars Jacinda Barrett and Jesse Spencer were honoured along with horror genre duo James Wan and Leigh Whannell.
"In the '80s it was Mel Gibson. Then it was Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and something just happened," said Whannell. "Now it's like, if you don't have an Australian in your film - it's not a big movie."
Whannell has become one of the most profitable filmmakers in Hollywood in the past two years and thinks it's a "pure coincidence" that so many Australians are making their mark in Hollywood.
Jesse Spencer, however, says, "it's a lack of work at home that makes us go, 'Bugger it! I'll just go overseas and give it a go!'"
After Neighbours Spencer moved to the UK before scoring roles in Uptown Girls and Swimming Upstream. Now he's living in LA and working on the American hit drama series House MD.
"I never thought I'd end up doing TV again and never thought I'd be living here," he said. "It's a whole different ball game to Ramsey Street," he laughed. "The hours are much longer, the budgets are much bigger, there's much more pressure but I'm learning lots and riding the wave. It's all good."
Jacinda Barrett also said that Hollywood was never part of the plan. Unlike Spencer, she had barely done any acting before finishing high school, and had no firm career plans.
"I went overseas and modelled for a while and I got sick of that pretty quickly," she says. "So I went and got my pilots license and then went back to study. It was only then that I enrolled in an acting course and realised that was what I wanted to do."
Barrett attended the British Academy of Dramatic Art in Oxford, England, before moving to LA almost 10 years ago.
"I've been working on and off for about seven years now, just taking small steps forward, and I think that's what's kept me motivated in times when it's difficult," she says. "In recent years I've had the chance to do much bigger movies with very established directors and actors and that's really changed it for me."
Barrett has enjoyed major international exposure playing alongside bankable stars like Nicole Kidman in The Human Stain, John Travolta in Ladder 49 and Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Her latest adventure is in a starring role in the big budget disaster film re-make Poseidon, with Josh Lucas, Emmy Rossum and Kurt Russell. The six-month underwater shoot proved to be a gruelling one - but nothing an Aussie gal can't handle.
"I think Australians have a real fighter spirit. You knock us down and we get back up," she laughs. "We also have a good sense of humour, which I think helps."
With another three films due out before the end of the year Barrett's schedule is filling up fast but she says she's still "dying" to go home and make a movie.
"I think I am the only Australian actress here who hasn't had the chance to work back home. I'd love to."
FYI - Jacinda, I've put the word into Clooney's production company to send his scouts Down Under. I've guaranteed him that all stars will be gorgeous and talented and also come with what we call "the Aussie added bonus" - a great sense of humour.
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