A new group of Australian starlets are taking Hollywood by storm

Emma Booth and
Katie Wall
Photo: Corbis / Scott
McDermottWORDS KATE ATKINSON

Australia has produced its fair share of female fi film stars over the years. From Cate Blanchett’s performance in the Oscar-winning Babel and Nicole Kidman’s in the likewise lauded The Hours, through to memorable roles in fifilms like Moulin Rouge and Muriel’s Wedding, movie buffs and fi film critics just can’t get enough of Aussie screen sirens. Over the last decade, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman have been the household names to keep an eye on. And now, thanks to a plethora of impressive domestic releases, the next wave of female acting talent making an impact on the big screen are ready for their close-ups. We zoom in.

MIA WASIKOWSKA

Mia Wasikowska in
Suburban MayhemAt 17, most girls are preoccupied with finishing school, passing their fi nal year with fl ying colours and what they’re going to wear to the year 12 formal dance. Mia Wasikowska has more important things to worry about – like which superstar fi film role to audition for next! Shooting to star status in her role alongside Australian Film Industry (AFI) award-winner Emily Barclay in Suburban Mayhem, former ballet dancer Wasikowska has traded pirouettes for performances of a different kind.

“I just wanted to try a different type of performance – ballet is more an image of perfection, and fi film can show a grittier side… sometimes it’s the more realistic topic of real life that really intrigues me,” she says.

It’s Wasikowska’s ability to deal with heavy themes that’s made her the critics’ pick and saw her nominated for a Young Actor Afi award last year. In her role as beauty therapist Lilya, alongside the racy Katrina (Barclay), Wasikowska was asked to tackle the issues of sex, drugs and violence in a fi film about a teenage girl’s murder of her father.

Emily Barclay and Mia
Wasikowska in Suburban
Mayhem“It really taught me the importance of character research and development… it raised the bar for everything I have done after it and I am really grateful for the experience,” she says.

The bar has rocketed sky-high for Wasikowska, with roles in the US TV pilot In Treatment, alongside Melissa George and Jindabyne lead actor Gabriel Byrne; in croc thriller Rogue; and John Polson and Peter Carstairs’ film September. Canberra-born Wasikowska also recently caught the eye of US agency Endeavour, which represents actors Keira Knightly and Jude Law. Need we say more? Say hello to Australia’s next leading lady.

LAURA GORDON

Nick Barkla and Laura
Gordon in Em4JayFor many actors, Method acting is de rigueur, and they try to experience rehab, life on the street or AA meetings personally to get a handle on a character. It was 25-year-old Laura Gordon’s ballsy and fuss-free Method approach that helped catapult the Melbourne Red Stitch Theatre player into the limelight.

During thefi filming of Alkinos Tsilimidos’ frank, heroin-riddled love flflick Em4Jay, chatting with prostitutes and down-and-outers was just a part of Gordon’s day job, and she welcomed it with open arms.

“I hit the streets of St Kilda and talked to heroin addicts, junkies, heroin doctors and experts; a friend who was a junkie taught me to shoot up – I just used saline of course, not the real thing… and I met this one prostitute whose story really resonated with me,” says Gordon. “We paid her AU$50 and for her, it was easy money. She was happy to share her story.”

Despite the acclaim she’s received, Gordon is taking her new role as a screen actress in her stride. It helps that she was previously a dominant fi gure in the theatre circuit, appearing in productions such as Black Milk and The Play About The Baby, along with a small role in Tsilimidos’ 2004 fi film Tom White. Part of the new wave of gritty Australian fi films (think Candy, 2:37 and Suburban Mayhem) Em4Jay was recently screened for US director and master of bleak subject matter, Larry Clarke (Another Day in Paradise, Kids). He loved it.

Gordon, recently signed to US agent IP, looks set to carve out a path through the darker side of cinema.

EMMA BOOTH

If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you remember her from her teenage days as a model, gracing the covers of some of Australia’s premier fashion titles and strutting international runways. You may even recall her as the bitchy Dana in the Australian TV series The Adventures of the Bush Patrol where, aged 12, Booth was fifirst introduced to the camera – it was love at fi first sight. Now 25, she’s back and in high demand in the world of acting.

Booth’s debut Aussie fi film is Clubland (out in May), which recently screened at Sundance and sold for a reported US$4 million, putting it in the same category as movies like Wolf Creek and Shine. Playing the all-knowing Jill alongside ill-at-ease Tim (Khan Chittenden), Booth proves she’s able to handle the tricky themes of family relationships and fi rst-time sexual liaisons with aplomb – though she admits it was tough at times.

Emma Booth, Khan
Chittenden and Brenda
Blethyn in Clubland“In Clubland I had a lot of crying to do, and of course you have to go to places that aren’t very pleasant to get there.

You have to think of what makes you really sad or really angry and what’s taken you to those places before, and sometimes you might have to do it all day or 10 times in a row… this emotional stuff,” she recalls.

Her role as a rape victim in The Wrong Girl, the upcoming controversial fi film about 2000’s Sydney gang rape crimes, will further drain her emotional resources. But she’s not crying for nothing; Booth has already been tipped as “the next Cate Blanchett”.

Emma Booth and Khan
Chittenden in Clubland“I’m fairly good at playing vulnerable characters,” she says. “I guess that’s a quality that Cate has and does well, but of course to be compared to someone like that is actually a little bit scary and I’d rather people see my work before making comparisons like that.”

Earlier this year, Booth was picked up by US agency William Morris, which represents Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johansson. Modest about her achievements, she credits her ease in front of the camera to her modelling background.

“I’ve learned how to work it, to work with different crews all the time, getting used to sitting around – all these things are not that far from fi film,” she explains.

But there’s no sitting around now, just a lot of hard work. Recently cast in her fi first international movie, Booth is fi filming Town Creek in Romania with Batman Forever and Veronica Guerin director Joel Schumacher. Hollywood, here she comes!

KATIE WALL

Despite its reputation, television can kick-start fi film acting careers. After a long and winding road of roles on the small screen, this year sees actress Katie Wall quite literally looking at the big picture.

Wall has racked up a number of TV acting roles, including parts in The Secret Life of Us, the critically lauded Love My Way and Water Rats, plus a 2004 Afi Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Marking Time. Just signed to Judi Dench’s US agency, Untitled, Wall’s currently in Los Angeles doing the audition circuit.

“One of the main differences with working in fi film is the time allowed for rehearsal, which there often isn’t time for in television,” she remarks. On the box, there also wasn’t an opportunity to work alongside Golden Globe-winner Brenda Blethyn, as she did in Clubland. Wall has nothing but praise for the leading lady.

“She is like a magician when she acts – this world she creates is so real – and to get a chance to be part of it was so fortunate. She is a liquid gold actress: I learned so much from her,” she says.

Katie Wall in NoiseWall’s enthusiasm for her biggest role to date, young cop Constable Caitlin Robinson in the Sundance-nominated fi film Noise, is tangible.

“When you go into the cinema to watch this fi film you feel like you’re breathing under water. The world is so delicately idiosyncratic – you’re there with every character,” she says. It sounds like Wall won’t be coming up for air any time soon.