Rose, the Goddess of Venice 2000

Young Aussie actress Rose Byrne won the Best Actress award for her role in The Goddess of 1967 from Clara Law. Filmfestivals.com caught up with her at the Hotel des Bains.

Tell us a bit more about yourself...

Rose Byrne: I've done sort of very specific paces all my life. I started acting classes when I was 8; I did drama at school for my certificate, and then I did more drama classes when I finished. I did a course in New York last year; I studied for 2 months in Manhattan, and I've just finished a play at the Sydney Theatre company 6 weeks ago. And now I'm unemployed, I don't have a job, I could be serving coffees at the Hotel des Bains! (laughs)

When did you know that you really wanted to be an actress?

I kind of figured out that I could do that for my job when I was 13. I got my first film when I was 13. It's an Australian film called Dallas Doll, it was a bit of a flop, with an American actress called Sandra Bernhardt. It was the first audition I'd ever done, so I was sort of very "wow!", and once I got there, I thought: "Well, OK, this is what I want to do!"

Were your parents pretty supportive?

They were great, always "Give it a go, give it a shot!" Very supportive.

What was it like working with Sandra Bernardt? She is considered quite a character...

Well, it was very interesting. I was really young, and I got on with her very well. She was very sweet to me, but she and the director had a real clash. That was very dramatic on set, there was lots of politics and fighting. But she was very protective to me. It was great; she's a classic! (laughs)

How did you prepare for your role?

I spent some time with a blind girl in Australia. It was very helpful. I asked her a million questions. She had been blind since birth. My character was as well. So I studied her physical body, her face. Blind people have very different facial muscles, they don't have any idea of an etiquette. Because they don't learn when they are growing up to mimic their parents, sort of how composed their faces are, they are sort of quite erratic and very physically disabled, you can tell immediately that they can't see. So I did a lot of work physically and a woman came and helped me who'd worked with blind people for 30 years; she came and helped me for my rehearsal process, to make sure that I was on the right track, in terms of how to look blind. And that was very good because it gave me a lot of confidence, of encouragement, because I was very nervous.

Clara asked you to come to the set blind every day. How did that work?

We had rehearsal for 4 weeks. By the time I got there, I was very prepared with what the blind acting was going to be. So we didn't have to talk about that much. Occasionally she was saying to me (she whispers intensely): "Rose, you're blind, you're blind!" (laughs) If I was sacking off, she would crack the whip. But it was pretty much down pat by the time we started shooting, which was good, because she does not have time once the crew is there and she is doing so many other things. So it was important that we did not have to discuss it anymore. It was lucky that we had the intense rehearsal.

Your part calls for a huge range of emotions. Was there any scene that was particularly challenging, that was the hardest for you?

Probably the hardest scene was the love scene. Not only because it was a love scene but because it was an emotional love scene, I had to be naked physically and emotionally, which was very draining. And the last scene in the mine with the gun was hard, because the location was small and we had a crew and it was so tiring; I was so tired and I had to be angry, and I'm not good at getting angry, that last scene was very hard. It was the climax of the film, I had to be really hysterical, it was an epic scene that sort of went on and on...

There is more to your character's blindness in the film than just physical ailment...

Her mother thinks that she's been cursed, because she is the product of something that's wrong. It is some sort of a sign from God that they have done something wrong... she's disabled because of that. It is kind of symbolic in that way. But I think that Clara really showed that just because you're physically handicapped doesn't mean you're mentally handicapped. And that sometimes it can lift you not to be granted all those skills that humans have. It can sometimes make you more spiritually aware, more at ease with earth. Which is kind of a very idealistic way of thinking of things. But that's a film and that's pretty much what she wanted to portray. And she used BG as a medium.

What does the fact that your characters don't have proper names in the film mean for you?

That was very frustrating for me, I didn't like that at all. But that was Clara's idea that she didn't want it to be put down in any compartment, she wants everything to be ambiguous and in the grey area, she doesn't want it to be black or white. It's very ambiguous and the audience is left to decide what they think about these people. That's why she did not name them. But for me, I like detail, I like grounding, I like reality, whereas she's sort of spiritual and metaphysical, so we sort of clashed on that one.

Didn't she name all the characters after cars?

No, "BG" means Blind Girl, and JM is Japanese Man! That's a little joke, I guess. But she does like initials! (laughs)

What were your first impressions going through the script?

I didn't really know what the film was going to be like until I saw it. And all I could gather from the rehearsal was that Clara was totally uncompromising.That was fantastic but also very hard as well sometimes, because you coudn't stop until she got exactly what she wanted. And the film is the result of that. I think it is a testimony to her work ethics that she is totally uncompromising in what she does, and she will do it exactly the way she wants. And I think it's come out pretty well because of that. I don't think it would have worked any other way. It's a real testimony to her vision as a whole. To see a film that clearly in your mind is way beyond my imagination. I also really enjoyed the car and the way the car is the silent preserver of this life, and I liked the fact that she gives the subject a life. It's like, now I can look at a chair, and think: "Where's that chair been?" (laughs) It's funny and very quirky. It's very Chinese, you know, a bit bent.

How have you enjoyed Venice so far?

I'm having a ball, it's great! It's wonderful. I've been traveling around for about a week, I went to Rome and Florence, I'm with my brother and a friend, so we've been traveling around in hostels. So we're very happy to be at a hotel! (laughs) We sort of walked into this hotel looking like animals from the wilds! (laughs)

There's a great dance scene in the film. It's interesting to note that Rikiya Kurokawa seems to have brought his boxing skills to that one...

Yeah he did! At first nobody seemed to understand what he was doing, but then we sort of managed to incorporate it and it worked! It worked with the character, who's that kind of young stiff japanese man. And it was very contrasting to BJ's dancing which is sort of all over the place and manic.

Are you going to the Sydney Olympics?

No, I'm going to be in New York!

Interview by Kerry Shaw & Robin Gatto