Rose Byrne

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

The international world has had its share of talented actors and Australia is no exception. Certainly on her way to the growing list of Australian talent is actress Rose Byrne.

Already an award-winning actress in her native land for film such as The Goddess Of 1967, The Rage In Placid Lake, and in Sunshine. Byrne has become a rising star in Hollywood in the film 28 Weeks Later and, most famously, as lawyer Ellen Parson in the FX drama Damages.

She now stars in what is arguably her biggest role to date, alongside Nicolas Cage in the science-fiction film Knowing. Rose first shared with us what ultimately attracted her to the role.

'I had met with Alex Proyas a few times previously for other projects,' Byrne recalls, 'So for me, it was exciting to work him. I had done a television show and I was in hiatus from the show. So obviously, it was great timing and a really intriguing script and he's a really visionary director and I was grateful to be a part of it. They piled things along the way and there's a sense of foreboding that was there in the script when I read it, but I could never predict the ending.'

According to the 29 year-old, the role, as Diana Wayland, involved great intensity as she plays a woman that she describes as being in constant denial of what is happening, which in this case is a prophecy foretelling the end of the world. Byrne describes what she brought to bring the character of Diana to life.

'Well, it's a really, have you done it, so what would you do in real life'' she describes, 'How would you act in a given circumstance' You know what I mean, so I had to imagine how I would act. I don't know. I acted and that's how I would act. I think that's sort of how I got into it.'

'But, in a way, my character denying the whole thing, but she doesn't ever really acknowledge it, I don't think, at any point because she's terrified to,' Rose continues, 'This is something she's been avoiding her whole life, so I don't know. So, in a way, I have a stranger perspective of the events that they're going through.'

Rose describes the working environment as a relatively collaborative affair with both as we inquired about her feelings on the scientific and spiritual elements in Knowing.

'When we were in the rehearsal room, we definitely had a lot of conversation about that,' Byrne recounts, 'We had gone through the script and kind of shored around ideas of what we all thought was the potential for certain parts of the story and it was great. We totally had discussions and sort of theories about things. I play the character in denial, so she's the one who has guilt about it and is running away from the whole thing.'

'But when you're doing any project when you're pondering things like religion and life after death and science fiction and bridging that gap between science and spirituality and what that means, it's a testament to Alex because he definitely sets a strong tone about it,' she adds, 'I think it was fully realized from the start, you can sense a foreboding, eerie quality that I love. It was so thrilling to see that film on screen, elevated from the script to the theatre in such a way that I just don't think any director could have done.'

Another person Byrne felt contributed greatly to the harmonious atmosphere of the film's production is its star Nicolas Cage.

'With Nicolas, he's a consummate professional,' says Rose, 'He's very dedicated to his work, incredibly serious about his work. He's always very spontaneous. That's the thing about Nicolas. That's really what's going to happen from day to day. He does one thing one day and the next, it can be something completely different. But that's great. It's like life, you know.'

'It makes it very interesting,' she continues, 'That's the thing. He makes interesting performances. He's also very eccentric and has a very great sense of humor. He's very dry with his humor, which is very similar to Australians, I think. Him and Alex had a great dialogue, so there was a very collaborative set, which was very harmonious. It was a fun thing with the children there, too, there was a vitality that was whipped into the set because it had become so heavy-handed, because as you can see, it's a dark movie.'

We inquired on how the film's story affected Byrne's own personal views on religion and science.

'I wasn't raised in a religious household and I was born a skeptic, but having said that, I don't know either way,' Rose replies, 'I think it's hard for me to say one or the other. It's a miracle that we are all here, surrounded by oxygen and gravity. So it's kind of a miracle that we're all here in the first place and it's good to be remind yourself of that, I think.'

She also shared her thoughts on how the film's story affected her own personal beliefs on the end of the world and what they may portend.

'Well, we're not trying to discuss it, because that was Achilles' whole thing, 'I'll be long, but I'll be remembered.'' she says, 'I mean, it's such a fantastic movie to talk about it in. It's just the fragility of human life. An ego like us that we never want to leave is something like Achilles.'

'So talking about it, storytelling is such a huge part of the myth of our story, if that makes any sense, of the finality,' Byrne continues, 'Hopefully, if I do have those moments, of course, I'm predisposed to being dark about the end and everything like that. I hope this makes me appreciate now more than everything, because that's all you have at the end of the day.'

A curiosity we had on our minds regarding the Australian native was whether or not she sticks to an American accent to play American characters even off-camera.

'Well, I tend to a little bit,' Rose replies, 'The show, it's funny, on TV, you really often will be acting every other day so I just kind of stay in it anyway because you're always on set. Sometimes I have a problem with the whole thing. It's good being on the show because you're surrounded by Americans obviously because they're Australians everywhere. Actually, my best friend in Australia is Nadia Townsend, who plays Grace Koestler in the film, so that was quite wild.'

While many actors in Hollywood traditionally balk at the idea of doing television, Byrne claims that old perception has started to change a little with high-quality television series like Damages.

'Especially since Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt are great film actors,' she remarks, 'There's a discrimination between film and television and there's a gap that's created from it. But it's becoming less controversial now to jump from one to the other because it works so well. But, yeah, the show definitely has a cinematic quality and it's a very stylish show. It's a thriller and it's kind of heightened and it's great. It's a very smart show, the guys who run it.'