I wanted to start
with the strength of your performance in this because it's such a complex character and I just
wondered when you get a role of this nature is your initial reaction one of just kind of Joy
because it's a bit it's a dream role in terms of the kind of layers and complexity for you to
kind of get your teeth into or are there kind of elements of apprehension and nerves knowing
the kind of the challenge ahead and where you'll have to take yourself to emotionally
yeah I feel like this one wasn't
a challenge of being able to portray someone who is just basically picking up the shattered pieces
of their life um so look I'm a mum I've got four kids my life is really busy and I have to be so
on point with my kids at the end of the day I'd I'd go to work and I'd have to really switch off
so I think it seems like a really overwhelming thing to have to jump into in the couple of weeks
leading up to the filming but I'm not one to back down from a challenge so I figured I would find
my flow with it and if necessary just get really specific in what tools I would need to lean on to
be able to turn off the work at the end of the day because I couldn't carry any of that Darkness with
me when I'm parenting my kids so it was really hard and I was exhausted I didn't sleep a lot I
would dream about the world so much um so it was very much just there in the subconscious with me
for that whole period of time but of course I was so drawn to the material is so fascinating and
um I knew I had to do it yeah I mean I sort of mentioned about how kind of it would have been
hard to switch off at the end of the day's shoe I just wanted to how about switching
up at the end of the whole project in its entirety does it take a kind of week or
two sometimes to get to lose a character like this yeah it does sometimes longer
um with this one I feel like she's still with me in some ways because obviously we're gearing up to
do the press and a lot of shows come out a year or two after you've filmed them but this one is still
very fresh in my mind it's coming out relatively soon after we wrapped the project and so it's
just been a part of the fabric of who I am since I wrapped and I love it because um I think it's such
an important story to tell but um yeah sometimes it just really depends on the project sometimes
they stick around with you for longer and I know this one's had a a pretty deep imprint on my life
um yeah after Berlin syndrome now I think you can do probably do anything
I was gonna bring Berlin syndrome up it hasn't been since I did Berlin syndrome that I felt
um the necessity to disappear into the darkness as fully as I need to and Berlin syndrome and
that was just a whole other beast but um you know I'm back in that kind of dark headspace
again with Freya um so it was yeah many many colors of this experience was many colors for me
I'm interested about uh research you can do for something like this because I mean I imagine
whenever you sign up to any project it's quite handy sometimes to kind of delve into into the
world that you're kind of you're about to sort of embody a character in but in something like
this I mean the very nature of of of the kind of the the situation that the character's kind
of been in is so secretive so dark and so kind of something that we're not necessarily privy to in
real life I just wondered if you did undertake any research and if you found it challenging
to really dig deep into this into this world yeah look I'm someone who I'm a big um True
Crime podcaster So I listened to a lot of True Crime stuff and I had um like most Australians
I'd heard of you know the all the varying cultls that this is based on and um so I researched and
learned about a lot of them because I there's such a Fascination there but in particular I was really
um intrigued by how someone can go from having just a regular spiritual ideology that then
evolves into such an extreme belief system and it it's funny how it can have this real
cascading effect and it leaves people feeling very dogmatic about the way that they live and
um and and then of course a cycle of abuse is just so Rife so all of this world was
fascinating to me and I knew that I should wrap my head around it before jumping into the project
and um the further I got it was like going down a rabbit hole it's like
this such a cruel machine I think what I really took out of my research was that
falling for a cult and one of these really Dynamic leaders it's not reserved just for the down and
out and the vulnerable we can really anyone can fall prey to it and that was a scary thing
um yeah so it was it was pretty dark of the research but I felt like it was necessary to
understand where she came from and uh talking with dark I mean I don't I don't mean offense
by this question but I noticed that Australians do dark dramatic material really really well I
was speaking to Miranda Otto about this why do you think that's the case because my experience of
Australians the only sort of people always up for a laugh very easy to get on with and then
you watch the kind of shows and it's bloody Bleak I love it you're so right about that um
oh look I don't know where this is stemmed from but um I always say because the same I have the
same experience with Australians there's like a vibrancy and people are quite upbeat and
generally positive people um so maybe it's just to find the contrast maybe it's because we're
not experiencing it so much in our everyday lives but there really is you know there's a
dark history in Australia too there are so many um look I come from Adelaide South Australia and
um South Australia in and of itself has a very dark history um that lots of people like to
discuss and I don't know if you've seen Snowtown but there are lots of um films coming out of South
Australia that are really intriguing so there's just something about the material that we we find
um fascinating maybe it's just where this evil comes from like what what is the root cause of
this cycle of abuse and um you know I think it's why there's such a huge Global Fascination in
um you know with True Crime at the moment you know I have seen Snowtown it scarred me in that film um
my my final question uh today is because I just I mean I saw on the subject of Australia
and sort of looking at your career kind of you make films kind of all over I I gather just oh
I get the sense that just kind of choosing the best scripts the best characters and it's kind
of taking you across Europe and to the states I just wondered about making stuff in in your home
nation in Australia do you think it's always important to look for for roles on home soil
can you see yourself constantly kind of seeking out roles at home I love Australian filmmakers
I love Australian storytellers the quality of the work coming out of Australia is so brilliant that
I always find myself leaning back towards home projects it just keeps happening I'll be like
right I'm going back to America I'm gonna go and work in America and then almost every year there's
a an Australian project that'll pull me back to my home country and look even just logistically my
kids have a school in Australia that um we have a home there it I love Australian crews - it's where
I came from so I am drawn to working there and I can see it in my future a lot more I'm about to
go back and work on something in Australia and I've um you know I know there's an impending
writer's strike as well potentially um so I'm on the phone with my Australian agent saying right
what's out there send me all the all the goodies but it's just high quality stuff coming out of
Australia and so that's that's exciting and I'm a proud Australian so it's nice to be working in my
home country well if the material is as good as the clearing you can see why it draws you back
um well thank you so much Theresa for your time today uh much appreciated
thank you so much I really appreciate it ladies and gentlemen you're watching hey you guys
hey you guys hey that's what they all say there you go
eyes