Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne overcame a bohemian Sydney childhood and crippling panic attacks to bed Brad Pitt and forge a film career which has made her one of Hollywood's leading lights. Now Balmain's favourite star is back and, as Time Out discovers, she's bad, bad, bad...
By Angus Fontaine
Whole lotta Rosie Byrne is so bad she's great in The Tender Hook
You play an underworld femme fatale in The Tender Hook. Did it come naturally? Are you kidding? Iris is a real departure for me - a lead role who's
driving the story. So to be compelling I had to step up and go
somewhere I'd never been before as an actor. But I got there by reading
up on gangsters and Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, the whores turned
madams who ran Sydney's sly grog and razor gangs in the ‘30s.
Growing up in Balmain you must've met similar colourful characters? Oh yeah, Balmain back then was full of artists and punters and
er,...dodgy people. I'm the product of hot-blooded tribes too - Irish,
Scottish, Spanish - my mum looks exactly like me and she's very calm.
But my father's a bohemian - the big punting, big drinking sort who
raised us four kids without crap TV or junk food. My mum always tells
me: ‘Never marry a punter - you're either absolutely loaded or
hopelessly broke'."
That's a very Sydney philosophy! Isn't it? And the great
thing about this film was I got to know Sydney a lot more by digging up
the dirt on her. Sydney is almost another character in the script. And
even though there's this rich, glamorous, glossy, fabulous tapestry,
she's such a dirty old town.
You don't have to scratch the glossy surface of Sydney hard for blood to come bubbling up do you? She's like Iris in many ways - beautiful, smart, canny and ambitious.
But her heart is buried and her conscience is bad but it's taught her
how to land on her feet and stay there. She's got a mind for business...
and a body for sin!
Your last Sydney crime flick, Two Hands, was 10 years ago now. You've landed on your feet too it would seem. I was such a baby when I did Two Hands! I look at that girl and laugh but I'm still really proud of that film -
it was such a turning point for Heath and Gregor and I. We all wore our
hearts on our sleeve for that film... but that's what shapes you as an
actor.
It took a while though - is it true you suffered serious panic attacks early on? Confidence
is a huge thing for any actor and yeah, I was a lot more timid when I
started out. For a while there I'd get all the classic symptoms of an
attack: heart palpitations, high anxiety, cold sweats, shakes, thoughts
going out of control, everything frozen inside and out. It was scary...
How'd you get it under control? At the end of the day it's a
physical thing. That's why I've done a lot of work on it over the years
to get it under control. Four years ago it was so serious I actually
did a course on living and dealing with anxiety and panic attacks.
Since then it's been a lot better.
Now you can go to bed with Brad Pitt without batting an eyelid, right? Almost. The truth is work actually distracts me. Acting is all about
focus and now, after 15 years working pretty consistently, I figure
I've earned a right to ask questions and do what I believe. It means I
can control scenes and that way the anxiety and pressure doesn't worry
me. It's other stresses in my life that trigger attacks - if I'm
worried about someone or there's a situation I can't get a grip on,
that's when I lose it.
So the international spotlight sits more comfortably now? In
terms of exposure and profile I've kept it quiet and my life is
completely normal. I don't live in another world - no assistants or
managers flapping around. I haven't had any invasiveness like other
actors. I can still catch up with my girlfriends from school or drama
class in a café in Zetland or a bar in Alexandria without worrying.
Yet we hear you claim that "vulnerability is my default." Hmmmm. ‘Vulnerable' is definitely something I play easily. A producer
once said to me: ‘You've got the victim part down, now you need to play
to new strengths'. I want to explore other facets of myself and absorb
fresh characters.
Ah, the future - a second season of Damages with Glenn Close, the
new Alex Proyas film Knowing with Nicolas Cage. Not bad for a Home
& Away reject... I honestly don't know. I always find it very
confronting to see myself on screen. The camera lies - it has to. It's
a third eye with a mind of its own and at the end of the day, no matter
what I do, it'll tell its own story.
The Tender Hook opens September 18