MILLA’S CROSSING
BABYTEETH I Shannon Murphy’s debut tale of adolescent love bares its fangs.
Inormally can pick people quite quickly. And Milla was driving me crazy,” laughs Australian theatre-director-turned-moviemaker Shannon Murphy. The blue-haired, cancer-suffering teen at the heart of Murphy’s dynamic debut was always going to take a special actress. “It’s a very unusual character. You don’t really get too much time to settle with who she is before she starts her transformation.”
Illness aside, this transition for the 15-year-old also includes falling in love with Moses, eight years her senior and, due to his drug habit, entirely unsuitable. “It was hard to pin down who could play all the different facets that she needed to have,” sighs Murphy. Thankfully, after holing up in a hotel room for two days with the casting director, she found her Milla: Eliza Scanlen.
“Eliza’s amazing… she’s such a chameleon, but the idea of working with her initially was almost scary,” the director admits. “Because I went, ‘Whoa, I’ve still got to keep this character consistent. How am I going to hone that?’” But paired with Toby Wallace, who won Venice’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for playing Moses, the results are explosive.
Babyteeth – adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her own play – is more than just a coming-of-age drama, argues Murphy. “It’s not a teen film. It’s important to not just over-glorify or over-sentimentalise someone, just because they are sick. It was really important that we kept it more honest and grounded than that.”
After Milla’s parents (Essie Davis, Ben Mendelsohn) invite Moses to live with them, what emerges is a beguiling tale of family dysfunction. “I love the chaos of life in this story,” Murphy nods. Still, it’s the free-spirited Milla who will inspire. “She doesn’t want to wallow in any of the negative things,” the filmmaker adds. “She wants to accelerate her life and experience things that she hasn’t before.” Amen to that. JM
ETA | 21 AUGUST / BABYTEETH OPENS NEXT MONTH.