“TRAVELLING TO PLACES WHERE THE CULTURE IS VASTLY DIFFERENT IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS WE CAN DO.”
Where would you like to take your children?
They [daughter Sage, 10, and son Arlo, seven] are pretty well-travelled but we’ve been talking about visiting Japan during cherry blossom season. We’re also about to go on a family road trip across the southern United States. I’m most excited about seeing Nashville and New Orleans.
When you enter a hotel room, what’s the first thing you do?
Use the loo. Then I make sure there’s a bath, turn the television and any music off, open the windows if possible and flop on the bed.
What do you most like to find in your hotel minibar?
Water at room temperature in glass bottles, never in plastic.
Where is your home away from home?
London. I spent a lot of time working there in my 20s so I know it very well and have lots of good friends there.
Which destination was a surprise to you?
Seattle. I made a film there [Lucky Them] in 2013 and it had such a good energy, even in the dead of winter. In most American cities, there seems to be a love of the arts but it’s quite limited, whereas I found Seattle to be the reverse: predominantly alternative. I could live there, I think.
Is there a city you could have given a miss?
Albuquerque [in New Mexico], although I guess I found something to do because my son was conceived there! I have to say the sunsets were quite spectacular.
Have you ever been fleeced?
Not so much fleeced as robbed. I was with a friend at a packed café in St Kilda [in Melbourne] and this woman was roaming under tables and around chair legs, stealing people’s stuff. Other diners alerted me to her just as she was slowly dragging my bag out from under my chair. She was kicked off the premises immediately but my friend’s bag had already been nicked. It sucked.
Can you share a particularly memorable dining experience from your travels?
A seemingly endless feast surrounded by belly dancers and rose petals in Morocco.
What’s your No. 1 travel bugbear?
Smoking. Some countries still revel in it. It’s hard to enjoy anything when you’re not breathing fresh air.
If you could be anywhere else in the world right now, where would you be?
Sydney, because I miss home.