Direct Like a Girl
Film and television star Rachel Griffiths has pulled on her riding boots to direct her first feature film, bringing the tale of headstrong Aussie jockey, Michelle Payne, to the world.
When female jockey, Michelle Payne crossed the finish line first to win the 2015 Melbourne Cup, Rachel Griffiths was watching the race on TV at a friend’s barbecue. “I didn’t know a girl was racing, I didn’t even really know girls were jockeys,” she says. But she knew she was watching history. Griffiths jumped on her phone and googled Payne. When she read that she was one of 10 kids who had been brought up by their single dad in country Victoria after their mother’s death, she felt a tingle. Having been searching for a strong Australian story to direct for some time, she knew she’d found her film.
Immediately she texted her friend, veteran film producer Richard Keddie: “Did you watch that? We have to make this movie!”
Four years later, Ride Like a Girl is about to hit Australian cinemas, directed by Griffiths and produced by Keddie. It spans Michelle Payne’s life from childhood after her mother died when she was six months old, to her Cup-winning ride, and all the hurdles and setbacks she conquered along the way, including fracturing her skull in a potentially career-ending fall in 2004.
Griffiths admits she was no equine specialist before making the film. “My father occasionally took me to the track and I remember those days quite joyfully. But we were very cash-poor so having a horse was not in my future.”
A STELLAR CAST
Ride Like a Girl stars Teresa Palmer as Michelle Payne and Sam Neill as her father, Paddy who brings up his 10 children virtually single-handedly after his wife’s death in a road accident. In a film filled with strong performances, it’s Michelle’s brother, Stevie Payne, who has Down Syndrome and plays himself, who is the scene stealer and arguably the heart of the film.
Griffiths agrees: “Stevie Payne playing himself turned out to be the greatest gift in the film. There’s something about working with a
performer who has Down Syndrome that disarms you … you drop your bullsh*t and a lot of habits and you just become incredibly open and present. Teresa, who I think is extraordinary through the film, is just so beautiful in her scenes with Stevie. They are my favourite parts of the film.”
INTERNATIONAL CAREER
Griffiths is one of Australia’s most successful actors, having achieved success in Australia, the UK and the US, but she had very little directing experience to speak of before Ride Like a Girl. “I made two shorts before I got married while I was working on Six Feet Under in the States. And then I got married and started having babies [she has three children with artist husband, Andrew Taylor], and directing just became a kind of impossibility. I mean, it is a very selfish thing to do – it’s all-consuming and I was on two major US television shows [Six Feet Under and Brothers & Sisters]. So between providing for my family and enjoying the international opportunities I had as an actor, there just really wasn’t the space. As I meet more female directors who are mothers, I find it is often 10 years between projects. It really just is that thing where you kind of think, ‘Can I do this to my family?’”
To get off the ground, Ride Like a Girl received support from Gender Matters, a Screen Australia programme aiming to address gender imbalance in the filmmaking industry. As well as a female director and lead actor, the film prides itself on its female-led crew. Says Griffiths, “We’re telling a woman’s story and to have two female producers on this film and a female co-writer, was amazing. We had gender parity in the camera department, and my heads of costume, production design and editors were all female.”
The racing world is still a predominantly male one, however, and Griffiths decided to hire many real personalities from that sphere to add to the film’s authenticity. “I have such a passion for the amateurs’ performance, particularly when those people are telling their own stories. So we had a lot of guys from the racing industry who had never been on film before, who had lines and whole scenes. That was very exciting but sometimes as I was doing my first rehearsal in the morning I’d think, ‘Oh God, have I made the right decision here? Should I have hired the professional actor from central casting?’” she laughs.
THE MURIEL LEGACY
2019 marks 25 years since the release of Griffiths’ breakthrough film, Muriel’s Wedding, in which she stars as the feisty, spirited Rhonda, best friend to Toni Collette’s flawed romantic, Muriel. How does she regard Muriel’s Wedding now, made when she was just 25 and finding her way in the business?
“I think that film is so wonderful and critical for creating a character that we’re all going to root for. Muriel’s Wedding broke down a lot of traditional stereotypes about what a lead female should be [in that] Muriel was unlikable, she made mistakes and was imperfect; she had this dream which was just to get married. I think it also really celebrated that if we make extraordinary indigenous content, it can export successfully.” The musical version, Muriel’s Wedding the Musical has been enjoying huge success since 2017 and Griffiths is an unabashed fan.
“I saw the original production with Maggie McKenna and also the new show with the new cast recently – it’s just as emotional, if not more. I probably can’t watch it entirely honestly but when Rhonda and Muriel have their ‘Fernando’ kind of moment and sing a beautiful new song, I was sobbing. The whole theatre was looking at me, trying not to sob. Everybody cried. It’s really powerful.”
In her two and a half decades in showbusiness, Griffiths has won a slew of awards and commendations, including an AFI Award for Muriel’s Wedding, a Golden Globe award for Six Feet Under and numerous Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Brothers & Sisters – not to mention her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Hilary and Jackie.
Despite all the accolades, she remains refreshingly down-to-earth. “Nominations and awards are not how I measure my success. I measure it as to how I have met my aims. When I moved back to Australia in 2012, it was my dream to tell Australian stories. It’s taken some years ... but I’ve realised that dream.”
• Ride Like a Girl is released in cinemas on 24 October.
“The whole theatre was looking at me, trying not to sob. Everybody cried.”