A FAMILY AFFAIR
The Harcourts’ special bond with Nicole Kidman
OUR BEST-LOVED ACTING DYNASTY IS AS STRONG AS EVER
Give any of the Harcourt women – matriarch Dame Kate, daughter Miranda and granddaughter Thomasin – an inch and they’ll grab it with both hands.
Arranging themselves on the sofa for the Weekly’s photo shoot, Miranda surreptitiously pokes her mum. “Idiot,” hoots Kate as they fall about laughing.
They all share a house – Kate (90) has a self-contained flat in a downstairs area of their light and airy Houghton Bay home – but having a spare couple of hours to spend together is a rare pleasure these days.
Sixteen-year-old Thomasin, or Thom to her mum and grandma, has just been Skyping her voice coach in Vanuatu to practise a Southern American drawl for an audition she’s shooting in the afternoon.
Miranda, just back from Israel, where she was directing the background action for Mary Magdalene, a film starring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, is “going to Sydney in a minute”, then to Canada and London with husband Stuart McKenzie (53) to promote their latest movie project, The Changeover.
Kate is off to lunch with longtime friend and acting buddy Helen Mulder, then she’s on grandma duty for her youngest granddaughter, 10-year-old Davida.
“It’s very difficult to get sick of each other when you’re all away so much,” laughs Miranda, reeling off the various locations she’s been in the past year, including a two-month