Griffiths refuses to toe the line
Indian Summers’ Rachel Griffiths tells Celia Walden how being different has helped her career.
emember that businesswoman a few years back who put her success down to the fact that she wasn’t that good-looking, but goodlooking enough?’’
I do, and I think I know where Rachel Griffiths is going with this.
‘‘Well, I really got what she was saying,’’ explains the 47-year-old actress. ‘‘I’ve never been beautiful enough not to be taken seriously. With me, it was always a case of: ‘Well, she clearly hasn’t got here on her looks, so we’d better give her some credibility’.’’
I suspect the credibility would have come regardless. After all, it’s thanks to Griffiths that Rhonda Epinstalk – Muriel’s rambunctious sidekick in Muriel’s Wedding - remains memorable 20 years after the release of the film. And most will agree that she all but eclipsed Emily Watson’s Jacqueline du Pre as the cellist’s seething sister, Hilary, in the 1998 biopic Hilary and Jackie. Certainly Griffiths deserved her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the part.
But it’s true that in the Melbourne-born actress’s film and television roles – the latest of which is the sexually liberated Sirene in Indian Summers, Channel 4’s epic costume drama – Griffiths’ looks have never overshadowed her talent.
‘‘I honestly do think that good looks can count against you in this industry,’’ she shrugs, having placed a hilariously highmaintenance breakfast order with our unflinching LA waitress (‘‘four-minute eggs with glutenfree toast, double-toasted and cut into soldiers – and no potatoes. Americans need to understand that potatoes are not permanently married to eggs’’).
‘‘I used to look at how many movies Charlize [Theron] got and think: ‘How many chances is this girl going to get? We’re never going to see anything different. Then she comes out with Monster and shame on me!’’ Griffiths cries, breaking into one of those big Aussie mouth-to-hairline laughs. ‘‘Because I totally blonde-shamed her. Basically, I just couldn’t take anyone as pretty as her seriously. Now she is one of my favourite actresses; just phenomenally inspiring.’’
It’s probably easier to let go of petty professional jealousies when you’ve never stopped working yourself. And Griffiths – the daughter of an art consultant – hasn’t suffered a single dry spell since completing a drama and dance degree at Victoria College, Rusden, in 1990.
‘‘Of course, I’m very lucky for that,’’ concedes the actress, who divides her time between Melbourne and LA. ‘‘But when I made the move to television, the roles in film were getting much less interesting. They were not well written, complex or unconventional, whereas in TV I was being offered things like [the role of Brenda Chenowith in] Six Feet Under. I didn’t see back then what a turning point it was for television. It was only when my mind switched back to Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in the Crown that I understood how extraordinary TV could be.’’
Given how much she loved the 1980s’ mini-series, it’s easy to see why Griffiths flew to Penang at short notice to join the cast of Indian Summers – another sweeping, cinematic drama set in the twilight era of the British Empire, in which she plays the Maharaja’s mysterious and wilful Australian mistress.
Although Julie Walters has been hogging the praise for her portrayal of Cynthia Coffin, Griffiths was bowled over by the young cast members – Olivia Grant, Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Jemima West – ’’who are all lovely Oxford and Cambridgelevel smarty-pantses,’’ she laughs, ‘‘which means that they got into the script in a completely different way to me. So we may be the oldies in the show but we’re not necessarily better.’’
That’s because the notion that actors necessarily improve with age is, she believes, a fallacy. ‘‘And actually that’s the most frightening and depressing thing when you watch yourself back: not that you’ve aged, but that maybe you’re not any better. I mean, was the dying Olivier any better than the 22-year-old Olivier?’’
Griffiths’ next project takes her back to Australia to work with Jane Campion on the second series of the award-winning Top of the Lake. But it’s her return to the big screen in Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, alongside Andrew Garfield, that is being heralded by the industry press.
‘‘Working with Mel was really exciting,’’ she says. And from his appearance at the Golden Globes, it would seem he’s been welcomed back into the fold?
‘‘Well, there was a big public stoning on that one,’’ Griffiths sighs. ‘‘He’s been sober a long time now but there are people who think that drugs and alcohol liberate your true self. I’ve never believed that. I think that drugs and alcohol can just turn you into a monster – or a pit of hate – but that doesn’t mean you have to sit at home hiding.
‘‘Mel’s a great director and I think he is on the path to making those amends.’’ - The Sunday Telegraph
Indian Summers 10.30pm, Sundays, TVNZ1.
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