MAY 2019 | The Australian Women’s Weekly 67
“I’m a lot more
vulnerable
when
I have to be
myself.”
our love and I’m so glad they got to be
a part of it.”
The December wedding capped off a
year in which Miranda was able to
deliver on the vision she articulated on
the Logies stage. As a voracious
consumer of film, television and books,
she is passionate about good stories that
are well told, but has always questioned
why women like her are not often part
of those stories. “While I can still relate
to them, it would be really lovely to
have that space opened up more and if I
can be a part of that by writing, then
that’s great,” she says. “I know that
representation won’t change the gap in
health or education between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous Australians. It
won’t change the high incarceration
sitting next to Shari Sebbens,” she says.
“They were these giggly, alive,
effervescent young women. We’d looked
for months for those girls. I’ll never
forget that first sight of her.”
At the time, Miranda had done little
screen work. Being cast as Cynthia
propelled her into the very top echelon
of Australian movie production. She
was shooting with the trailblazer
Deborah Mailman, hot property Jessica
Mauboy and international star Chris
O’Dowd, who was fresh from his role
in the mega hit Bridesmaids. The
Sapphires was a life-changing
opportunity. Lauded at Cannes and an
Australian box-office hit, it was a solid
launching pad. Soon after came Love
Child and Logies success. But despite →rates. But if it can bring the humanity
back to Aboriginal people, if it makes
people take that step back and say:
‘Well, they’re human like me’, art can
play a really important role in having
those conversations.”
Rosemary Blight has produced some
of Australia’s best-loved film and
television programs of recent years
including the forthcoming Helen Reddy
biopic I Am Woman. She says that from
the first moment she laid eyes on
Miranda, she knew she had the
unquantifiable quality that separates the
stars from the superstars. “I remember
walking into [The Sapphires’ casting
director] Nicky Barron’s office, past
where all the actors sit. We were down
to the last girls and there was Miranda