hen Patricia Arquette won the best
supporting actress Oscar in
February, she declared: “It’s our time
to have wage equality once and for
all, and equal rights for women.” Her
speech received a standing ovation,
with Meryl Streep fist-pumping in
solidarity. Last year Cate Blanchett also used her Oscar win to
champion the cause; Reese Witherspoon has formed her own
production company, with Australian Bruna Papandrea, to source
dynamic female roles; and Emma Watson is advocating gender
equality at the United Nations. There is a powerful movement afoot
in Hollywood with women calling for equal rights – on screen and
in life. In Australia, the Doll House is joining the conversation.
SOPHIE TEDMANSON: “How did the Doll House come about?”
KREW: “It’s been germinating for a while. We’ve all worked
together and have known each other socially for years, so it’s been
a natural progression. We realised we are a group of creatives and
we might be able to achieve more together than as individuals.”
JESSICA: “I think it’s more like a dinner conversation. We were
already giving each other advice and keeping abreast of what each
other was doing and we were inspired and wanted to be more
creative. That’s where it started, the notion that
everyone has been doing successful things in
their own right and the fact that we can all
bring something unique to the table and to be
able to collaborate and support each other.”
ST: “Is there a structure to the collective?”
JESSICA: “There’s no formal structure to it.
The Doll House is basically just a banner – we
are all members of this collective and we all
have work outside of that, but as a banner, we
will come together and create and bring
opportunities to each other.”
KREW: “We are all supporting each other anyway so we just
thought: ‘Let’s make it official, more of a team’ and when we first
got together we thought: ‘Wow, that’s a pretty incredible team
we’ve got.’ We’re creating something unique and special and for
ourselves and also for other people who we are working with, or
other women or other projects, whatever comes our way.”
ST: “It reminds me of Blue-Tongue Films [brothers Joel and Nash
Edgerton, David Michôd and Kieran Darcy-Smith].”
KREW: “We are all friends with the Blue-Tongue guys and they
have such a lovely creative force, so we’re honoured to be thought
of in the same category as them.”
GR ACIE: “They do things for each other – there’s not one actor
or one director, if someone is doing a short film, they always look
out for each other in the group and help out.”
ST: “Have you any specific projects lined up?”
ROSE: “Krew has a project already that we’ve discussed a bit,
which could come in to be produced or have its branding by the
Doll House, and I have something that I could bring in. I’ve never
done anything in a producer capacity before but have long had the
desire, so it’s exciting and the possibilities are limitless in terms of
harnessing everybody’s opinions and talents.”
KREW: “Mine is a feature film that Rose is executive-producing
and the other girls are getting pretty involved in; it’s had screen
development funding. So that’s in the mix of what will be part of
the collective. It’s called Seriously Red. It’s about being the best
version of yourself. It’s about a girl obsessed with Dolly Parton.”
SHANNON: “I used to direct a lot of theatre and I’ve crossed
over to film and TV over the last few years, so I plan to make those
come under this banner in the future for sure.”
JESSICA: “I’m really interested in getting in the producing side
of things. I was an associate [producer] on [Otto’s film] The Last
Impresario and that’s always been a passion of mine and hopefully
Gracie’s next project, Girls In Hotels, will fall under this banner.”
ST: “Do you think it will work because you all have different
attributes you can bring to the collective?”
GR ACIE: “Yes, we’re all different but have similar interests; we’re
competitive in terms of ourselves. I feel like any teamwork is better
than individual work sometimes, so for me it’s more about
collaborating rather than doing solo projects.”
JESSICA: “I think in terms of projects, be it fi lm or TV or theatre,
everyone within the group has their own unique skills and
attributes, which means we can really look at things quite
holistically: we can see things from an actor’s point of view,
a director’s point of view or a publicity and marketing point of
view. And because the industry is changing and evolving, that’s a
great asset for us to have. Women in film tend to work in quite
a solo space and this gives us an opportunity to come together and
feel there’s support. The more heads there are, the more productive,
the more inspired, the more creative we can be.”
ROSE: “I agree. I’ve long admired actors who
go out to produce. It can be a lonely business,
especially as an actor. And I’m tired of talking
about how it’s lonely instead of taking the reins
and producing and creating my own work.
There are so many uncertainties and the more
control and creative control that you can harness
... it’s really great, and fun!”
ST: “You mentioned it being a lonely business, so is
this a good way to keep that creativit y flowing and
keep connected between other jobs?”
SHANNON: “Absolutely. You work in isolation a lot but you can
only do that to a certain point and then you have to let other people
in on the process. And you do have to be careful about who you
let in because creative work is so sensitive. So what’s nice with a
collective like this is we’re saying: ‘You are the people that we would
like to share the work with in the early stages, you are the people
whose feedback we trust’ and that’s what I think will hopefully
generate strong creative work because we have, in a sense, a strong
circle of security where we can have these honest conversations
with each other and can be rigorous with each other’s work.”
ST: “The entertainment industry has progressed a lot in recent years.
Is it a good time to be women pushing forward in this environment?”
KREW: “It’s the best time for us to be doing this.”
GR ACIE: “I think because we’ve all got our own stuff established
here people will take us more seriously. We obviously have good
contacts as well, and we all live in different places so even though
it’s a small group, it’s a very international one.”
KREW: “[In Australia] we are a little behind and still traditional
in some ways, but I think the more we can break open and break
the rules, the quicker you learn in this industry that there are no
rules, which for me, is probably one of the best lessons to learn. It’s
great because none of us like rules anyway!”
SHANNON: “I think Australia is expanding more, there’s
a lot more talk of co-productions with other countries now. It feels
like there is a hunger for high-quality content at the moment,
which is nice to hear rather than doors closing. People want to
hear strong pitches and there is a desire for fresh new ideas.”W
▲16 4 – MAY 2015
“EVERYONE
WITHIN THE
GROUP HAS
THEIR OWN
SKILLS AND
ATTRIBUTES”HUGH STEWART