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Home , Miranda Otto, Odessa Young, Sam Neill

Truth SEEKER Miranda Otto’s star just keeps rising in Hollywood. She talks to David Leser about re-imagining Ibsen, family, and the power of secrets.

Photography Trevor King

ll right, I admit it. Imagine my delight, then, when my Charlotte’s enviable contentment is And it’s not just the initial mistake. I’ve long had a thing favourite television series, Homeland, imperilled by Christian’s idealistic It’s the decision to conceal that mistake for Miranda Otto. returned last year for its fifth season and (reckless?) pursuit of the “truth”. that can create a dirty, dark secret at the Nothing like a creepy suddenly, out of the gunmetal skies of Written and directed by Australian heart of ordinary family life. crush, though, more a Germany, came Otto, playing bloodless actor and director Simon Stone, the film “I think these things happen where mature, long-distance Berlin station chief and double agent also features , , you let something slide because you “girl, you can act” kind of admiration. Allison Carr. Anna Torv and new teenage sensation don’t know where things are going,” True, , Who would have thought that she , whose only two films to Otto says. “My favourite line in the film aand Naomi Watts have been the ones could play a sociopath so effortlessly? date, Looking for Grace and The Daughter, is ‘Everyone has a story like this, it’s as most showered in Hollywood gold dust, “I surprised myself how much I enjoyed both appeared at last year’s Venice and old as the hills.’ You can think your but for me, Miranda Otto, in all her it,” the 48-year-old says, laughing gaily Toronto film festivals. experience is so particular and so porcelain beauty and subtle layers, has down the phone line from Los Angeles. The film is a distressing – and all too incredibly important and then, when been Australia’s not yet fully realised “I guess I’ve played a lot of vulnerable credible – look at how one slip-up can you look at it, it’s actually a very small real deal. people … so it was really interesting to bring the temple of joy down around us. speck. These things are happening all Over the years I’ve watched her on play a woman and a professional rather “You see this happen to people all the the time and families do have secrets. stage (A Doll’s House), in television than being defined as a mother and a time,” Otto says. “They make one Families hold incredible secrets.” miniseries (The Way We Live Now), and wife. I really enjoyed playing someone devastating mistake and it absolutely In The Daughter the love between in a host of films like The Last Days of who was a protagonist in her own right.” changes the course of their life.” Hedvig and her parents is fierce and Chez Nous, Love Serenade and Doing As much as I am happy to talk about powerful and yet – in another testament Time for Patsy Cline. I’ve marvelled at Otto’s fast-track immersion into THREE FACTS ABOUT to Otto’s acting – the father-daughter the depth and range of her characters: Homeland’s world of espionage and MIRANDA OTTO relationship takes centre stage. troubled teenager, vapid wife, lonely Islamic terrorism, we have other things “Miranda felt confident to play the young woman, country singer, on our mind, namely the nature of truth relationship with her daughter in a very She is named after Prospero’s Scandinavian warrior woman … and the way dark secrets can tear daughter in Shakespeare’s understated way and to allow the father It always seemed – at least from my families apart. The Tempest. to have a much more overt closeness dilettante’s chair – that she could pretty A day earlier I’d been to see Otto’s with their daughter,” says the film’s much do it all. One minute ethereal, latest film, The Daughter, a harrowing co-producer, . “Miranda perishable even; the next protective, re-imagining of Norwegian playwright She spent a year living in didn’t feel at all that she would suffer by redoubtable, rock solid. She could move Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck.In it, the with her mother doing that because she is very at ease in from fearful and desolate to uproariously deeply unhappy Christian (played by and stepfather, jockey Alan her life and her work and so she’s very Gollogly, as a child. funny with this delicacy that often award-winning American actor and relaxed as a performer.” seemed to elude many other actors. filmmaker Paul Schneider) returns Says Otto, “The father relationship “A director knows Miranda will find home after many years away to unearth is so important for girls in how they She married Peter O’Brien the truth of the moment,” Robyn Nevin a long-buried family secret. in 2003, a year after playing see themselves. It informs what sort has said. “She is one of Australia’s great Otto plays Charlotte, the happily opposite him in the Robyn of behaviour they expect, how they stage actresses. There are only a couple married wife of Oliver (Ewan Leslie) Nevin-directed production expect to be treated. A lot of that at her level.” and mother of teenage daughter Hedvig. of A Doll’s House. comes from fathers.” BaubleBar by necklace Chloe, by wears Miranda dress page: This Severino. Natasha by Make-up Eliot. Bobby by Hair Styling Harro. Annabelle by

sl • 8 Styling by Annabelle Harro. Hair by Bobby Eliot. Make-up by Natasha Severino. This page: Miranda wears dress by Chloe, necklace by BaubleBar by necklace Chloe, by wears Miranda dress page: This Severino. Natasha by Make-up Eliot. Bobby by Hair Styling Harro. Annabelle by sl • 8 sl • 9 “I NEVER KNOW IN MY LIFE WHAT IS AROUND THE CORNER.”

And with that Otto releases a contagious, unconstrained laugh that one might consider bottling as a remedy for cynicism, melancholy or both. Miranda Otto has been in the collective consciousness since she appeared as a 19-year-old in her first feature film, Emma’s War, in 1986. Three decades on, she seems to have the world at her feet. Last year, while still working in Berlin on Homeland, she went to Venice for the screening of The Daughter. When she stepped onto the red carpet, the press and the young film-going crowd could be heard yelling “Miranda, Miranda.” After her success with Homeland, Otto was chosen to play the female lead in Fox’s 24: Legacy, a reboot of the acclaimed US television series, 24. As a result, she is now on the “hot list” for the 2016 pilot season in America. Returning to her “soul home” in is on hold while her star burns bright. “You never know exactly how things are going to turn out,” she says. “I never know in my life what’s around the corner. Five days before I was cast in Homeland, I had no idea that I would be grabbing the family together and that we would be cancelling our trip back to Australia and going to Berlin instead.” It’s a modern, globe-trotting existence, but Otto’s performance in Stone’s re-interpretation of Ibsen’s The Wild Otto’s own treasured experience of “To me, that behaviour is absolutely Duck shows how relevant 19th-century a strong father-daughter relationship outrageous and I wouldn’t stand for it. masterpieces are to contemporary life. might have facilitated her approach. It’s harder for girls to grow up in The Daughter is a troubling and gripping “I absolutely love my dad,” she says of families where certain behaviours are film that examines the whole mess and her celebrated and widely adored actor accepted. That sense of self-respect you paradox of what it means to be human. father, . “He’s always been get from having a dad who is really in “The classics deal with issues that fantastic. He’s always been so supportive your corner, and carries themselves in humanity will grapple with forever,” of me [and siblings Gracie and Edward] a particular way, is hugely important.” Otto says. “The idea of truth and how and everything we do. He’s our biggest How does her 10-year-old daughter much truth do you need; and is the full fan. He talks about his kids all the time.” Darcey get on with her father, and truth the best course? Did he inform what you came to Otto’s husband, Australian actor and “I believe in the truth in how you expect or demand from a man? “Yes, I writer Peter O’Brien? express yourself. But there are different think he did, in that he was always such “They have a great relationship,” layers of truth in this story … so I’m a gentle and beautiful person. There was says Otto. “There’s a lot of laughs more inclined to say that sometimes no way in my life that I’d ever accept between those two. They’re like secrets are best left secrets.” • anybody who was abusive … because partners in crime [whereas] I’m that is not the model that I had. the more serious one in the family.” The Daughter opens in cinemas on March 17. Ford Tom by dress wears Miranda page: This Hogan. Juliette by dress Miranda wears Opposite:

sl • 10 Opposite: Miranda wears dress by Juliette Hogan. This page: Miranda wears dress by Tom Ford Tom by dress wears Miranda page: This Hogan. Juliette by dress Miranda wears Opposite: sl • 10 sl • 11