Scary Dad
She’s one of the most familiar young actresses from the tube, having starred in such series as “SeaChange” and “Shock Jock”, and she’s one of today’s most popular young Australian film actresses, with credits including Dirty Deeds, Strange Bedfellows and The Illustrated Family Doctor. On the eve of the classic Aussie horror film’s re-release on Blu-ray – in a super 2-disc set from Via Vision – Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi tell SCARE how they ended up in Wolf Creek!
To the obvious first question, how did you both get involved?
Kestie : Auditioned
Cassandra : Yep, just auditioned.
And seems you were the right people for the roles!
Cassandra : Apparently so [Laughs]
You had to show them your British accents first though, right? John [Jarratt] was saying he was initially a bit worried about a couple of Australians playing Poms.
Kestie : [Putting on English accent] I actually find an English accent really easy to do. It just comes out.
Are you doing it now? [Laughs]
Kestie : [continuing with accent] Yeah. Screw You! [Laughs] – I’m a bit out of practice! [Laughs]
Cassandra : It’s like the American accent. We grew up with Television, so it’s easy, well not easy, but it’s not difficult to recreate.
You both do great British accents. It’s always a bit of a worry when you’ve got Australian actors putting on accents. I remember Alan Dale, when he was first in the states, and his American accent was pretty so-so – it’s good now – and Jack Thompson’s is a bit iffy. But you nailed the British accent on the head.
Kestie : I hate movies where the accent just doesn’t ring true. If the accent doesn’t ring true, then the whole movie just doesn’t ring true.
Cassandra : I just didn’t want the whole country to hate me!
No, you obviously did a good job. Someone said to me [about Cassandra] ‘She looks like the girl from SeaChange, but it can’t be – this girl’s British’.
Cassandra : You mightn’t have picked it up, but I picked up a couple of Australian twangs coming out in my accent. For instance, ‘Hours’. But, when we were in England, they thought we were British actresses, and were surprised when they found out we weren’t, so that’s a good seal of approval.
Are you at all surprised by the film’s success?
Kestie : Definitely…well, yes and no.
Cassandra : yes and no. I knew we had a shot at greatness, but you’re just never one hundred percent sure.
Tell me about working with John [Jarratt]
Kestie : Amazing, he’s brilliant.
Cassandra : [Sarcastic] He’s OK. He’s All-right. First movie isn’t it?
Kestie : Nah, he’s wicked.
Cassandra : I watched him in “Picnic at Hanging Rock” the other day. He was cute! I just had no idea that he was that young. It was just really interesting to see him [pause] be like a boy. He was hot.
Have you seen him in All Men are Liars with Toni Pearen?
Cassandra : No. Oh I love Toni Pearen!….He’s Quentin Tarantino’s golden-boy. We all want to stick around with him.
Did you guys do any research into your roles? Just learn to scream?
Kestie : I kind of followed the real-life cases when they were in the paper and stuff, but I don’t like to get too heavy into details when creating a character. I like to have a bit of background on the character – where they’ve been, we’re they’re at at that time in their lives – but I like to just feel the moment. I find that a lot easier. Some actors have a different technique – the more information they have about the characters, the more rich and beneficial for their performance. Maybe I should be doing more of that.
Cassandra : [Laughs]
Kestie : I like to keep it really simple when creating a character. It’s about being in the moment for me.
It’s a very physical role though.
Kestie : Yeah it is. I’ve been hanging for a physical role like that. I want to be action chick.
Cassandra : I want to be in a Tim Burton fantasy – dragons, horses…or a wicked independent film.
Kestie : She’ll probably end up being the action chick, and I’ll be the independent movie star.
Yeah, but that’s you running on the poster Kestie. You could be in the next Tomb Raider!.
Kestie : True, that’s my fat ass up there [Laughs]. Widescreen!.
Tell me about traveling the world with this movie.
Kestie : Yeah, well….we went to Sundance. Then we went to L.A, scored some awesome agents, and Cass went to Cannes.
Cassandra : love the French. I’ve got to move to Europe at some point. I could see myself living there for about ten years. Absolutely loved it. Don’t know how I could possibly afford to live there, but what an amazing race the French is – I adore them. I think they’ve got the right idea. They sound good too.
Wolf Creek : Special Edition will be available on Blu-ray July 5
