Caffeinated Clint
They say all you need to make it in Hollywood, if you’re an Aussie actor, is a showy role on an inconsequential local TV series. In the case of former Headland star Rachael Taylor, that might be true. Though she’s inarguably got the talent (and the looks!), the 23-year-old actress has seemingly gone from first to fourth gear in a matter of months.
Clint Morris finds out how the star of a quick-to-be-axed TV soapie gets flashy roles in Hollywood blockbusters like Transformers and Shutter (opening this week).
Your career seems to have gone from zero to sixty almost overnight – things have happened quickly. It seems like yesterday you were headlining that dodgy little soapie, Headland [Laughs].
Yeah [Laughs]. You were one of the few people that watched it, were you?
Yeah, it’s interesting that term ‘that things have happened quickly’, because in my experience, it hasn’t been like that. I’ve actually been a working actress since I was 16 – cutting my teeth on different things; doing guest appearances [on shows], going to acting classes, being in shows that fail, and being in movies that are supposed to go places and don’t. It may seem like its been a quick jump – and in a way it is – and I know I’ve been very lucky, but I’ve still been cutting my teeth for a little while, at least.
You’ve worked on a few U.S productions in Australia (like the horror movie See No Evil). Did they help prepare you for you L.A?
I actually don’t think they were of any consequence, but I got to work on my American accent, but more so, any time you get to work on a set you become more accustomed to the language of film so it helps in that regard.
I actually saw a little bit of See No Evil last night.
Oh, I’m so sorry! [Laughs] I think you’re best to go into that film cold and let it all unfold. It was so ridiculous. I was like 18-years-old at the time, and at the time I’d have done anything to be in a movie. As a young actor you don’t over think things too much, but I’m in a position now where it’s important for me to be choosy – or choosier. Its important to step back and go ‘What would be an interesting move right now?’
Why Shutter?
I’m really drawn to films that have a strong lead female character, which is rare. What I like about the movie is that it’s also more of a thriller than a horror movie – you can take the supernatural element out of this, and there’s still a good story there. It’s a film about a couple that move to a very foreign land – and a betrayal in their relationship, and that’s a very interesting story to me. I like that my character starts in one place and ends in a very different place. She starts out as a fairly naive fairly-boring girl, but by the end of the film she’s a completely changed woman – she comes to a very strong moral conclusion about herself, and what she can and can’t accept in a relationship.
I think what’s good about Shutter is that it’s actual horror movie with jumps and jolts – not something like, say the kid-friendly Prom Night, which encompassed not one scare.
Yeah, and apart from the jumps and jolts it does say something. You have to be careful when you step into the horror-thriller genre, and also the horror remake genre, but what’s good about this one is that it does have a point – that ‘what goes around, comes around’ philosophy; it’s about the idea of ‘How well do you really know your partner?’. There’s some really interesting human context inside of that thriller umbrella.
Your co-star is former Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson. Did you have any Pacey posters on your wall as a youngster?
I didn’t, but I know a lot of people who did. Josh would shoot me for talking about it [Laughs]. I actually didn’t watch Dawson’s Creek myself, but I did see Josh in a movie called Bobby, and he’s really interesting in that. With Shutter, we needed someone with a certain kind of charisma and playfulness. I couldn’t think of a better person for the role.
Josh has come very close to some huge roles too – like Batman – so he’s obviously ”got it”.
Yeah, he does. And a career is a really tricky and interesting thing. It does take you down some unexpected roads. Josh is a really good actor and I dare say he’ll forever be in work – there will always be something playing with Josh Jackson in it.
The movie was shot in Tokyo?
Yes, I lived there for four months. It was good, but it was tricky. I got to feel what it was like to be ‘Other’ – it was an experience I hadn’t had before, and probably really needed to have. It was very valuable. It was very isolating. I felt like a Ghost in a lot of ways – I could yell and scream, but nobody was likely to hear me.
Why do you think it’s so popular to remake all these Asian horror movies?
I think it’s actually unfortunate to lump them all into one basket, because some of them are terrible and some of them work really well. It really depends on whether the bones of the story is good. It never works if they just take the template, steal it, and remake it shot-for-shot; they have to do something a little bit different with it, like The Ring. I so adore that film – I still do. If a skeleton of a good human drama is underneath all the whiz-bang supernatural ghost stuff then it’ll work.
How was it playing a lead in something like this in contrast to something like Transformers, where you’re…
… A warm prop? It’s true. I felt a lot more invested and an integral part of Shutter than I did Transformers – and though I’m thrilled for the actors from it that have gone on to bigger and better things, myself included, it was very helpful – because the star of that movie, lets be honest, were the damn robots. Michael Bay is also certainly not known as an actor’s director – certainly not an actresses’ director.
So having said that, you’re not back for Transformers 2?
No, No Sir. I wasn’t contracted for a sequel anyway, but I also think it would be pretty ridiculous for my character just to show up and say ‘We’ve got some more computers to play with!’. More importantly, I don’t think I’d wanna do it to be honest, and not for any particular reason other than the fact that I’ve done it. I’m just drawn to doing different things. It was the same when I went to the U.S, I didn’t want to do TV, because I’d done it. I want to be able to mix it up all the time. I love it that I’m now back to do a $1.4 million dollar picture in Australia – I’ll be changing out the back of my car somewhere in Sydney. It’ll be really back to basics.
Who is in The Cedar Boys with you?
Les Chantery, who is a a good friend of mine, is the lead boy in it. Martin Henderson is doing a role in it.
I was watching the film Deception the other day, and there was an actress in it that looked just like you – only she was on screen for all of five seconds!
I know. It’s like ‘Is she an extra?’ That was before [Shutter], and before Transformers, and there was originally some talk of me doing a ‘role-role’ in that film, but it didn’t work out. Anyway, I struck up a friendship with the producer and he told me he needed someone to walk down a corridor [in a scene]. I was like “Sure! That sounds very fun! I’ll work with Ewan McGregor!â€. But it looked like I was no more than an extra.
