| Q: | Why did you want to write about infidelity and how did you pick your characters? |
| A: | I am fascinated with the different rules people make up for themselves regarding infidelity and how they get to that point. 6 years ago I lived in a large shared-house apartment in the middle of the city in Melbourne and some mad things went on there, (the rooftop love scene with Vicki and Billy is actually filmed in that building). We were all very different sort of people, and if I wrote about that time no one would believe it, so I brought these characters to life instead. The characters are all either parts of myself or versions of people I know very well. And yes an ex boyfriend or two. |
| Q: | What’s new about this ‘affair’ story? |
| A: | With five stories lines I was able to show how different people from different sorts of community groups in the same city handle the issue of infidelity. The rules change for each world, and when they are broken the consequences play out differently. Some don’t tell, some break up, some can talk about it and work it out, but there is always hurt. |
| Q: | What differentiates the five worlds in the film? |
| A: | It starts with how it is drawn in the writing, with the different characters. Then, the performances are pitched at varying levels in the different worlds, Hayden, Brittney and Narelle are have quite a lot of humour, but the Hobson world is very dark. Then we also went to great care with the design of set and costumes, working with colour and tone, to really set apart the feel of the different worlds. It becomes interesting when two worlds meet to see which theme takes over. |
| Q: | Why make a film in Melbourne? |
| A: | In summer, all Australian cities can feel a bit alike. But Melbourne is totally different because Melbourne has a real winter, there’s such a great feel in the city at this time. |
| Q: | Your actors all seemed to have been living with their characters for years and yet you shot in such a short time, how did you work with them to achieve this? |
| A: | Rehearsal. We had a 3 week rehearsal period and I used a lot of improvisation techniques, both preceding circumstances and of the actually scenes and storyline in the film. If need be, we would go back and improvise the first time the characters met, when they got together etc. In the case of the Hobsons we went back about 18 years to set up the Shane, Bob, Julie love triangle. When we improvised the actually scenes, if the actors came up with something better I would re write. |
| Q: | One of the world's involves a 15 year old girl. What was it like getting such a young actress to do such an emotionally demanding role? |
| A: | I was terrified; she was fine. I wanted to cast an older actress who could play 15, Holly was one of only two teenagers I auditioned. But she was so good I had to cast her. She had never been in front of a camera before, in fact for her first audition she thought it was a play and hadn’t read the whole script! After her call-back I had a long conversation with her parents who were very supportive to both Holly and myself. Despite her lack of experience she was an incredibly fast learner and up for anything I threw at her, she rose to the level of the other actors around her with no trouble. David was also wonderful during that difficult scene. I think it’s a powerfully honest performance. |
| Q: | Were there any moments of infidelity on set? |
| A: | Maybe …. I will neither confirm nor deny |
