Crimes Against Australianity
Nicole Kidman is one of the world’s top two most famous Australians. And yet, she rarely gets to play an Australian character. That’s because, of course, one rarely writes a film that calls for Australian characters and since she can do an American accent perfectly well there’s no need to randomly create Australian characters just so she can play them. When I saw that she was going to be starring in a movie called Australia, however, I just took it for granted that she’d be playing an Australian. But no! Chris Orr:
One might imagine that in casting Nicole Kidman, one of the globe’s most famous Aussies, in a movie titled Australia, you’d actually let her be, you know, Australian. No such luck. Her character’s name, Lady Sarah Ashley, tells us pretty much everything we need to know. The first time we see the prim English lady she is striding across the Australian scrub as stiffly as a mime doing “schoolmarm.” The only way the caricature could’ve been more broad is if you’d cast a man in drag.
This seems pretty outrageous. The quasi-continent of Australia has made really outsize contributions to the world of cinema (Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Mel Gibson, Peter Weir, etc. all from a country with basically no inhabitants) and if you’re going to make a film called Australia that would be a great opportunity to write some Australian parts.
80 Responses to “Crimes Against Australianity”
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November 26th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I wouldn’t say “basically no inhabitants.”
November 26th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I thought she showed plenty of Australian bits in Eyes Wide Shut. Of course there was a man famously cast in drag in a Australian movie, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. They do it all there, it seems.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Australia was directed by the same subtle mind that brought us Moulin Rouge and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet – you know, the one that’s just like regular Romeo and Juliet, only it’s with modern-day gangs, using guns instead of swords, and when they pull out their guns the guns say “SWORD” on them, so the kids can get it!
November 26th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
It looks like she still has a nice bottom.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
…and Australia is a real honest-to-God continent..
November 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
..yeah, you can take our actors, but you can’t take our continent.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I thought Moulin Rouge was great, and Strictly Ballroom was pretty good too. Here’s a hair curler: Coutney Love was considered for the role of Satine (Kidman’s part)
November 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
since she can do an American accent fairly well about 80% of the time she’s onscreen
Dear lord, when will these typos end???
November 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
“Who’s #1? Mel Gibson? Russell Crowe? Olivia Newton-John?”
The Wiggles.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I thought she was a man in drag. What’s going on here?
November 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Hmmmmm. Who’s #1? Mel Gibson? Russell Crowe? Olivia Newton-John?
Crocodile Dundee
November 26th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Angus Young
November 26th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Kidman was born in Hawaii, so technically she is American.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Hmmmmm. Who’s #1? Mel Gibson? Russell Crowe? Olivia Newton-John?
Elle McPherson.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Quasi-continent? Australia is a full-fledged continent, and to add to its cinematic claims to fame, it is the country where the feature film was first invented.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Quasi-continent!!?!?!
What criteria for “continent” does Australia fail to attain?
see Wikipedia
November 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Well they did modify the seven summits because the place isn’t hilly enough.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Isn’t the Governor of California from Australia?
November 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Still waiting for Bliss on DVD, Aussies.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Also, Heath Ledger, and my personal fav, Rachel Griffiths.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Australia is a continent like Pluto was a planet. It’s just a matter of time Aussies. Get used to “The Island Nation of Australia”.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
George Miller pwns.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I think Clive James has to be the #1 top Australian.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m glad you said: “he quasi-continent of Australia has made really…”
Australia is a big island in Asia. The only reason they call it a continent is because white people settled there.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Gibson is an American. Born in New York. I’m pretty sure that his childhood spent in an “exotic foreign country” renders him a “dangerous unamerican foreigner” who is not qualified to be president.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
“Australia is a continent like Pluto was a planet. It’s just a matter of time Aussies. Get used to “The Island Nation of Australia”
Australia is barely even an island.
It’s really more of an inflatable raft. That’s the reason folks walk on their hands in Australia – they’re afraid shoes will puncture the raft and sink it.
—–
And hooray for Rupert Murdoch, (never thought I’d say that), who seems to be financing the sure-to-lose-money Australia merely out of nationalistic pride.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Why so many actors from Australia? I really do want to know. Is there some kid of Protocols of the Elders of Oz effect going on or something?
Australia has 21 million inhabitants, yet about 50% of the TV and movie actors in Hollywood are Australian. What gives? I mean do we really need Australians pretending (badly) to be Americans on shows like “Without a Trace”. Sure, that show sucks for a whole lot of reasons that have nothing to do with the Australian actors, but I guess I have to wonder why they bother. I mean LaPaglia? Really? And Poppy Montgomery? Is it really worth it to have them screwing up scenes by being unable to pronounce “baby” without evoking Elaine on Seindfeld evoking Meryl Streep doing a thick Aussie accent?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
where did all “Australians” come from (besides indigeneous peoples)? I would say most are of English (British) ancestry – maybe I’m getting timelines eschewed here… (haven’t seen flick yet but intend to today(?))
November 26th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
“Why so many actors from Australia?”
Marsupials are naturally good at mimicry.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Australia has a higher population than New York state. Are you surprised at the number of New Yorkers who become actors, by any chance?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Australians are a lot like Americans. They also eat a lot of unhealthy food and are very fat.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
What about Errol Flynn? The first major Aussie film star and mst his pictures still hold up well. The charge in the “Charge of the Light Brigade” is one of the best action sequences ever. Later ripped off by Eisenstein in “Alexander Nevsky.”
November 26th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Gibson is an American. Born in New York.
Kidman is an American. Born in Hawaii.
Clearly, the stealth Aussie is . And clearly, there’s something nod-wink about Kidman playing an English character alongside Jackman (who most people would probably not know was an Aussie) ‘Strining it up.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Quasi-continent!!?!?!
The current continent arrangement is a complete arbiraty invention of the late 19th century and has next to nothing to do with physical geography. There is no objective reason why Australia is a continent and , say Madagascar is an island.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Goolagong
November 26th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I agree with blah’s commment.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Rob Mac, LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are the reason Without a Trace sucks. Enough already with the “on-again, off-again, I’m having another man’s child” soap opera.
House has an Australian actor playing an Australian character. One of my favorite scenes was when House, responding to Chase’s retort that he’s Australian, not a Brits, said this – “You put the queen on your money, you’re British.”
November 26th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Damnit. The stealth Aussie is taking over the American acting trade. (Other stealth Aussies on TV right now: the bloke in The Mentalist, the woman in Fringe.)
where did all “Australians” come from (besides indigeneous peoples)? I would say most are of English (British) ancestry
That’s about 50 years out of date. Between WW2 and the 1970s, you had subsidized immigration (’assisted passage’) that brought over Ten Pound Poms, but also Italians, Greeks, Serbs Croatians and other white Europeans. (Also: Turks and Lebanese.) After the White Australia policy ended in 1973, you had an influx of South and SE Asians.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
There is no objective reason why Australia is a continent and , say Madagascar is an island.
And Australia being 12 times bigger than Madagascar is, what, an un-objective reason? Vicious editorializing by cartographers?
November 26th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Australia was directed by the same subtle mind that brought . . . William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet – you know, the one that’s just like regular Romeo and Juliet, only it’s with modern-day gangs
What, Leonard Bernstein is the director? I thought he was dead!
November 26th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
There is no objective reason why Australia is a continent and , say Madagascar is an island.
Using a geologist’s usual definition (continents are accretionary crustal “rafts” that aren’t subducted into the Mantle), they both count. Madagascar was once a piece of Gondwana, then India as it split away, finally all by its lonesome.
Like anonymiss suggests, Australia (and Antarctica) are significantly larger than the next smallest landmasses, so naming them continents makes as much sense as any.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
BTW, while blah (#5) and I are thinking the same thing, I’ll bet $AU to doughnuts that Kidman thinks that shot makes her look like a whale.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Why so many actors from Australia? I really do want to know.
I think it’s partly because Australian actors can, with equal ease, do American accents and British accents – honestly, pretty much every actor I’m aware of can do both pretty easily. This means that they have more jobs open to them than other actors, since accent isn’t a problem for them.
That’s about 50 years out of date. Between WW2 and the 1970s, you had subsidized immigration (’assisted passage’) that brought over Ten Pound Poms, but also Italians, Greeks, Serbs Croatians and other white Europeans. (Also: Turks and Lebanese.) After the White Australia policy ended in 1973, you had an influx of South and SE Asians.
Certainly, but my sense is that a much higher proportion of white people in Australia are descended from inhabitants of the British Isles than are white people in the United States. (Note that this includes Ireland – a very high percentage of Australians are of Irish heritage, as I understand it)
November 26th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Wasn’t this movie released in the 90s under the title Far and Away?
November 26th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Uh, John B., Far & Away was about Ireland (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104231/synopsis)
Somewhat different.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Why so many actors..? Est 21million people and three major acting academies, it’s not a big population but not a small one either… (New Zealand is more puzzling, there are way more famous New Zealanders than most people realize and the pop is only 4million..)
Who’s #1? Why Errol Flynn without a doubt!
November 26th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I think it is appropriate that there is an immigrant in the movie, the population is 1/4 foreign born. Even today the biggest population of foreign born is from the UK. That was much much more true at the time when the movie was set, in the thirties and forties.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Hugh Jackman?
Tell me you’re kidding. Try Cate Blanchett.
Also, you’re argument is silly – it’s cinema, you know, fake from start to finish on every level, so why should nationality be of any importance?
November 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Traditionally, in the middle of the 20th Century, linguists found three major accents used in Australia, ranging from Crocodile Dundee’s very Australian working class accent to a mildly Australian middle class accent to a nearly English upper class accent. Far more men than women in Australia used the working class accent, while far more women than men used the English accent. The broad Australian accent is a good one for men — it sounds rugged but affable. That’s why American-born Mel Gibson uses a little Australian accent in most of his roles as an American character.
Unfortunately, a strong Australian accent is not good for women. It’s just not very feminine-sounding. So, both Australian actresses and Australian women in general tend to downplay it relative to men. (I’m sure this is changing over time as fashions swing in the direction of lower class styles, just as the upper reaches of English society now often affect a quasi-Cockney “Estuary” accent.)
November 26th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Anyway, that explains a lot about why there are so many Australian leading men in the movies — “rugged affability” is as good a description as any of what movie audiences want in leading men.
On the other hand, “rugged affability” is not what most audiences want in a leading lady, so Australian actresses tend to avoid roles where they’d sound like the Crocodile Hunter’s sister.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Australia has two really amazing acting schools… the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in Sydney has an incredibly impressive list of alumni.
But seriously, Yglesias, what’s with the Australia-bashing? I saw you over there on the Internet Food Association… and from a country that stocks your book too! You should be grateful!
November 26th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Yglesias bashes anything he can’t understand – which is most things.
Touting Australian actors, let’s not leave out the latest addition to “Terminator” – Stephanie Jacobsen, who was previously on “Battlestar Galactica: Razor”.
Better catch her quick, however, as it was revealed this week that she’s here to “save” John Connor from Cameron, and that she’s running John’s new girlfriend, Riley, and she’s suckered Derek into this plot – meaning that all three are in a head-on collision with John and Cameron.
Somebody’s going to die on that one – and Jesse is the top contender for corpse. I predict Derek will kill her himself, despite his being in love with her, once he finds out he’s been used. As he said this week, “I love you – don’t push it!”
John better hope he finds out about all this before Cameron does, or all three of them will end up dead. Cameron takes no prisoners.
http://videos.summer-glau.net/view/372/tscc-2×07-12/
November 26th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
That may be the least pleasant photograph ever taken of Nicole Kidman.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
“…when they pull out their guns the guns say “SWORD” on them, so the kids can get it!”
The “SWORD” label wasn’t so much for the kiddies as to preserve the literal sense of the line; “SWORD” was supposedly the brand name of the gun.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Oh, and I forgot to add: AUstralia may not be so big, but we have pretty damn good public transportation (though we do all still complain). Sydney has regular, far-reaching train service, light rail, monorail, busses AND ferries.
Real countries could learn a lot from us. And at the moment, we have the Star Wars Monorail, which may be the best thing ever.
November 27th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Here’s what the locals thought: http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2412340.htm
Note that what they see is unAustralian they attribute to the need to attract an overseas (probably American) audience: A weird Wizard of Oz theme, a superficial take on the Stolen Generation, and a Hollywood western feel.
If it’s a Hollywood lead in an authentic Australian part he wants, Matthew might prefer Cate Blanchett in “Little Fish.”
November 27th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I hear Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson are in the film, plus many more Ozian actors. Let’s hope we don’t need subtitles for some of them.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
ditto to yank-in-oz on Little Fish – nice little movie. And it included a nice turn for an Aussie actor who also had non trivial chunks in the three Lord of the Rings and the three Matrix flicks — Hugo Weaving (Elrond and Mr. Smith). Weaving was also in the earlier mentioned Priscilla Queen of the Desert, with Terence Stamp and another as yet unmentioned (I think) Aussie Actor (tho English born), Guy Pearce, who also does accents well.
November 27th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Mel Gibson is from New York.
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