What is it that draws the two main characters of "Japanese Story," Sandy and Hiromitsu, together?

Ultimately, the thing that bonds them is the fact that they have a life-threatening experience together. I liken it to those couples you hear about when one of them dies and, say, the woman is left and she ends up getting together with the guy's brother and marrying him and having kids. Or I know another couple who went whitewater rafting and they almost died and then they ended up together. I think when you share something so intense with someone it can bring you together in a way that's unexplainable to anyone looking in from the outside.

I think they're more similar than they realize. I know there are all these cultural questions that are posed, but he's very similar to her, though, in that he's somewhat closed. He's reserved. In the Japanese tradition he's an obvious candidate in that he doesn't give away much; they're very ordered and just reserved. So they both have this veneer of protection and once they get out into the desert and they share this experience, it's like all of that is peeled away and you just get these two people. I think the film is really admiring the similarities that they have rather than the differences. And when they realize that and share this big bog in the desert -- you know, it's intense. It's what really brings them together.

It sounds like this was sort of a personal journey for you, making the film.

I'm not like a method actor -- I just try to be compassionate and make a character real within a story -- but I think that, with whatever character you're playing, there's going to be an element of absorption. Somehow, you're going through what they're going through, because you're analyzing, you're thinking about things, you're kicking around inside their world. It's somehow going to be infused. And this was a pretty turbulent world and an intense journey for her, so it's like pushing to get uphill for me. But at the same time it really was very satisfying.

Is there a difference between making films in Australia and making films in the U.S.?

I think films are pretty much the same, that filmmaking's pretty much the same the world over. I think the difference and what makes each experience an individual experience -- or memorable or something you want to run away from -- is purely personalities on the set. It's the people that you're working with that create the atmosphere.

The only other thing is that in Australia there is no studio system. There's no huge amount of money pouring in. It's all individuals making independent films and being passionate about telling certain stories. And here you can end up with 12 writers on something and, you know, a director who has eight producers breathing down their neck. You have to answer to a lot more people, and I think it can get a little bit messy because of that.

I've never had a game plan of what I want to do and who I want to work with or the types of characters to play. I've just got to believe in the role and believe in the story. Because, ultimately, you don't really have much control as an actor. You're there and you're giving it your best, but then they take it away and cut it together and you're not there to oversee it. Then they turn it into something else, you know? So you really have to track who you're working with and you've really got to let go of it. Ultimately you've really got to believe in what you're working with, because you've got to live with yourself. You've got to be able to sleep at night.

It sounds a little frustrating. Have you ever looked at one of your films and thought, well, that wasn't the film I thought I was making at all?

I've had pretty good luck. There have been a couple of dodgy experiences that I would like to delete from my C.V., but I think for the most part I've been really fortunate, worked with some great people -- and some not-so-great people. But with my parts being so varied I've avoided being categorized or pigeonholed and I've avoided playing handbags, your average "stand next to" person.

Are you offered those "handbag" roles? Or do people generally come to you with richer stuff?

Well, when "Muriel's Wedding" came out, I was getting scripts about basically Muriel, rehashed, over and over, same character, similar kind of emotional vein. I was determined, at that point, not to repeat myself, so I think that I have avoided the clichés.

But, unfortunately, good scripts are few and far between and most of the films that get made are youth-oriented. And, you know, teenagers are interesting and it's a time of a lot of change, but I think there are people of all different ages and all different cultural backgrounds who hold my interest much more.

With "Muriel's Wedding" you found success at a very young age and very suddenly. When did you know you were destined to become an actress?

I've always performed, I guess. I started doing dance classes when I was really young and then I would put on shows on the back verandah of our neighbors' house and invite everyone from the neighborhood and make them pay 20 cents and clichéd stuff like that. Then when I was in high school I did my first musical. I was always a singer and then I got into acting through musicals and eventually it just became the acting part without the singing.

That high school show was "Godspell"?

Yes, and then I did some shows outside of school at a youth theater group, and by the time I was 16, I knew that I wanted to just go for it, so I left school. It's something I can't quite believe now in retrospect, but I think at that age naiveté helped. I wasn't really aware of all of the pitfalls. It makes you fearless.

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