Remember When... (via Australia)
Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 3:00PM ...Heath Ledger (sniffle) and Naomi Watts were a thing?
at the premiere of The Ring (2002)
Aussie movie stars really have been ubiquitous for a long time. Though there were important actors before our contemporary time that hailed from the land down under (Erroll Flynn, Judith Anderson, Coral Browne to name a few), the Australian takeover really began in the mid-80s when, in the space of just a few years (1983-1986), Mel Gibson ascended, Bryan Brown had a mega TV hit, Judy Davis snagged a surprise Oscar nomination and Paul Hogan wrote and starred in his own blockbuster. Australian actors have only become more ubiquitous since with more of them coming to prominence each decade.
*Oscar nominated (or winner)
1980s: Mel Gibson*, Paul Hogan*, Judy Davis*, Bryan Brown
1990s: Nicole Kidman*, Toni Collette*, Russell Crowe*, Rachel Griffiths*, Geoffrey Rush*, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Anthony LaPaglia
2000s: Cate Blanchett*, Hugh Jackman*, Naomi Watts*, Heath Ledger*, Eric Bana, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Isla Fisher, Simon Baker
2010s: Jacki Weaver*, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Rose Byrne, Jason Clarke, Chris Hemsworth, Joel Edgerton, Sam Worthington, Ben Mendelsohn, Mia Wasikowska, Liam Hemsworth. If you include New Zealanders in the mix (Lynskey, Neill, Paquin, Lawless, Urban) it's even more crowded!
Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson on the set of The Year of Living Dangerously -released in 1983, the year the Aussie invasion truly began
Who is next? Besides Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) and Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker)... anyone have any suspicions about the next wave?
Reader Comments (26)
Isn't Rebel Wilson Australian? It's possible I made that up. Oscar nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes is definatley Australian, though maybe not a star. She did pop up on this season's Game of Thrones.
Brenton Thwaites seems like the next one to try and break through and hopefully Essie Davis can get a Jacki Weaver-style boost from The Babadook.
No love for Sam Worthington? lol
Emily Browning seems pretty talented, although she's been around for a few years in search of that big breakout role, so maybe her moment has passed already, which would be a shame because she was such a natural as a child.
I've always retained a soft spot for Frances O'Connor and Radha MitchellI, but they both seem to have faded away in the past decade - I'd had them pegged for bigger things.
So many exceptionally talented actors down under...
Given how we know how things eventually turned out, I'm forever disturbed by how sexy I find Year of Living Dangerously era Mel Gibson.
Who's next? Yael Stone from Orange is the New Black!
Sam Neill is definitely first wave ('80s) of the modern era of Aussie/Kiwi cinematic imports. Anthony LaPaglia also made a splash in the subsequent decade, Simon Baker in the '00s, and Teresa Palmer in the '10s.
As part of the next wave, Betty Who certainly is one to watch (on the music side).
ryan kwanten? had to look him up. guess i dont watch true blood, didn't know he was famous though
I was pleasantly surprised by Luke Bracey in The November Man.
I'd like to see more of Deborah Mailman (The Sapphires).
In 1973, Helen Reddy was the first Australian to win a Grammy.
Look at that beauty on display. They should have made a baby for the benefit of the world.
Keisha is a New Zealander :D Please remember this - we're very obsessive about standing apart from Australians :D
denny -- ooh, that'd be great. i worry for actors who break through on series television. If they don't find a way to do something else big on hiatuses they have a weird version of fame... not simone's comment on Ryan Kwanten... who was certainly a very big deal to True Blood watchers but apparently didn't permeate beyond True Blood.
Mel Gibson was indeed gorgeous before fame, money and booze took over and let all of his bad elements and prejudices magnify and leak out. The pic of Nicole is cute holding Naomi's hand ... I still think those two ladies were ... very ... close. I don't see any Aussie male who is becoming dominant, besides that great actor who was in Bloodline: Ben Mendelsohn. My God he was fantastic and I really recommend that show. I totally miss Heath Ledger. Great actor.
Nathaniel - you're quite right of course, and it's a bit of wishful thinking on my part... I just want to see what else she can do. She's certainly got the talent, so here's hoping!
Weaver and Gibson were a gorgeous sexy couple.. And no one wore leather pants better than Gibson in the original " Mad Max"
That pic of Weaver and Gibson is so hot!
Makes me long for the Criterion "Mulholland Dr." coming in October. Naomi is magnificent.
There's also the OTHER Hemsworth brother, Luke, who apparently also acts. He's not as pretty as his brothers, which could work for or against him in the long run if he ever manages to make a splash in Hollywood.
As well as the crop of Aussie actors who travel to Hollywood, there is an equally talented group who choose to stay and make their career in their own country. This stretches back to thw 80s and 90s (Claudia Karvan, Alex Dimitriades) and further, to a current crop who seem content to tread the boards and make Australian television and film (Susan Prior, Anthony Hayes, Antony Starr, Deborah Mailman, Daniel Henshall).
I wish Mailman could get a real breakout role. She is one of the best actresses working in the world today.
I'm not sure who I think will be breaking otu next. You've said the two obvious ones (Snook, Debicki). Sometimes they graduate from soaps (which I don;t watch) which mans to me it seems they have come out of nowhere (Robbie, Hemsworths). I'd like Luke Ford to give an international career a go (watch THE B;LACK BALLOON for a solid performance from him), but it doesn't seem like he's trying for that.
Gotta mention recently departed Rod Taylor (1930-2015), last of the studio system Aussie stars, whose resume included films with James Dean (Giant), Montgomery Clift (Raintree County), Elizabeth Taylor (the previous two and The V.I.P.s), Doris Day (Do Not Disturb, The Glass Bottom Boat), John Wayne (The Train Robbers) and Jane Fonda (Sunday in New York), plus another Best Picture nominee (Separate Tables), a sci-fi classic (The Time Machine), a beloved Disney (101 Dalmatians), the last great Hitchcock (The Birds), an Antonioni (Zabriskie Point) a Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) and two popular CBS drama series (Falcon Crest, Walker Texas Ranger).
are you sure that's not a candid pic of heath and naomi visiting madame tussauds?
Pretty excited for Margot Robbie. Loved her in Wolf on Wall Street and she looks promising in the Suicide Squard trailer. However I feel she'll suffer from Extremely-Talented-But-Too-Attractive-To-Be-Praised-For-It.
Love this post! Although, Rusty is technically a New Zealander.
There are so many Australians that people probably don't even know are Australian who have been working in America for years. The list of potentials is extremely long. People like Bojana Novakovic. Whenever I see Home & Away (the soapie that bred Kwanten, Hemsworth, Melissa George and many more) on the TV at the gym there are so many male actors trying to be the next Hemsworth. One guy even copies the Thor hair!
I will say, it will forever frustrate me that Australian shows for the most part don't travel. Shows like Love My Way, Redfern Now and The Code are some of the best TV in the world. At least people in America seem to know about Miss Fischer's Murder Mysteries and Please Like Me.
I hope we get more of Ruby Rose after OitNB!
Keep your eye out for Odessa Young. You heard it here first.
John Meillon. Never a star but I miss that guy.