Jo Kennedy - Post-Starstruck Interviews
Canberra Times, Friday 1 November 1985
Jo Kennedy and the 'Catch 22' of fame
By MICHAEL FOSTER
Although it is surprising, it is understandable that Ms Jo Kennedy is uncomfortable being photographed. She accepts the need for the picture, for the interview, in the 'Catch 22' situation of needing to promote her latest film 'Wrong Road', while not wishing to expose her private self to the public, even though the hype is more restrained than when she was "discovered" in 'Starstruck'.
'Wrong Road' opens a five day season in Canberra on Monday after successful show ings at international festivals. In Berlin, her performance won her a silver bear as best actress against exalted company in cluding Vanessa Redgrave, Diane Keaton and Sally Field.
She has just completed an ABC mini-series, has some film work "depending on what comes up" early next year, and is hoping to do stage work before and after.
Her ability, she says, has developed from experience, from a few courses, but not from any formal education in her art.
Acting is easy because the actor is someone else. There is no embarrassment at having people watch her; they are watching an amalagam of people known, people imagined.
The transience of fame is well recognised, but the enjoyment which results from its trappings are not denied. She is just back from the Montreal Film Festival for the showing of 'Wrong Road'. There, the enjoyment was in the meetings with other people in the trade, the directors, the actors.
Jo Kennedy and the 'Catch 22' of fame
By MICHAEL FOSTER
Although it is surprising, it is understandable that Ms Jo Kennedy is uncomfortable being photographed. She accepts the need for the picture, for the interview, in the 'Catch 22' situation of needing to promote her latest film 'Wrong Road', while not wishing to expose her private self to the public, even though the hype is more restrained than when she was "discovered" in 'Starstruck'.
'Wrong Road' opens a five day season in Canberra on Monday after successful show ings at international festivals. In Berlin, her performance won her a silver bear as best actress against exalted company in cluding Vanessa Redgrave, Diane Keaton and Sally Field.
She has just completed an ABC mini-series, has some film work "depending on what comes up" early next year, and is hoping to do stage work before and after.
Her ability, she says, has developed from experience, from a few courses, but not from any formal education in her art.
Acting is easy because the actor is someone else. There is no embarrassment at having people watch her; they are watching an amalagam of people known, people imagined.
The transience of fame is well recognised, but the enjoyment which results from its trappings are not denied. She is just back from the Montreal Film Festival for the showing of 'Wrong Road'. There, the enjoyment was in the meetings with other people in the trade, the directors, the actors.
Sydney Morning Herald - 9 May 1986
Jo Kennedy fights the star backlash
Her new film wins prizes overseas, but Starstruck's star is still struggling.
"I don't know any actress in the States who would do a film like this, I mean you look so ugly, in every scene your nose is red, you look so ugly."
Jo Kennedy is talking in a thick American accent, sending up some of the comments she received in Canada for her performance in the film Wrong World.
Kennedy is by no means ugly by certainly in Wrong World she is unrecognisable from the singing, dancing ingenue she played in Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck. "That was what originally attracted me to the role in Wrong World, it was so totally different from Starstruck."
In Wrong World Kennedy plays Mary, a scabrous, embittered junkie with a mixture of vulnerability and insolence. She is rescued from a clinic by a fellow inmate, Doctor Truman (played by Richard Moir). They make an odd couple as they wander through Melbourne's cold wet back streets, trying to shake each other off, and find some shelter, food and drugs.
The intentional change of image has already paid off for Kennedy. At last year's Berlin Film Festival her performance in Wrong World won her the prestigious Silver Bear Award for Best Actress, ahead of such luminaries as Diane Keaton.
"I've never won anything before in my life, so it's a big surprise to get an award for something like Wrong World. While we were making it, it didn't quite feel like a real film because it had such a low budget - something like $500,000, which is like nothing for an Australian feature.
"So I thought this would be a good little film that nobody would see. I didn't realise that the film was in competition. Then one night I came home and they rang me up and said 'You've won the prize.' I was shocked, especially when I discovered the panel of judges included such people as the director of Mephisto, Istvan Szabo. I felt validated in a way, which is important for an actor."
Although the award didn't make the headlines in the local press it was certainly known about in the industry. Far from proving her versatility it caused a bit of a backlash. "I would go for interviews afterwards and people would become defensive, they would say 'Here comes Jo Kennedy, big star, show us what you can do'."
Needless to say she was not nominated in the Best Actress Category in the local AFI awards. Part of the reason might be because Wrong World, although it was made in 1984, hasn't been seen widely in Australia. In spite of popular and critical success in Germany and Canada it has had problems finding a local distributor up until now.
"It is a personal film, an ideas film. Producer Bryce Menzies was saying if it was subtitled, with the voices substituted, then people here would just love it. If it was an American or German film people would flock to it."
Kennedy has had an upside down career as an actress. She reversed the normal cycle by winning the lead in Starstruck without a solid background in either theatre or television. She speaks candidly about her sudden leap to fame with Starstruck, bluntly refusing to answer some questions, opening up passionately in response to others.
"I grew up in a country town so to come to Sydney and be known immediately every time you walk down the street is a real shock. That had nothing to do with acting, and I wanted to be an actor, not a person who is recognised every time they go outside. I've learned to think in terms of I'm going to be doing this for another 40 years and there are going to be lots of ups and downs."
In the last few years she has been trying to broaden her range and work more in theatre "because that's where you learn to stretch yourself". And just recently she has finished doing her first television job, a part in Robyn Archer's Pack of Women for the ABC. "I found it difficult at first because it was a multi-cam situation and I'd never worked like that before. I didn't realise the director would be up in the box which sort of takes away a personal contact and I found that kind of frustrating."
But the main problem, be it theatre, film or television, has been finding the good parts and, like most actresses, Kennedy is finding the selection for women limited - girlfriends, mothers or whores. One way round that is to start your own company (as yet unnamed) as she has done recently.
"You couldn't say it was really a company because we haven't got one cent yet or space to work, but we do have a small group of actors interested in working on character-based pieces, a bit like the work of English director Mike Leigh. Hopefully we'll be able to put together a whole lot of short five-minute films."
Still, there is a lot of variety in her work and she is finishing a short film called Scharky's Party. "This afternoon I have to go and post-synch an orgasm," she says in an exasperated tone of voice. "The sound recordist didn't get to do it on the day." And then she add with a big smile, "I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. I might have to go home and have a lie down first."
Alex McGregor
Jo Kennedy fights the star backlash
Her new film wins prizes overseas, but Starstruck's star is still struggling.
"I don't know any actress in the States who would do a film like this, I mean you look so ugly, in every scene your nose is red, you look so ugly."
Jo Kennedy is talking in a thick American accent, sending up some of the comments she received in Canada for her performance in the film Wrong World.
Kennedy is by no means ugly by certainly in Wrong World she is unrecognisable from the singing, dancing ingenue she played in Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck. "That was what originally attracted me to the role in Wrong World, it was so totally different from Starstruck."
In Wrong World Kennedy plays Mary, a scabrous, embittered junkie with a mixture of vulnerability and insolence. She is rescued from a clinic by a fellow inmate, Doctor Truman (played by Richard Moir). They make an odd couple as they wander through Melbourne's cold wet back streets, trying to shake each other off, and find some shelter, food and drugs.
The intentional change of image has already paid off for Kennedy. At last year's Berlin Film Festival her performance in Wrong World won her the prestigious Silver Bear Award for Best Actress, ahead of such luminaries as Diane Keaton.
"I've never won anything before in my life, so it's a big surprise to get an award for something like Wrong World. While we were making it, it didn't quite feel like a real film because it had such a low budget - something like $500,000, which is like nothing for an Australian feature.
"So I thought this would be a good little film that nobody would see. I didn't realise that the film was in competition. Then one night I came home and they rang me up and said 'You've won the prize.' I was shocked, especially when I discovered the panel of judges included such people as the director of Mephisto, Istvan Szabo. I felt validated in a way, which is important for an actor."
Although the award didn't make the headlines in the local press it was certainly known about in the industry. Far from proving her versatility it caused a bit of a backlash. "I would go for interviews afterwards and people would become defensive, they would say 'Here comes Jo Kennedy, big star, show us what you can do'."
Needless to say she was not nominated in the Best Actress Category in the local AFI awards. Part of the reason might be because Wrong World, although it was made in 1984, hasn't been seen widely in Australia. In spite of popular and critical success in Germany and Canada it has had problems finding a local distributor up until now.
"It is a personal film, an ideas film. Producer Bryce Menzies was saying if it was subtitled, with the voices substituted, then people here would just love it. If it was an American or German film people would flock to it."
Kennedy has had an upside down career as an actress. She reversed the normal cycle by winning the lead in Starstruck without a solid background in either theatre or television. She speaks candidly about her sudden leap to fame with Starstruck, bluntly refusing to answer some questions, opening up passionately in response to others.
"I grew up in a country town so to come to Sydney and be known immediately every time you walk down the street is a real shock. That had nothing to do with acting, and I wanted to be an actor, not a person who is recognised every time they go outside. I've learned to think in terms of I'm going to be doing this for another 40 years and there are going to be lots of ups and downs."
In the last few years she has been trying to broaden her range and work more in theatre "because that's where you learn to stretch yourself". And just recently she has finished doing her first television job, a part in Robyn Archer's Pack of Women for the ABC. "I found it difficult at first because it was a multi-cam situation and I'd never worked like that before. I didn't realise the director would be up in the box which sort of takes away a personal contact and I found that kind of frustrating."
But the main problem, be it theatre, film or television, has been finding the good parts and, like most actresses, Kennedy is finding the selection for women limited - girlfriends, mothers or whores. One way round that is to start your own company (as yet unnamed) as she has done recently.
"You couldn't say it was really a company because we haven't got one cent yet or space to work, but we do have a small group of actors interested in working on character-based pieces, a bit like the work of English director Mike Leigh. Hopefully we'll be able to put together a whole lot of short five-minute films."
Still, there is a lot of variety in her work and she is finishing a short film called Scharky's Party. "This afternoon I have to go and post-synch an orgasm," she says in an exasperated tone of voice. "The sound recordist didn't get to do it on the day." And then she add with a big smile, "I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. I might have to go home and have a lie down first."
Alex McGregor
The Age (Melbourne) - 12 May 1989
Starstruck on 'Tender Hooks'
It's all coming back … a sunny Sydney afternoon on the balcony of Jo Kennedy's cluttered Rushcutter's Bay flat … a Vic Bitter celebration on her gleaning the Best Actress Silver Bear award at the 35th Berlin Film Festival for her performance as a burned-out junkie in Ian Pringle's 'Wrong World.'
"It feels great to be an internationally respected film actor," Kennedy mused. "Even if I have only $20 in the bank. I didn't even know I'd be nominated. I don't even know what the thing looks like.
"I got home from performing in a play - 'Slow Love,' it was - and my flatmate says: 'Berlin rang - you just won Best Actress.' It was a big shock, especially because it was such a difficult shoot, and I worked hard; but if I had the chance to do it again I'd probably do it quite differently."
At the time, Kennedy was discussing a new project with the creator of the award-winning documentary, 'Greetings from Wollongong', who she dragged out on to the balcony to outline the plot and discuss the themes.
The project became 'Tender Hooks' and this week - five years and $700,000 later - writer-director Mary Callaghan is sipping take-away coffee from Pellegrini's and smoking Peter Jacksons, only too pleased to wax expansive on her debut feature.
Kennedy, needing a recharge, had gone off to India to live in an ashram, returning briefly to convince co-star Nique Needles to do the same.
'Tender Hooks' is a funny, tragic, quick-witted tale of the love between quirky hairdresser Mitch Leigh (Kennedy) and endearing petty crime, Rex Reeson (Needles). It's about love and pain, obsession and frustration, what brings people together and what tears them apart.
Kennedy ('Starstruck', 'Pokerface', 'A Pack of Women') and Needles ('Dogs in Space', 'As Time Goes By', 'The Four-Minute Mile') work extremely well together and are supported ably by an ensemble that includes Anna Phillips, Robert Menzies, John Polson and Ian Mortimer.
Callaghan said the film grew from "a single intellectual premise", to which she added characters and incidents. "I wanted to explore addiction in our society, the kind of addiction that makes someone a slave to something. For Rex, it's the adrenalin rush of living on the edge, of being outside the law.
"You can like Rex, but you can't make apologies for his behaviour, as it is destructive, but he'll never be a good criminal because he can't work out a set of priorities - he can't say 'no' to anyone," Callaghan says. "With nothing positive to put his energy into, he ultimately gets caught."
"A friend of mine had this boyfriend who ended up in jail and I used to go with her and visit him. I saw him gradually harden, saw prison manufacture him into something hard and violent. It was then that I realised that not only was his life suspended while he was in jail - so was my friend's. She was 'doing time', too. Mitch is a girl who is still looking at her options, evaluating, feeling her way. She's left somewhere like Newcastle, not because she despises it, but because she wants to investigate her range of choices. She's asking questions of life. She won't demand Rex make changes, but she'll send out messages, hoping he'll pick up on them and make his own decisions.
"I chose to look at prison and the prisoner from the point of view of the loved one - of the visitor, which is what I know - how Mitch is imprisoned by her love for Rex and the conflict it induces in both their lives."
Callaghan has also worked extensively as an art director, and 'Tender Hooks' is evidence of her claim that she designs and art-directs as she writes. The film is crammed with all the familiar details of life in a Kings Cross (or St Kilda) boarding-house - washing clothes in the hand basin and drying them over the stove, wrestling with the TV antenna, frying fish fingers for dinner, and hearing the neighbours fighting on the other side of the paper-thin walls.
She also takes time to savagely satirise the police, advertising, suburban aspirations and the "glamour" of the criminal life. There is also a convincing anti-drug message for those who want to pick up on it.
Unlike the wild anarchy of 'Going Down' or the highly stylised chaos of 'Dogs in Space', Callaghan's film often boasts a semi-documentary feel as it follows its protagonists through a sometimes staccato series of vignettes.
The effective but never intrusive score is directed by Graham "GANGgajang" Bidstrup and features music by Paul Kelly, Martin Plaza, Reg Mombassa, the Stetsons and the Zoot. Kennedy and Needles, who have both done time in rock bands, also get a chance to croon a few bars.
"With 'Tender Hooks', I wanted to foster understanding through entertainment. It looks at society from the outside, from the point of view of characters who don't easily slot into it. Like any sub-culture, these characters say as much about dominant culture as they do about themselves."
Callaghan graduated from the Swinburne Film School in 1976, where she studied as many different aspects of film making as possible. She dabbled in experimental cinema before returning to her hometown to make 'Greetings from Wollongong' in 1982. 'Tender Hooks' has taken most of her energy since then.
Greg Burchall
Starstruck on 'Tender Hooks'
It's all coming back … a sunny Sydney afternoon on the balcony of Jo Kennedy's cluttered Rushcutter's Bay flat … a Vic Bitter celebration on her gleaning the Best Actress Silver Bear award at the 35th Berlin Film Festival for her performance as a burned-out junkie in Ian Pringle's 'Wrong World.'
"It feels great to be an internationally respected film actor," Kennedy mused. "Even if I have only $20 in the bank. I didn't even know I'd be nominated. I don't even know what the thing looks like.
"I got home from performing in a play - 'Slow Love,' it was - and my flatmate says: 'Berlin rang - you just won Best Actress.' It was a big shock, especially because it was such a difficult shoot, and I worked hard; but if I had the chance to do it again I'd probably do it quite differently."
At the time, Kennedy was discussing a new project with the creator of the award-winning documentary, 'Greetings from Wollongong', who she dragged out on to the balcony to outline the plot and discuss the themes.
The project became 'Tender Hooks' and this week - five years and $700,000 later - writer-director Mary Callaghan is sipping take-away coffee from Pellegrini's and smoking Peter Jacksons, only too pleased to wax expansive on her debut feature.
Kennedy, needing a recharge, had gone off to India to live in an ashram, returning briefly to convince co-star Nique Needles to do the same.
'Tender Hooks' is a funny, tragic, quick-witted tale of the love between quirky hairdresser Mitch Leigh (Kennedy) and endearing petty crime, Rex Reeson (Needles). It's about love and pain, obsession and frustration, what brings people together and what tears them apart.
Kennedy ('Starstruck', 'Pokerface', 'A Pack of Women') and Needles ('Dogs in Space', 'As Time Goes By', 'The Four-Minute Mile') work extremely well together and are supported ably by an ensemble that includes Anna Phillips, Robert Menzies, John Polson and Ian Mortimer.
Callaghan said the film grew from "a single intellectual premise", to which she added characters and incidents. "I wanted to explore addiction in our society, the kind of addiction that makes someone a slave to something. For Rex, it's the adrenalin rush of living on the edge, of being outside the law.
"You can like Rex, but you can't make apologies for his behaviour, as it is destructive, but he'll never be a good criminal because he can't work out a set of priorities - he can't say 'no' to anyone," Callaghan says. "With nothing positive to put his energy into, he ultimately gets caught."
"A friend of mine had this boyfriend who ended up in jail and I used to go with her and visit him. I saw him gradually harden, saw prison manufacture him into something hard and violent. It was then that I realised that not only was his life suspended while he was in jail - so was my friend's. She was 'doing time', too. Mitch is a girl who is still looking at her options, evaluating, feeling her way. She's left somewhere like Newcastle, not because she despises it, but because she wants to investigate her range of choices. She's asking questions of life. She won't demand Rex make changes, but she'll send out messages, hoping he'll pick up on them and make his own decisions.
"I chose to look at prison and the prisoner from the point of view of the loved one - of the visitor, which is what I know - how Mitch is imprisoned by her love for Rex and the conflict it induces in both their lives."
Callaghan has also worked extensively as an art director, and 'Tender Hooks' is evidence of her claim that she designs and art-directs as she writes. The film is crammed with all the familiar details of life in a Kings Cross (or St Kilda) boarding-house - washing clothes in the hand basin and drying them over the stove, wrestling with the TV antenna, frying fish fingers for dinner, and hearing the neighbours fighting on the other side of the paper-thin walls.
She also takes time to savagely satirise the police, advertising, suburban aspirations and the "glamour" of the criminal life. There is also a convincing anti-drug message for those who want to pick up on it.
Unlike the wild anarchy of 'Going Down' or the highly stylised chaos of 'Dogs in Space', Callaghan's film often boasts a semi-documentary feel as it follows its protagonists through a sometimes staccato series of vignettes.
The effective but never intrusive score is directed by Graham "GANGgajang" Bidstrup and features music by Paul Kelly, Martin Plaza, Reg Mombassa, the Stetsons and the Zoot. Kennedy and Needles, who have both done time in rock bands, also get a chance to croon a few bars.
"With 'Tender Hooks', I wanted to foster understanding through entertainment. It looks at society from the outside, from the point of view of characters who don't easily slot into it. Like any sub-culture, these characters say as much about dominant culture as they do about themselves."
Callaghan graduated from the Swinburne Film School in 1976, where she studied as many different aspects of film making as possible. She dabbled in experimental cinema before returning to her hometown to make 'Greetings from Wollongong' in 1982. 'Tender Hooks' has taken most of her energy since then.
Greg Burchall
The Pack of Women
In the mid 1980s, Jo took part in musician Robyn Archer's successful all-female cabaret show, The Pack of Women. This was turned into a 1986 television special for ABC TV, to which Jo contributed a number of songs, one of which, 'Is That Me', was released as a single. The full soundtrack, released by Festival Records, was given the 1986 AFI Award for Best Soundtrack.