0/5

Jane Campion: Sundance, BBC more adventurous than ABC

Director says it wasn't all bad when ABC pulled out of Top of the Lake.

When Elisabeth Moss was cast in Top of the Lake ABC famously dropped out of the project, citing the need for an Australian in the lead role.

Understandably it wasn’t a good look to have an American playing an Aussie character on a public broadcaster.

But ABC’s withdrawal allowed for BBC Australia & NZ to become a partner. With Season 2 about to launch, Director Jane Campion (pictured, right) says ABC’s exit was both an advantage and a disappointment.

“I was disappointed for the audience that they wouldn’t easily find it in Australia. It didn’t make any financial difference to us at all. But I do it for an audience, so I was a little bit sad that we couldn’t make it work,” she says.

“But it was also good not to have to have their opinions. They did give us this boring showdown on what should be happening and goody-goody ideas and stuff. So I was pleased to get rid of that aspect.

“I think our partners are a lot more adventurous. Sundance and BBC liked our vision and said ‘Go for it.’ But ABC was like, ‘We know how to make TV. You should do more stuff like us.’”

Campion also takes the view that TV execs with ‘job-security’ don’t stretch themselves enough.

“You begin to think you know things. That’s the problem. But when you work where we work, you always know (that) you don’t. When you work at the ABC you think you know something. That’s the danger of those positions,” she continues.

“We wanted the best person for the role”

“They are a public broadcaster so (the casting) was problematic for them, I think. We wanted the best person for the role, and we auditioned really widely. Lizzie just blew us away with her audition. I was really interested in someone from Australia but nobody else liked her as much as I did.

“Plus we had much more financing from UK and America, so we have to consider their needs too.”

Campion was pleased, however, that Top of the Lake enjoyed a Free to Air run on ABC a year after its Pay TV screening, “….which was great. ABC is an easy way to find things. At least for someone like me who doesn’t look very hard!”

Season Two is based in Sydney, with minimal locations shot in New Zealand. This time when the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Detective Robin Griffin (Moss) realises “China Girl” didn’t die alone.

“We looked at the idea of staying in Queenstown and doing something else there, but I didn’t want to do that. We had this instinct that we needed to change cities, take it back to Australia where she was from, and find a whole new world and a new crime. It’s like a new novel really. We’re not really the same as a series, we are more like a series of novels, keeping the same detective,” she explains.

“We’ve really enjoyed the Asian quality of Sydney. You don’t see it in Central but if you go out West more you could be in Vietnam. It’s so Asia. So as much as possible we filled out story with Asian life, including Asian brothels and telling the story of Sydney’s exploitation of Asia, cheap labour, cheap sex workers. The facelessness of women on the pleasure-boat of Sydney.

“Australians live a pleasure-boat, somewhat-peaceful life”

“Australians live a pleasure-boat, somewhat-peaceful life compared to people who come to visit, and are struggling.

“I don’t think there’s been a story told in Sydney like this, with as much scope and depth.”

Research included visiting Asian-Australian enclaves, including brothels, and casting Asian actors, ladyboys and more. Exploring websites with ‘brothel reviews’ was some of the more bizarre subcultures, which has led to scenes depicting men who are prostitute clients.

“I think the BBC were shitting themselves when they read the scripts, about what those guys were actually going to say,” Campion admits. “It’s pretty lurid. But when you meet them, they are so hopeless, so shy trying to come onto the waitress, that they are really quite touching. It’s hilarious.”

“I just felt a surge of energy”

Joining the second season is Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie and Nicole Kidman. Campion and co-writer Gerard Lee were fortunate to write the script with both actors in mind.

“We did have Nicole in mind, so that was helpful. It was fun writing the part for her. And we had Gwendoline Christie in mind,” Campion recalls.

“I just felt a surge of energy when I thought about (Gwendoline Christie) playing that role and what she could bring to do it….. how touching, funny and moving she could be.

“I met her in London and I just love her.

“It’s beautiful seeing her work in a much more intimate palette, than she is able to do in Game of Thrones where she is so real. She is so amazing.

“A lot of it is about their relationship and building it up. They don’t start in a very good place.

“It just gets worse and worse with the storyline until they have this massive explosion. Robin gets the surprise of her life when she is told a few home truths.”

Top of the Lake: China Girl premieres 8:30pm Sunday on BBC First.

6 Responses

  1. ABC execs in any department have an air of ” we know everything , you know nothing ” that’s why we get the crap programmes 90 per cent of the time.
    They are much more concerned with their job security and not rocking the boat than taking on bold new projects. They are always so ” busy :” – busy organising their next HR session or RDO…c’mon its a sheltered workshop and Michelle Gutherie hasn’t even scratched the surface of the appalling culture there, especially the “special relationship” with a small number of production companies who get so many commissions.

  2. The Secret River, Glitch, Cleverman, Miss Fisher, Rake, Barracuda, The Slap, Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Beautiful Lie. Commercial FTA is giving us 800 Words, Home and Way, Offspring, Neighbours, Lovechild, Doctor Doctor etc. Foxtel a reboot of Prisoner and A Place To Call Home which they picked up when Seven discarded it. Seems it’s much easier to take risks with taxpayer money than shareholder money. If the ABC didn’t have 5 layers of middle management who have to sign off on everything it might do better and have avoided Crownies (Guthrie has sacked many of them).

  3. Truer words about the ABC have never been spoken! They know nothing about being adventurous and love to micro-manage without having craft knowledge.

  4. “Campion also takes the view that TV execs with ‘job-security’ don’t stretch themselves enough.”

    Understatement of the year. Maybe Michelle Guthrie can point that out to her senior staff during their next performance reviews. Something to think about when they commission the next dopey soap opera or formulaic crime/legal/medical procedural.

  5. Campion’s comment about the conservativeness of the ABC ring true. There has definitely been a change of culture regarding their drama commissions over the last 5 to 10 years.

    I’m looking forward even more to S2 now.

Leave a Reply