The pictures flashed around the world. On this year’s Cannes film festival’s magnificent red carpet, dressed in a black and olive Gucci dress and sparkling with Bulgari jewels, Melbourne born actress Bella Heathcote more than held her own alongside Jane Fonda, Naomi Watts and Salma Hayek at the special screening of the Gucci-sponsored restored 1984 classic Once Upon A Time in America.
And while an appearance at such an event, and the whirl of accompanying parties, is de rigueur for any upwardly mobile starlet, Heathcote, who starred this year in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows alongside Johnny Depp, was far from swept up in all the hoopla. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she says, her husky Australian accent firmly intact, “and it was just out of control.”
In grand tradition, she stayed at the legendary Hôtel du Cap. “It was a really beautiful retreat away from the freak show,” she says with a deep laugh. “There were people who got dressed up in eveningwear to parade down the main promenade just to pretend that they’re important or going to events. It’s just insane.”
When we speak, Heathcote and her partner, New Zealand born director Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), are preparing for a Fourth of July orphans’ barbecue at their Los Angeles home.
“I didn’t know what to expect,
and it was just out of control.”
The young actress first gained notice in Australia as Amanda Fowler in Neighbours, but her breakout role was in 2010’s First World War drama Beneath Hill 60, opposite Brendan Cowell. She also scooped the Heath Ledger Scholarship in 2010, which included a return flight to Los Angeles.
Gathering up her courage, she got on that plane, and after a brief appearance as Amanda Seyfried’s mother in the sci-fi thriller In Time she landed the dual roles of Josette DuPres and Victoria Winters in Dark Shadows. A rapidly expanding resumé matched with red-carpet nous and delicate wide-eyed beauty mark her as a girl on the rise.
Indeed, she knows, and loves, her fashion. Apart from the smouldering Gucci she wore at Cannes, she’s sported angelic white Chanel to the LA premiere of Dark Shadows and peek-a-boo Emilio Pucci to the London event. In her down time, like the early-morning call for the Vogue shoot, she pairs an on-trend Prada denim dress with patent Stella McCartney sandals.
Stylist Stevie Dance describes Heathcote’s look as easygoing, carefree and chic. “She looks like she’s in a Wes Anderson film – that’s her aesthetic.” She shares a stylist with close friend Rose Byrne, whom she met through Beneath Hill 60 co-star Cowell. “She has incredible style,” says Heathcote, who turned to Byrne for advice when the juggernaut of a promotional tour for Dark Shadows loomed.
Later this year, she will appear in The Sopranos creator David Chase’s directorial feature-film debut, Not Fade Away. Shot before Dark Shadows, it’s a coming-of-age story about a group of teenagers who form a band in the 1960s. “Something about it reminds me of The Sopranos,” Heathcote says, “in the sense that [Chase] does that thing where he can cut from something that is so awful to something so hilarious. It’s quite shocking but in a great way. There are moments where you are watching it and you’re not sure if you should be laughing – I kind of love that.” She describes the Sopranos creator as a visual perfectionist, who knows exactly how to work with actors. “I’ve told him if he ever does anything ever, and wants me in it, I’ll do it no matter what it is – I’ll play a tree,” she says, only half-jokingly, I suspect.
Partner Dominik is also about to launch his new film Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt, and despite numerous rumours to the contrary, Heathcote plays no role in it, other than as the supportive partner. The two often discuss their work projects. “I always use him as a sounding board, more than most people,” she says. “I know he is always going to be honest with me and I trust his judgement and taste. He chooses projects for the right reasons and encourages others to do so.”
Heathcote studied acting at Melbourne’s National Theatre drama school. She remembers it as an escape, which has now grown into a form of expression. “It’s something in the time between ‘action’ and ‘cut’ that puts me completely at ease, and I haven’t experienced that in many other parts of my life.”
One of her favourite pastimes at drama school was singing and, at the Vogue shoot, she sang along to tunes by Elvis and the Supremes (“She had a great voice,” says Dance). “At drama school I felt a lot less self-conscious singing than I did acting.” But she’s not harbouring any secret recording ambitions. “I don’t have those delusions of grandeur,” she says, laughing, “but I would love to have a role in a film where I could sing.” Films like West Side Story, Grease and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – “probably the best musical of all time” – are her favourites.
Instead, her ambitions are simple. “That someone will keep employing me,” she says, that refreshing honesty firmly intact. “I have been really fortunate so far in the jobs I’ve got so hopefully I can continue [getting] interesting roles with good directors.”
“I don’t have those delusions of grandeur,
but I would love to have a role
in a film where I could sing.”
Almost reluctantly, she admits to being determined. “It’s embarrassing saying things like that. It’s like ‘ambitious’ is a dirty word.” Nonetheless, taking the leap to LA must have required some fortitude. “I was lucky,” she demurs. “I had the scholarship, so I had a bit of support. But there is the work here and I wanted to make a career out of this. I was working at a law firm, doing a few episodes of Neighbours here and there, and I’d done two features in Australia in the course of two or three years. I thought if I want to make this my career and I don’t want to keep working part-time jobs for the rest of my life, I’ll have to take the leap.”
Initially she went for a month, staying with a friend during the pilot season, before deciding to make it a more permanent move. The scholarship was a good calling card, giving her something to discuss on the endless merry-go-round of meetings with directors, casting agents and “anyone who will see you”. “Basically, other than Neighbours, the Heath Ledger Scholarship was the only link they’d recognise. So that definitely was a big deal.”
She has been surprised to find how supportive people in Hollywood are. “Whether or not it’s fake, I don’t know, but most people here seem to have a fairly positive attitude.” There is a long pause when I ask her if she feels successful. “I can’t answer that. I do feel fortunate, but I don’t know if that’s to be confused with success. [It’s] going back to that determined nature. I’m very self-critical [so] it’s hard to feel success.” She finds it hard to watch herself onscreen, and impossible to judge her own work. “Nothing is ever good enough in my own self.” Although it’s something she’d like to work on, it’s part of what drives her. And then, our time up, I thank her and ask if she’d like to add anything. “No, I think I sound like a pretentious snob,” she says, laughing again. I’d say she sounds anything but.
Published in Vogue Australia September 2012
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