KANGAROO is a heart-warming family comedy about ex TV personality, Chris Masterman (Ryan Corr), who becomes stranded in an Outback town outside Alice Springs. There, he teams up with 12-year-old Indigenous girl Charlie (Lily Whiteley). The pair form an unlikely friendship and work together to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned joeys in the remote but stunning Outback community – an endeavour that proves to be life-changing for them both.
As Kangaroo prepares to hop into Australian cinemas on September 18, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the films director, Kate Woods (Looking For Alibrandi), about working with kids and animals, and finding the Australian spirit within this story.
Nick: I’ve heard an age old Hollywood saying that you “should never work with kids or animals”. And in Kangaroo, you’ve done both! But I’m curious to know what your experience was working with both the children and kangaroos on this film?
Kate Woods: Well, fortunately, I’ve worked with both many times before, and many times together. But there hasn’t been one quite as unique as this. The joeys were absolutely delightful. They’re so affectionate. You couldn’t help but love them. But, they are wild, traumatised animals. Traumatised because they’ve lost their mum. So, they are very affectionate because they are looking for a new mum. We couldn’t train them, so we just had to make sure that we didn’t ask them to do anything other than what they naturally do.
And the joy of finding someone as special as Lily Whiteley [Charlie], there was no negativity about working with her. She was fantastic, and the two together were great.
Nick: How quick did that bond between Lily and the joeys grow? It seems so natural on screen.
Kate Woods: It was really quick. I mean, Lily and Ryan [Corr], who plays Chris, spent a lot of time with Chris Barnes at his sanctuary, where he has the joeys. So, they learnt how to handle them properly. But it’s incredible how quickly that they will cling on to you, and they will jump into anything that looks like a pouch. So, that’s down your shirt, anything like that. It’s really delightful. You can’t help but be delighted by that.
Nick: The film beautifully deals with these mature themes, like grief and purpose, but in a way that is still quite accessible for younger audiences. How do you balance making sure that kids can still understand these more dramatic elements, without sacrificing the entertainment aspect of the film?
Kate Woods: It was really important to me that this wasn’t just a cute animal film, and the subject matter really helped that. It’s about finding your home and family. Where do you belong in the world? And I really wanted to create a very strong sense of community around that little town. That was mainly created by the incredible supporting cast that we had. I mean, we had the creme de la creme of indigenous actors, and all of our other actors, that created this little town that made you feel like you wanted to live there.
Nick: That place, Silver Gum, especially through the colourful nature of it, feels quite magical. There is this heightened sense of joy that comes across on screen. What was the collaboration with your production team in bringing that feeling to life?
Kate Woods: Well, thank you. You hit the nail right on the head. That’s exactly how we wanted it to feel. It was meant to be heightened just a little bit more than real life. We called it “sprinkling the fairy dust”. We wanted this to be a truly joyful experience, a positive experience, where you come out of the film feeling like that world is in a pretty good place, and a place that you would want to belong.
I wanted people to be proud of the uniqueness of Australia. Our national symbol is the kangaroo, and sometimes that’s played with a little too fast and loose. It was really important that it was an authentic experience with joeys and bigger kangaroos, even though they were created for the film. There was no way we could do what we wanted to do in this film with real kangaroos! But, I wanted Australian people to look at this and go, “Yeah, that’s us in this beautiful place we live in”.
Nick: There is a specificity to the Australiana of this story that I think will also resonate with audiences all over the world. Is that something you’re also thinking of when making a film like this?
Kate Woods: I genuinely think that the more specific you are telling your story, the more universal the themes can be. Because otherwise, you’re trying to be everything to all people, and it never works. But, if you invite an audience to see something they’ve never seen before, by entering that world, they will then find the things that are similar to them, and the universality of the themes within it.
Thank you so much to Kate for her time, and to StudioCanal for organising the interview. Kangaroo is in Australian cinemas on September 18.
