- On Wentworth: More importantly it was women. Women held the story lines, and it was just so groundbreaking to see the strength physically and to see the emotional journey that we carried
- When we did the big fight with Drago it was 12 hours. I said I wanted to do my own stunts. One take I turned around and said 'you wanna go again?' I was tired, sore, and I just wanted to take the bitch out. And I did.
- [on joining Wentworth]; I'm very honoured and privileged to be a part of the family. It's amazing to be on the teal tidal wave.
- Rita's still trying to bring Marie down. They're both looking at very similar sentences now, because the doctor that Marie beat when her son died, also died, so she's up for 15 years, and so is Rita. So it's a bit of a tug-of-war in there - are they going to keep out of each other's way or is it going to come to a head?
- Rita only wanted to put the wind up Drago, but because of the circumstances - being inside and knowing who Marie is - she knew that if she didn't finish her she still had a lot of power. So Rita did the job and silenced her.
- [on Wentworth's finale in S6]; Oh yeah, [her police colleagues] drop her like a hotcake! When we come back for season seven, she's still going through hearings, so she's still on remand for both crimes - for the armed robbery and murder. She's moved on, but she's still very haunted as she talks about it with Ruby (Rarriwuy Hick) and Kaz (Tammy MacIntosh). She's very remorseful for that accident, taking a life, but it was either a stranger's life or her sister's, and blood's blood.
- Yeah, look, it was a massive day - we did 12 hours, just shooting one scene all day. I spent five hours on the fight choreography. It was very physical. But it's the emotional stuff that takes it out of you more so.
- Because I am crazy - you have to be a bit mad to be in this business. I'm a workaholic. This is all I can do. This is all I want to do. I've had to sacrifice so much to get here, and I hope that if everything goes well my next project won't take as long as I've earned people's trust. The proof is in the pudding. And even if it did take me another 30 years to get another film up, if that is my journey, and that is my path then that is how it has to be. Whatever has to be will be. You have to keep going. But yeah, it's probably because I am slightly mad in a creative way.
- I don't really set out to go into battle. What I try to do is make sure that the story I tell is going to entertain and move my audience, and I do have a voice, this is an opportunity that has been given as an Indigenous woman, a First Nations woman, at the time I was born.
- We've had a few investor screenings and with a few friends and some strangers. What's been really beautiful is that young men have really connected to the film, which was very, very surprising. The title of the film is about a The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, it is about a woman, and it might not appeal to that audience, but it's not just a chick flick, it's action packed and has a real thriller element to it.
- If I set out with all that in my headspace, I'd run a mile, but if you are born black in this country you are political anyway, and it's taking a viewpoint that I often saw from a white male perspective, those leading the country and not knowing anything about Aboriginal people, and I saw an opportunity that if I could share my family story and bring about understanding to people and give them my side of the story, and I love to tell stories.
- I was a good listener. If you don't hear the stories they don't stay in your memory. You know you can sit two kids down, and one will be engaged and listen, and the other one doesn't. The one that can listen to stories and retain them is on to their path to become the storyteller.
- I love the Australian industry and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. With that in mind I want to give a huge thanks to Create NSW for all of their help and support of my film. We have great storytellers and crew, and now we just need to get our audiences backing us.
- Now I want to focus on writing and directing and performing and acting for good roles. First, I have to birth Molly Johnson. Until she is out of that stockyard, I am responsible for her, and I haven't been able to feel anything about writing something new with Molly still in there. With The Drover's Wife, I still have a follow-up novel and TV show to do. So, when Molly is born my next role is to lay down on a beach and be a lady of leisure 10 or 20 years down the track.
- I do have a lot of people showing me scripts and asking me to consider projects and that is really nice.
- I've put the hard yards in, and I have learnt along the way and I am still learning, but when I see what I have learnt come to fruition, and I see how I have developed on the page and screen, I have to acknowledge it. And to see all the young people I have worked with and mentored succeed and go forth in quicker time is awesome too, to see them blossom with something they might have learnt from me is a great thing too. As long as they put the hard yards in it's ok.
- It's a bit surreal. You think about these, you know world domination, and then the opportunity comes. The film comes to fruition and then it's, okay, we got a few thumbs up. To be selected in competition is so bloody good. Like, I can't wait to get this kid out and away and if the world loves her, I will be relieved.
- Here's an example: my mother had read The Drover's Wife to me since I was a four-year-old girl, so that's a story I've had with me for over 40 years. Then I do Jindabyne with [director] Ray Lawrence and I go for a walk around Mount Kosciuszko [with my partner]. We're just marvelling at the environment, saying we don't utilise the landscape enough on screen. And we get to the top and I yell. I give thanks to the ancestors on the land that we're on and I yell out, 'I'm going to do a movie up here! I think it's going to be The Drover's Wife and I think I'm going to be in it!' Jump to 2019 and I'm there doing it. That's a true story.
- I tried a few other jobs and thought about other things, but always at the back of my mind, when it got tough and life threw a few curveballs at me, this little voice would just pipe up and say, 'Remember, you wanted to act.' I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I just put one foot in front of the other and took on the challenge.
- It's very cliché, but it's such a family vibe, and when you step on set you feel safe. Everyone is there to be better than they were yesterday, so the challenge is there - which is thrilling. And it's the ultimate: a number one drama, massive all over the world, female storylines and then you get a bit of biffo and crying - what more could you want?
- Growing up in [the Queensland country town of] Murgon, there were no dance classes or anything, but I grew up around performers. My mum was a bit of performer, even though it might just have been around barbecues and parties. I had an aunt that would sing and write her own music. I had uncles and aunts who could tell a joke that would put [professional comedians] to shame.
- Without him, I don't know where I'd be. He comes up with all the ideas. If I say, 'I'm going to write a play' he will say, 'Great, I can see a film and a play and a novel and a TV show.' He believes in me.
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