00:00If someone said to me, we have this musical, do you want to be in it?
00:03I would have said no.
00:04But when I heard that Baz Luhrmann was making a musical, the same guy that had done Romeo
00:09and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom, that's when I thought, ah, this is interesting.
00:25So much a part of the Australian film industry, so many of the actors in it are Australian
00:29and he really still embraces where he came from, and that's why I was so excited to go back
00:33and do the film there and work with a lot of the crew that I'd worked with when I was 15.
00:37Action!
00:43I play Satine.
00:45She sings and dances and is also a courtesan at the Mulan Rouge.
00:50A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend.
00:57And I got to wear the most beautiful costumes designed by Catherine Martin and Angus.
01:03Yeah, I'd have to spend three hours in the hair and makeup chair, um, just having, you
01:08know, things painted on my face and jewels put in my hair and things sewn.
01:12The corset itself was just a complete nightmare because corsets are great for, you know, an
01:1818th century or 19th century drama where you can sit around and drink tea.
01:22But doing high kicks in a full corset, forget it.
01:26And the other girls, the can-can girls that wore it too, we'd all have bruises, our nerves
01:30went numb because of the whale bones sticking into us.
01:34It's just, not pleasant, but as Baz would say, hey, it looks great.
01:45It wasn't just about, oh, let's go and record in the studio and then we come on and lip sync
01:49to it.
01:50He really wanted us to challenge ourselves and so we sang a lot of the numbers live.
01:53But that was pretty hair-raising at times.
01:56I just would think, oh, Baz, there's 600 extras today.
01:59You're going to make me sing in front of all these people.
02:01But as soon as I stepped into the character, I'd be able to do it.
02:04It was if I stayed as Nicole, thinking, I'm going to have to get up here in front of all
02:09these people and sing and they're going to judge me and decide whether I can or can't.
02:14As soon as I was sateen, it became so much easier.
02:17So when I put on the top hat and the costume and the heels, the heels helped, I would be able
02:24to, I would lose my inhibition.
02:39Simple and very traditional and very emotional.
02:41But I think just the way in which he presents it is spectacular.
02:54But I think it's also really important to have movies that are still trying something different.
03:11That's Baz Luhrmann.
03:13His whole filmmaking process is always about trying something different, pushing the envelope.
03:18And it was really one of those very unusual but creative and really satisfying kind of experiences.
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