FILMOGRAPHY
2007] Rogue
2006] The Tender Hook
2006] The Flock
2006] PU-239
2006]Silent Hill
2005] Mozart & The Whale
2004]
Melinda & Melinda
2004] Man on Fire
2004] J.M. Barrie's Neverland
2003] Visitors
2002] Four Reasons
2002] Phone Booth
2002] Dead Heat
2001] Ten Tiny Love Stories
2001] Uprising (TV)
2001] When Strangers Appear
2001] Nobody's Baby
2000] Cowboys and Angels
2000]
Pitch Black
2000] Everything Put Together (actor & associate producer)
1999] Kick
1999] Sleeping Beauties
1998] The Chosen (TV) .
1998] Cleopatra's Second Husband
1998] High Art
1996-97] "Neighbours"
1996] Love and Other Catastrophes
1995] Halifax f.p: My Lovely Girl (TV)
1988] "Sugar and Spice"
LINKS
Born 1 January 1973 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Radha got her start acting while still in high school in the Woods theater production of Desire.
Replaced Winona Ryder in Woody Allen's Melinda & Melinda.
'Everything Put Together' (on which she was also associate producer) released to rave reviews and was nominated for a 2001 Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature Under $500,000.
Radha Mitchell on why she moved to America:
"There was so much more to do here. There’s a whole industry and a group of people oriented to the one thing I was interested in; whereas, in Australia, it’s a little more eclectic. They make good films, but they don’t really make many of them. So it was partly that and partly just the adventure of being in a different place."
Radha on what she'd like to do if she wasn't acting:
"I wanted to be a diplomat, a photojournalist. When I was a teenager I wanted to be a pop star."
Radha on acting:
"I think the bad part of acting is you never end up taking responsibility for who you are, what you actually want to say, and give to the world. If you read other people’s lines forever, I think it’s a little frustrating. The good part is it’s your job to experiment with your identity, so I think you [develop] a broad perspective on who you are."
Radha on what she's passionate about:
"I like to write. And I do like to act, so I’m passionate about that. And at the moment I’m just passionate about going to sleep."
Radha on 'Visitors':
"It was a really interesting script and a very challenging part. I wanted to work in Melbourne, I guess. I had spent so much time overseas, so it was an opportunity to be in the city where I'm from."
Radha on the Australian flop 'Kick':
"I actually really, really enjoyed working on that film. I actually don't think it was terrible. It was a great kids' movie. It should have been pitched at nine-year-olds. I thought it wasn't that bad."
Radha on preparing to play a woman who loses her baby to SIDS in 'Everything Put Together':
"There wasn’t anything I could do besides imagine it, unless I wanted to go and interview women who had lost their children. But I didn’t really think that was necessary because I just imagined that I was her and she had [lost hers]. And I think there’s sort of an instinctive thing with women and kids. For women, I think it’s kind of intuitive, or at least for me it was, to imagine that it was my baby, a bond had been formed, and that it would be quite devastating if that [were] broken or taken away for some reason.
Radha on filming 'Everything Put Together':
"The cool thing was it was only for two weeks. And the other thing is, those sorts of roles are kind of cathartic because you can just let it all out, turn it into something and then it’s over, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s good.’ So it’s sort of adversely refreshing when you finish something like that. But being in it is not that much fun, and, yeah, who wouldn’t rather run around just being in a comedy? But once it’s finished, it’s a positive."
Radha on being an associate producer on 'Everything Put Together':
"I wasn’t hugely involved as the producer to be honest, but I was involved. The main reason for that was to make something happen again, rather than sitting around, waiting to be validated by the studios. It was just like, "Here’s the script, make something." So we just did it. That was what inspired me initially. Marc [Forster] wanted to [direct it] and he’s a friend of mine so we just decided we were going to do it, and the next thing you know, it’s done. I think it’s much more rewarding when what you say counts. You get to have your opinion involved in the process and not have other people say, "That’s okay" or "Not okay." It’s a little indulgent, but if it’s not indulgent then it’s boring, right? For that reason I think independent film is great. And especially video, because it’s allowing people to do that, whereas before it just cost so much money to do anything."
Radha on the possiblity of doing more work as a producer:
"Yeah, definitely. Just for things that I’m passionate about though; not as a moneymaking thing. It’s great to be part of the film industry in [other] ways because you’re setting a tone of thought. If people watch your film, [you hope] it makes them think. That’s kind of cool. I want to do that again."
Radha on why she undertook 'Uprising':
"Initially, [it was] the cast, because the cast was so great. And I wanted to go to Eastern Europe. It wasn’t a political thing. It was more just a whole range of factors. But the nature of the project was that it was one of quality."
Radha on 'Uprising' director Jon Avnet:
"He’s great. He runs this whole trip and there are hundreds of extras and it’s Jon running the whole show. It was amazing to see somebody in their power doing their thing. And also, there were three women producers, so that was good to be around, as well. It’s amazing what they got together. I’ve got so much respect for producers now. Before, I sort of didn’t pay any attention to how things actually happened, and now I see it requires so much energy. It’s a real skill to be able to pull it off."
Radha on 'Phone Booth' director Joel Schumacher:
"What was really interesting was how Joel filmed it. Basically we were constantly in the scene. We'd run like twelve pages of dialog, so you basically had to know your lines and everyone else's lines. We had certain lines that were cued and others that we just made up."
Radha on slipping into an American accent:
"It surprises me sometimes how it comes out. I guess I'm often working in an American accent so, yeah, when I was working on Visitors I had to be careful to sound like an Australian."
Radha on wanting to work in Australia:
"I'm interested in being able to participate in the film industry here, because there's a really interesting thing here that doesn't exist in America, where the government funds the films. So there's some desire to create films with integrity, and films that aren't just purely commercial."
Radha on there not being enough follow-up opportunities to keep talent in Australia:
"Definitely. Of course there's not. It's a really small population here. What are you going to do? I appreciate being Australian, but I don't solely identify with it, so I sort of see my life as being bigger than just one place. I appreciate the fact that I'm from here and I'll always want to come back and participate in the idea of local produce, but I'm not tied to the idea of that. What's interesting about Australian films is that they can be very individual and the situation seems to nurture auteurs. There is this nurturing element that exists, and I think that's great. I don't think, then, that the talent needs to stay here. I think you give back (because) there will always be a desire to return. It would be great if you could stay home, but the whole adventure is that you go out and you leave home. That's what growing up is about."