Article - Courier Mail, Thursday 19th June, 2008
She's not finished with Oz
Feature film experience in Australia turned Monic Hendrickx into a
fan, reports Rodney Chester
'William McInnes has that kind of Australian humour that is a bit
grumpy and direct'
DUTCH actor Monic Hendrickx admits to having a moment of deja vu during
the filming of Unfinished Sky, as she sat on a tractor driving
up and down a field near Boonah, southwest of Brisbane.
That the feeling of having been there, done that was just limited
to a few moments of her six weeks of shooting in Queensland for the
Brisbane-Dutch co-production is surprising, given she was playing
a role that she had played before.
Or at least she was playing a role that she had played before -- sort
of. Ten years ago, the then 31-year-old actor got her breakthrough
with her first leading film role in the Dutch movie The Polish
Bride.
She played a Polish woman who sets out to create a better life in
Holland, and falls for a lonely farmer who had never known love before.
Hendrickx had to learn to speak Polish for some of her lines. The
bigger challenge was learning to speak her native tongue -- Dutch
-- with a Polish accent.
While she was pretending to be in love on screen, the reality was
she was also falling in love in real life -- with movie-making.
"I just fell in love with the way of life,'' she says. "It's like
working in a circus. Everybody has his job and knows what to do,
and when it comes together and it falls into one place, the moments
can be magical.''
Hendrickx is clearly enamoured of acting in general, and acting in
films in particular.
"You blink an eye and it means something,'' she says. When she was
approached by Queensland filmmakers to re-create her role for Unfinished
Sky, she jumped at the chance even if the two films are
very different.
Instead of being Polish, her character of Tahmeena is an Afghani woman
who is on the run for several reasons. For Hendrickx, that meant
forgetting the Polish and learning the Dari language instead.
"Tahmeena is not like the Polish bride, she's not only an economic
refugee,'' she says. "The threat from outside is stronger in Unfinished
Sky.''
When I speak to Hendrickx, she's at her house, which she chose for
its big garden, about 7km outside Amsterdam.
She has just dropped her six-year-old daughter at school and is juggling
her commitments, as she's currently working on two films at
once. That night she has a shoot for one film, and the next day
she'll be on set for the other production.
"I feel very lucky to be able to make a living from acting. There
are a lot of good actors who can't say that.
"I feel really lucky I don't have an office job from nine to five,''
she says.
"In Holland, we have quite a young film industry and as an actor
you're always in the middle of the stress and you're not protected
from it. Those parts like Tahmeena you can really sink your teeth
into, and dive into that world, those parts are not available
every year, so sometimes you have to play the mistress or the wife.''
Hendrickx describes shooting Unfinished Sky as like the relaxation
of taking a warm bath.
"Nobody knew me over there, so there were no expectations,'' she
says.
"It was 10 years after The Polish Bride and it felt like refinding
your motive behind why you want to make films, why you want to
act.''
Hendrickx hadn't met her Unfinished Sky co-star William McInnes until
she turned up on set.
"You don't know if you can get along, and he has that kind of Australian
humour that is a bit grumpy in the beginning and direct,''
she says.
"But at the end we really clicked and we could get along quite well.''
It was McInnes who suggested that Hendrickx take her daughter to Moreton
Island to feed the dolphins, a memory she treasures from her
time in southeast Queensland. While she made the most of her weekends
to explore the area, she didn't get to see as much of the
country as her husband and then five-year-old girl, who used the
opportunity to take a road trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs.
"They were together in the desert for a week,'' she says.
Hendrickx says she would love to work in Australia again, but it's
a matter of convincing people she could overcome the language barrier.
Her ability to disguise her own nationality has almost paid off since
she finished shooting Unfinished Sky.
She nearly snagged a role in an American film playing another Afghani
woman, but the Actors Guild regulations meant that an actor based
in the US had to be cast.
Regardless of whether her new understanding of the Afghani culture
will further pay off for her career, she says she has already been
rewarded for it personally. Before Unfinished Sky, she had never
met an Afghani person.
"Especially after 9/11, people are more careful,'' she says. "I
don't know if that's a good way of getting along with each other.
"We have to let go of the fear and be curious to get to know each
other, because then it's going to be a better world. Eventually.''
Feature film experience in Australia turned Monic Hendrickx into a
fan, reports Rodney Chester
'William McInnes has that kind of Australian humour that is a bit
grumpy and direct'
DUTCH actor Monic Hendrickx admits to having a moment of deja vu during
the filming of Unfinished Sky, as she sat on a tractor driving
up and down a field near Boonah, southwest of Brisbane.
That the feeling of having been there, done that was just limited
to a few moments of her six weeks of shooting in Queensland for the
Brisbane-Dutch co-production is surprising, given she was playing
a role that she had played before.
Or at least she was playing a role that she had played before -- sort
of. Ten years ago, the then 31-year-old actor got her breakthrough
with her first leading film role in the Dutch movie The Polish
Bride.
She played a Polish woman who sets out to create a better life in
Holland, and falls for a lonely farmer who had never known love before.
Hendrickx had to learn to speak Polish for some of her lines. The
bigger challenge was learning to speak her native tongue -- Dutch
-- with a Polish accent.
While she was pretending to be in love on screen, the reality was
she was also falling in love in real life -- with movie-making.
"I just fell in love with the way of life,'' she says. "It's like
working in a circus. Everybody has his job and knows what to do,
and when it comes together and it falls into one place, the moments
can be magical.''
Hendrickx is clearly enamoured of acting in general, and acting in
films in particular.
"You blink an eye and it means something,'' she says. When she was
approached by Queensland filmmakers to re-create her role for Unfinished
Sky, she jumped at the chance even if the two films are
very different.
Instead of being Polish, her character of Tahmeena is an Afghani woman
who is on the run for several reasons. For Hendrickx, that meant
forgetting the Polish and learning the Dari language instead.
"Tahmeena is not like the Polish bride, she's not only an economic
refugee,'' she says. "The threat from outside is stronger in Unfinished
Sky.''
When I speak to Hendrickx, she's at her house, which she chose for
its big garden, about 7km outside Amsterdam.
She has just dropped her six-year-old daughter at school and is juggling
her commitments, as she's currently working on two films at
once. That night she has a shoot for one film, and the next day
she'll be on set for the other production.
"I feel very lucky to be able to make a living from acting. There
are a lot of good actors who can't say that.
"I feel really lucky I don't have an office job from nine to five,''
she says.
"In Holland, we have quite a young film industry and as an actor
you're always in the middle of the stress and you're not protected
from it. Those parts like Tahmeena you can really sink your teeth
into, and dive into that world, those parts are not available
every year, so sometimes you have to play the mistress or the wife.''
Hendrickx describes shooting Unfinished Sky as like the relaxation
of taking a warm bath.
"Nobody knew me over there, so there were no expectations,'' she
says.
"It was 10 years after The Polish Bride and it felt like refinding
your motive behind why you want to make films, why you want to
act.''
Hendrickx hadn't met her Unfinished Sky co-star William McInnes until
she turned up on set.
"You don't know if you can get along, and he has that kind of Australian
humour that is a bit grumpy in the beginning and direct,''
she says.
"But at the end we really clicked and we could get along quite well.''
It was McInnes who suggested that Hendrickx take her daughter to Moreton
Island to feed the dolphins, a memory she treasures from her
time in southeast Queensland. While she made the most of her weekends
to explore the area, she didn't get to see as much of the
country as her husband and then five-year-old girl, who used the
opportunity to take a road trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs.
"They were together in the desert for a week,'' she says.
Hendrickx says she would love to work in Australia again, but it's
a matter of convincing people she could overcome the language barrier.
Her ability to disguise her own nationality has almost paid off since
she finished shooting Unfinished Sky.
She nearly snagged a role in an American film playing another Afghani
woman, but the Actors Guild regulations meant that an actor based
in the US had to be cast.
Regardless of whether her new understanding of the Afghani culture
will further pay off for her career, she says she has already been
rewarded for it personally. Before Unfinished Sky, she had never
met an Afghani person.
"Especially after 9/11, people are more careful,'' she says. "I
don't know if that's a good way of getting along with each other.
"We have to let go of the fear and be curious to get to know each
other, because then it's going to be a better world. Eventually.''
posted by WilliamWatch at 9:18 PM
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