Kitty Green on the Outback, Living Dangerously and THE ROYAL HOTEL – Bonnie Laufer interviews

Following her success with the film The Assistant starring Julia Garner, writer-director Kitty Green is back with another film reuniting her with the actress. In The Royal Hotel, Americans Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are backpacking in Australia and take a temporary live-in job in a remote Outback mining town. Soon, they find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.

BONNIE LAUFER: I find the premise of this film quite terrifying. Two girls, traveling through Australia run out of money. So they go to a remote bar to work – even being warned that they might have to deal with some unwanted male attention. I mean seriously? That would be my first warning to get out of dodge. What are these girls thinking? What inspired you to write it?

KITTY GREEN: I’m Australian and weirdly enough I have never made a film in Australia. I made all my movies elsewhere and my mother suggested that it was about time to write a movie set in Australia. So I think that was the main inspiration. And then I saw a documentary about two Scandinavian girls who were working in an Outback pub. It’s a common thing in Australia for backpackers when they need to stay or want to stay a little longer, they take a job. They either pick berries, or they work in a pub somewhere. Often they’re sent into the middle of nowhere because that’s where they need to work. The documentary followed these two Scandinavians who didn’t understand the culture and were trying to make sense of it. I felt like it was something that I was interested in, like thematically. But also I felt like it was a good role for Julia Garner, who I’d worked with before on The Assistant. So it kind of came together quite well.

BL: I remember back-packing in my early twenties. And let’s face it, we all do dumb things and look back at it now and say,
“What was I thinking?” But I don’t think I would put myself in the same situation as these girls do. What would you do?

KG: I don’t know. It’s interesting because being from Australia, it’s not as scary for me as it might look to people from other Countries and cultures. I think foreigners find it a little scarier than it is for Australians. It’s sort of a place where Outback pubs are, and it’s not an immediately scary thing for Australians. It takes a little while to be freaked out. I can totally see how it would make some people scared. I too have done some backpacking and you’re right. I did some silly things and we drank a lot, you know, we’re a little crazy. So I kind of know what that’s like. But in this case, the girls are just trying to figure out how to make a few extra dollars so they can continue their trip, and it’s not until they arrive that they’re a little uncomfortable. Jessica Henwick, who plays Liv, is trying to make the best of it and trying to learn about the culture and be accepting of people. And Julia’s character is a little more cautious and tries to figure out what’s going on. She’s always sort of assessing her environment, essentially. So they take different approaches to it.

BL: Although you’ve worked with Julia before and know her pretty well, you didn’t know Jessica. The two of them together is magic. Did they have instant chemistry?

KG: Yeah, honestly it was instant. The girls hit it off immediately. It was almost like they became best friends from the minute they met. When I met Jess, I had a zoom with her. I’d seen some of her previous work, more serious and action-oriented roles. But I hadn’t seen her Glass Onion role, which is a little more wacky. So, I wasn’t sure if she was going to be weird enough for us (laughs). But as soon as I met her on Zoom, I immediately felt she had the right spirit and the right kind of energy for this film and I knew it would work really well. Continue reading…