"Picnic at Hanging Rock" may be set at the turn of the last century, but star Natalie Dormer thinks the upcoming Amazon Studios show is perfect for today.
"It is actually a little bit terrifying, as well as conversely reassuring in other ways, how all those themes from 1900 we're still dealing with right now. To deal with equality and self-realization and identity," the actress said at Saturday night's North American premiere of the upcoming Amazon Studios miniseries at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The six-part series – or six-hour movie as director Larysa Kondracki called it – revolves around the mysterious disappearance of three girls from Appleyard College during a day trip to the titular Hanging Rock in Victoria, Australia. Dormer plays Hester Appleyard, the headmistress of the school, who has a mysterious past of her own she's trying to keep hidden.
Dormer was hesitant about taking on a role in another costumed period piece at first, but a conversation with Kondracki about her vision for the project sold her on it.
"I spoke to Larysa on FaceTime, she was already in Australia," the actress said. "I expected it to be a 20-minute conversation because I wanted to reconcile in my head, 'I am not going to do a corset job again.' Because maybe I get put in a bit of a pigeonhole. So I was all for getting amazing scripts, but I'll talk to the director and I won't like her and it'll be fine and I'll be able to say no. Instead what happened was a 90-minute conversation, and, I went, excuse my French, 'Holy f–k,' this woman has a vision, she is incredibly talented and now I am going to Australia."
Based on Joan Lindsay's beloved 1967 novel of the same name, this isn't the first time "Picnic at Hanging Rock" has been put to film. Director Peter Weir's 1975 adaptation of the book is considered by many critics to be one of the best films of the decade and is one of the cornerstones of the Australian New Wave.
"I knew from its canonical presence in film history. But then you get [to Australia] and they are like looney tunes over this thing," Kondracki said of Australians love for both versions. "It's the Bible and Shakespeare, 'The Great Gatsby' all rolled into one."
Because of this, Kondracki and the rest of the crew knew they had to do more than just remake Weir's film, so they decided to focus more on Lindsay's book and utilize the space given to them to explore how it still speaks to women more than fifty years later.
"Nobody wants to touch Peter Weir's great work … but this was a wonderful opportunity to figure out who these girls were," Kondracki said. "There is still the thriller and the mystery of what happened, but to actually give them a voice. We began this two years ago, it's dovetailed now into a time where it is incredibly relevant and we are incredibly proud to be part of the [#MeToo] conversation."
"Picnic at Hanging Rock" will be available to stream May 25.
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