Smart, shrewd and as talented as they come, Abbie Cornish has it all – just don’t try getting personal, writes Farrah Butt.
You Aussies do such a fine line in those porcelain-packaged actresses who look delicate as bone china but whack you with all the power of an industrial wrecking ball with their on-screen talent. Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts − they’re like Hollywood’s own wan-faced mafia, all cool beauty and hot talent with a knack for nabbing the best roles in the biz.
And lo and behold, you’ve gone and got yourselves another one with Abbie Cornish – the 27-year-old Hunter Valley gal who packs up 173cm of clotted-cream curves with an indecent amount of talent.
Being British, I admit I didn’t know much about Cornish before we spoke. Okay, I knew she dated Ryan Phillippe and that there was some sort of brouhaha because he was married to Reese Witherspoon when the pair first met and, of course, everyone loves Reese.
“You’re interviewing Abbie Cornish?” one of my colleagues asked. “I love her. So talented. So pretty.”
I kind of loved her too after I did a bit of research. Get this: she raps, she breakdances, she plays guitar and she grew up as one of five kids in a big old farm in the Hunter Valley.
Of course, everyone was right about the talent part. Her latest film is Bright Star, a Jane Campion project that charts the love story between English poet, John Keats and his neighbour, Fanny Brawne. Cornish plays Brawne and she really is very good. Her English accent is flawless and she looks fantastic in the bonnets and ruffled collars the costume department have decked her out with.
Bright Star has already whipped up a whole heap of excitement and there is talk of an Oscar on the horizon for Cornish. I ask if she’s ever been to the Oscars. “No.” Would she like to? “I just get so happy and excited for our film … when I hear the word Oscar mentioned,” is all she’ll say. “It was such a wonderful film to make. I feel we all poured a part of oursleves into this film ... so it’s rewarding that people love it.”
She says filming was intense: eight hours a day, six days a week, the whole thing wrapped up in just nine weeks.
Cornish first really came to public attention in Cate Shortland’s Somersault back in 2004 − she played Heidi, a 16-year-old runaway who had a habit of dropping her pants a lot in a NSW ski resort. And then, of course, there was Candy. Candy was director Neil Armfield’s film about a pair of junkies whose love for heroin was as strong as their infatuation with one another. Cornish was just 23 when she took on the role opposite Heath Ledger. On screen she was bold, breathtaking and chilling in her awareness of the character, and roles in Ridley Scott’s A Good Year and Elizabeth: The Golden Age followed. And then there was Stop-Loss. Directed by Boys Don’t Cry’s Kimberly Peirce, it should have been Cornish’s big break with American audiences. Instead, she met Ryan Phillippe.
Cornish and Phillippe have been together for over two years, but at the time they began filming, Phillippe was two-children deep with Reese Witherspoon. When the couple’s seven-year marriage hit the skids, it was Cornish who took the rap. Bright Star is Cornish’s first film since Stop-Loss, and you can’t help but wonder if this 24-month silence has something to do with the maelstrom surrounding their relationship. Unfortunately, it’s not something she’s willing to answer. When I ask whether it’s difficult being in a celebrity couple, she asks if she can skip the question. Likewise, when I touch upon the other elephant in the room – Heath Ledger – she politely says, “I probably won’t talk about that ... Sorry.”
Cornish is like this: she circumnavigates questions not with the stealth bomber skills of most actresses who give you the slip with a $10,000 smile and a whole lot of words that amount to a whole lot of nothing, but warily, like she’s waiting for the bite.
I ask her if she hangs out with other Australian actors in LA. “You bump into people here and there,” she murmers. Can she give us names? “Just the people I’ve worked with, you know. I mean, Heath was a great friend of mine ...”
Next up for Cornish is action flick, Sucker Punch, directed by Watchmen director, Zack Snyder. She’s been in training for three months, she tells me − five days a week studying martial arts and getting to grips with a variety of heavy duty swords and guns. (“I now know how to use a pistol, M4 and a shotgun,” she laughs.)
For the moment, at least, Cornish calls LA home. Does she think she’ll ever come back to Australia? “I love Australia,” she says brightening. “To me Australia still is my home. It always will be.” And something tells me this is one answer she really means.
Bright Star is out now.