Caitlin Cronenberg
After years of captivating audiences on screens around the world, Aussie actress Rebecca Breeds is back on home soil.
This time, the 38-year-old was surrounded by the wild beauty of Kangaroo Island, the namesake of her latest film, in which she plays a struggling actress who returns home to Oz at the behest of her estranged father.
When she recently sat down with WHO, Rebecca opened up about reconnecting with nature, the close-knit cast of the film and how she almost starred in a rom-com from the genre’s
biggest filmmaker.
Read our full interview with Rebecca below…
WHO: What caught your eye the most about this project, Kangaroo Island, and the character of Lou?
Rebecca: I got the script when we were on a road trip through Big Sur, and usually I want to look out the window, because it’s beautiful and I get a bit car sick on the windy bends. I thought, “I’ll just have a quick read, and then I’ll put it away and read it later.” I could not stop reading.
Sally Gifford wrote this script, and she just had so much humanity and so much heart. It speaks of healing without beating you over the head with it. It’s a very beautiful human story. [Lou] is a trainwreck, she’s cheeky, she’s lovable and she’s very grounded. So it was a no-brainer for me. I just had to play this part.
What was it like to film on Kangaroo Island?
Every day, there was an encounter with nature that you couldn’t have planned. The first tree out of the airport had three koalas in it. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a kangaroo. We saw fairy penguins. There was a wombat that was on my front step every morning. There was even this one bit of road that we drove through that was kind of like this grove that was just full of butterflies.
This place – it’s a little Australian heaven. It is so beautiful, and yet, at the same time, it’s so wild and rugged. We were just so immersed in the beauty of Australian nature and it was so healing. There was also a stillness that held us. I felt very nurtured being back home.
How did everyone get along behind the scenes?
Oh my gosh, we got on so well. I worked with Erik [Thomson] on a show called C*A*U*G*H*T for Stan, and we go back to Channel 7 days when he was on [Packed to the] Rafters and I was next door to him on Home and Away, and then suddenly he’s playing my dad in this movie.
I knew he was a funny guy, but I didn’t know he’d have me in stitches in between takes. And this is a really quite intense subject matter, right? And so I think it’s really important to find the levity, not only in character, but off set as well.
And Adelaide [Clemens] and I were just cut from the same cloth. As soon as I met her, I was like, “Oh, we get each other.” She’s so passionate about what she does, she loves the work, she’s really grounded, but at the same time, she can have a laugh.
We got that girl bond together that I think comes through as the sisters in the movie, for sure. We were so isolated shooting this film together – we were basically each other’s family for those two months. So we took care of each other, which is really special.
Is there any other genre you’d like to explore that you haven’t yet?
Gosh, I’ve been desperate to do a rom-com. If I could emulate anyone’s career, it would probably be [Sandra] Bullock’s. She can dance seamlessly between the dramas and the heavy content, and then, all of a sudden, she’s doing a laugh-snort in a rom-com.
I got really close to a Nancy Meyers film once – obviously the queen of rom-coms – but they never ended up making the film, so I never knew whether or not I would have got it. I’ve been this close, so watch this space definitely!
Kangaroo Island hits cinemas on August 21, 2025.
