Kieran Darcy-Smith, Wish You Were Here
Inspiration is the greatest feeling I know
A founding member of the Australian indie-film collective Blue-Tongue Films, Kieran Darcy-Smith has earned his place in Australia’s cinematic fabric through memorable roles in films such as The Square, The Cave and Two Hands. After several respected short-film directorial stints, Kieran makes his feature-length directing debut with the psychological drama, Wish You Were Here. Starring Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price (Kieran’s wife and co-writer) and Teresa Palmer, Wish You Were Here dazzled critics as the opening-night film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The Weekend Edition chatted to Kieran about the film, his inspirations and how he likes to spend his weekends.
How do you like to start your weekend?
I have to be perfectly honest with you – I never know what day of the week it is! My wife, our two children and I kind of live a vocation – my wife Felicity helped write the movie and she stars in it, so it’s been a constant thing. I don’t feel like we’re at work but rather that we’re living and participating in this thing that is our world. But if I’m ever fortunate enough to have time off, I like to spend time with my kids, rolling around in the backyard and having fun.
What’s your favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning?
If I didn’t have children, I would spend what time I have off in the water surfing. I grew up surfing and it’s something that I really dearly miss.
How do you like to unwind?
A couple of months ago I got really involved in meditation and I’m hoping to start practising that again everyday. That, to me, is a gift – when you can find that half an hour to sit by yourself. But the main way I like to unwind is to read. I love reading and always have done.
What are you reading at the moment?
A book called The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, which is about brain plasticity. I’m really interested in psychology and human behaviour, so I read a lot of books about that.
What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
Going for a surf, then going for a bushwalk, drinking some good coffee and eating good food – all with my wife. Or playing music with my kids.
What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
I’d like to get out in the bush more. I grew up right alongside a national park and spent my whole childhood bringing home snakes and all sorts of creatures. I love the bush and I love animals … just being surrounded by other living, breathing creatures.
What was your childhood dream?
To be a rockstar. And I spent many years working towards that – music was a huge part of my life and still is. I was playing in bands up until I was about 26 and was really involved in the late-80s rock scene in Sydney and Melbourne. Then I made a complete 180-degree turn and decided to try acting.
What has been your greatest achievement?
Absolutely and categorically, my greatest achievement has been pulling this film together – I’m incredibly proud. It’s everything I ever really wanted it to be and I wouldn’t change a frame of it. I feel like it’s very honest in terms of where I was in that point of my life and there were a lot of years that led to it. It took about 15 years or so of hard slogging to get there.
Do you have a particular connection to Cambodia, where the film takes place?
I do. I spent a couple of months there back in 1996, researching another film story that I was developing, and I was really drawn to the region. I’ve been really drawn to the Southeast Asia region in general for many years and I’ve spent a lot of time over there. There’s something about it that has enormous appeal to me – it’s a very alluring, exotic and evocative world that’s almost like a rite of passage for Australian travellers. It’s such a cultural smash to the head. I’ve always loved the stories and history from that part of the world.
The tension in the film really remains up until the end – was it your intention to make the audience squirm?
On a narrative level, very much so. I have a short attention span and so I need to be held from the first page of a book or frame of a film and feel the suspense all the way through. And, ultimately, I need to have invested in the characters and really care about them so that at the end of that exchange, I’m moved.
What inspires you?
Inspiration is the greatest feeling I know. When you see a film, read a book, listen to music or see a photo – anything at all – and it gives you that incredible sense of inspiration that you have to sit down and write, or sit at the piano and play … if you could bottle that feeling, it’s the most wonderful sensation. I like to be moved by things. Human stories really inspire me – I love to read biographies.
What are your words of wisdom?
Be present: don’t get too hung up on the past or the future. If you can do that, you’re on the right track.
For your chance to win tickets to The Weekend Edition’s special screening of Wish You Were Here, click here.
