Overview
There's nothing little, only big, about Liane Moriarty's success as both an author and the source of twisty TV shows. There's nothing minor, only major, about Danielle Macdonald's success as an actor over the past 15 years, too. The Last Anniversary brings both Australian talents together — adapting Moriarty's sophomore novel of the same name two decades after it initially hit the page, and starring Macdonald alongside Teresa Palmer (Mixtape) and Miranda Richardson (Good Omens) as it tells of a multi-generational family's dramas and secrets on the fictional Scribbly Gum Island on New South Wales' very real Hawkesbury River.
From Moriarty's bibliography, Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall all reached readers after The Last Anniversary, but made their way to screens first. Macdonald is part of a new achievement among the genre that is Moriarty adaptations, however: this is the only one of the scribe's novels to retain its Australian setting on-screen so far. The debut season of Nine Perfect Strangers was made here, as was Apples Never Fall, but both changed the locales in their plots to the US — as Big Little Lies, the American-filmed series that got viewers hooked on Moriarty's tales, also did.
The idea that something homegrown needs an overseas stamp of approval before Australia embraces it isn't new in the film and TV industry — and it isn't quite the situation with The Last Anniversary. But that concept also floats over Macdonald's career, after she made the move Stateside when she was 18, featured in a 2011 episode of Glee and in 2013 movie The East, then popped up in Pretty Little Liars, 2 Broke Girls, The Middle and American Horror Story before her breakout lead role in 2017 Sundance sensation Patti Cake$. Fellow films Lady Bird, Skin, Bird Box, Dumplin' and French Exit all followed, as did streaming series Easy, Unbelievable and Poker Face.
As Macdonald tells Concrete Playground, yes, that makes coming home to feature in gripping shows like this, and also The Tourist before it, all the more special. "Absolutely. It's funny that l went overseas and found some success there, and then got to come back for jobs at home, and that feels special to me. Because a lot of people, they start out in Australia and then they try to branch out overseas — and I'm like 'I had to do the opposite just to be able to work in Australia'," she advises.
"And it is funny and ironic, but at the at the end of the day, I love coming home. It's my favourite thing in the world. And you're never going to have to try too hard to convince me to work here, because it's where I love being. I feel completely at home here. I love Aussie crews. I love Aussie casts. It feels always like coming home and getting to do my job at the same time. It's this beautiful thing. It's always going to be special. It never won't be special. And it's not really for any reason than it just feels like coming home, at the end of the day. And getting to do what I love to do at home is something I never really thought I'd be able to do, so that will always be special to me. It just will."
One of 2025's standout local series since it debuted earlier in the year, The Last Anniversary has Palmer's Sophie Honeywell, an unlucky-in-love 39-year-old journalist, at its centre — as well as the waves that she makes when she inherits a house on Scribbly Gum Island from Connie (Angela Punch McGregor, Troppo), the grandmother of her ex-boyfriend Thomas (Charlie Garber, Barons). Macdonald plays the latter's twin sister Veronika, who is angry and antagonistic about Sophie being bequeathed one of her family's homes, still harbours resentment over their friendship fading, and is struggling with her own recently divorce and move back in with her parents (Aftertaste's Susan Prior and Audrey's Jeremy Lindsay Taylor). She's also attempting to kick her life back into gear with a project: a podcast about the baby Munro mystery that the small island is known for.
As a teenager, Connie (Elizabeth Cullen, Last King of the Cross) and her sister Rose (Josephine Blazier, also an Audrey alum) found and brought up an infant girl after young couple Alice and Jack Munro suddenly disappeared. Cue The Last Anniversary's jumps back and forth between decades. In its modern-day timing, that baby is now Enigma (Helen Thomson, Spit), and has a daughter, Grace (Claude Scott-Mitchell, Hotel Portofino), of her own that's just given birth herself — and the pair, plus Grace's partner Callum (Uli Latukefu, Countdown), are as much a part of the family, and the island, as Veronika, her mum and dad, and Rose (Richardson). As both Veronika and Sophie dig into everything they can about baby Munro, then, cue also long-kept-clandestine truths being spilled.
The Last Anniversary follows not only the Jamie Dornan (A Haunting in Venice)-co-starring The Tourist among the recent titles to Macdonald's name with local ties, but rom-com film Falling for Figaro, an Australian–UK co-production also featuring Joanna Lumley (Amandaland), as well. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You isn't Australian, but it did earn fellow Aussie talent Rose Byrne (Physical) the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Best Leading Performance — and it's opening 2025's Melbourne International Film Festival. Firmly homegrown is the upcoming Saccharine, though, with Australian Relic and Apartment 7A director Natalie Erika James behind the lens, and with Macdonald leaping into a genre that she doesn't watch herself: horror.
That journey from Glee and Patty Cake$ to The Last Anniversary, what appeals to Macdonald in a new project — Australian or not — and the mystery angles that have been appearing among her recent work: these also fuelled our discussion. We explored what excited her about stepping into Veronika's shoes, too, as well as playing a character that's almost reverting back to her teenage self, joining the growing lineup of Moriarty adaptations, working with her The Last Anniversary co-stars and more.
On Macdonald's Journey Over the Past 15 Years From an Episode of Glee to Patty Cake$, French Exit, The Tourist, The Last Anniversary and More
"Honestly, I think it's weird — because some people, you start out as an actor and you're like 'I want to be the lead of this and this', and I think I never actually really expected that, in a weird way. I think I was like 'I really want to be a working actor'. Like, 'I'll go from guest star to guest star, and I'll hopefully do recurrings on a show here or there, or maybe get a series regular, as a supporting character'.
I never actually expected what has happened, in a strange way. That wasn't actually part of my plan. I just really wanted to be a working actor — and I am a working actor, which is amazing.
But I've had more roles than I could have imagined that are just really, really cool, integral lead female characters That is really incredible and I didn't quite expect that, I'm not going to lie."
On What Excited Macdonald About The Last Anniversary and Specifically Stepping Into Veronika's Shoes
"She was fun. She's gone through something — but for me, it was really fun to explore.
I knew that I got to deal with someone that's regressing in life. She's someone that had moved out of home, had a job, was married. And now she's divorced, she's moved back home, she doesn't have a job and is just trying to figure out who she is.
That's fun to explore because it's that part of you that has to revert to being a teenager, in a weird way. Like when you move back in with your parents, or you go home just for the holidays, and your mum starts doing your laundry and cooking for you and everything. It's that kind of vibe.
And that was actually really, really fun for me to just get to play with, especially filming in Australia, because I moved away from Australia when I was 18. And so when I'm in Australia, that is weirdly where I revert a little bit more into being a teenager. So it was fun to get to come back here and play a character that is reverting a little bit more into being a teenager again.
So that was that was interesting to me. But I just love the story. I love the story. The story was amazing. And I knew I get to have a lot of fun with Veronica, and I just wanted to be a part of this world."
On What Macdonald Looks for in an Australian Project
"I think I look for the same thing no matter where in the world it is, to be honest. If I love a script, I love a script.
And sometimes it's a first-time filmmaker that's directing it. Sometimes it's a first-time scriptwriter. That doesn't really sway me. It's always stories first. That is the number one thing.
So if I read a script and I love a script and I relate to a script, I want to be a part of that. So that's always number one. And I think it's a feeling that you get. That's the best way to put it. It's not anything specific in a script — it's the feeling you get when you read it.
And I felt that for many, many different ones. For The Tourist, I could not put it down. I read four episodes in one sitting, could not put it down. I loved it. So I really wanted to be a part of it.
Same with this script. I read three episodes in one go.
I think Saccharine was actually interesting. It was a little different, because I don't read horror movies. I don't watch horror movies, so I'm not great at reading horror scripts. And my managers loved it, and so I read it, and I was like 'here's the thing — as someone that doesn't understand horror movies, I refuse to watch it because it terrifies me'.
But I can tell that it's a really well-written script, and this is a really interesting concept, that it was so funny — because that was actually a different experience going into it. Because I was like 'horror is the one genre that I don't understand and don't watch'. So that was actually more like I really loved the director, and I loved her vision, and that was really what drew me in.
And talking to her about it, I was like 'oh, this is bringing the script to life now in a way that I don't understand from initially reading, because I don't understand this genre — and when you explain it to me, I can visually see it'. And then it became really real.
So it really depends on the piece. And it always depends on the creatives. When you talk to people, that's when it really comes to life and you can see if their vision aligns with what you've read or not."
On Whether It's Exciting, Stressful or a Bit of Both to Step Into a TV Adaptation of a Liane Moriarty Book
"Liane's books just adapt really well. They're like these really strong characters. They're really complicated people. There's always a mystery-thriller element to it. And they work really well on-screen. I've always found that with all of her stuff.
And it is daunting in the sense that you know that there is all this pressure to follow up and everything. But in a weird way, I just saw it as an individual thing. I was like 'this is just an awesome book that has been adapted into an amazing script that has got this amazing cast and crew around it, and I get to be a part of it'.
I try not to really put expectation on any job I do. I think that that helps, because that way you just really stay in the moment and focus on what it is and the creative part of it.
So for me, it was more just loving the content that I got to work with. But, yeah, when you think about it, it's like 'wow, it's really cool that I get to be a part of this world that she has created'. And it's like little family in and of itself."
On Veronika's Path From Antagonism, Anger and Reverting Back to Her Teenage Self, Through to Perhaps Finally Realising Who She Is for the First Time — and the Juggling That Comes with It
"When you start, you know that the character's going to go on a journey — which is amazing because you don't want to ever have something be just two-dimensional. So it's definitely a balancing act of seeing a character grow.
And especially because we always shoot out of order, it's definitely trying to figure out 'okay, so this is the headspace that my character is in — and I know that she's growing here, but this hasn't quite happened yet. What impacts her? What is the change?'.
It is definitely a lot of figuring out, kind of like a mental timeline, honestly, for someone. And I'm really big on writing notes about where my headspace is at the time of which scene, so that I can shoot out of order and make sure that it tracks the whole way through.
But it's definitely a balancing act, because I want to keep the character, like who she is, Veronika, who she is from the beginning to the end — she is the same person. She is brash. She is going to speak her mind. That's not going to change just because she's becoming aware of what she wants to do with her life and who she loves. That's all happening, but she's still herself at the end of the day.
You don't want someone to be unrecognisable. It's baby steps. This happens over the course of not a huge amount of time. So it's like someone growing and evolving, but also remaining who they are at their core."
On Why Series with Mystery Angles Keep Popping Up on Macdonald's Resume — and Keep Appealing to Audiences
"I don't know. I feel like true crime has always been a thing, but it was never really talked about the same way. I think with social media and everything, all these true-crime lovers had all these spaces to talk about it for the first time.
Which I think is really cool — because when I think about it, there were all of the crime movies, they were always so popular when we were younger, or well before I was even born, even.
If you think about the movies — like The Godfather, that's a crime family. That's one of the greatest movies of ever.
So it's always been something that I think people have been fascinated by. There were also all those reenactment crime shows when I was growing up, I remember. And now that we have social media and we have Instagram, TikTok, there's now forums for people to chat about things.
And then when you hear about people online figuring out mysteries themselves, they're like Internet sleuths — you're like 'that is so cool'. Like, 'wow, everyone can become a detective'.
I used to watch Veronica Mars and it was about a teen PI, and I was like 'that's so cool'.
I feel like it's always been around, and now there's just a forum for people to talk about it and share their passion and love for mystery and thrillers and stuff. So I feel like this generation has evolved with technology into making it more of a thing that people talk about, maybe, but I feel like it's always been like bubbling there around, and it's just now kind of come into light."
On How Being Surrounded by Such a Stacked Cast Helps Your Own Performance
"It was so fun. It just really was. We all got along really well. We became this big, dysfunctional family. Our favourite scene that we filmed in the entire series was just a big dinner scene together. It was so much fun.
We had a great time. We had to really keep straight faces a lot of the time, because we were dying laughing — we were just having a good time. And that's a lot. When you're doing a 12-hour day and you're doing the same thing over and over again, it can get monotonous. And it wasn't. We were enjoying each other's company.
And then there was another day, later on in the series, there's a big anniversary — the last anniversary party — and we're all filming different little segments, and then we all get brought back to the same area. We got in trouble for being too loud because we were playing cards, and we were playing games together and having too much fun. They're like 'we're sending you guys back to base so you don't interrupt filming' because we just had so much fun.
It was just such a great time. We did genuinely love each other. And it happens on some sets. Some sets you just all click, you all find your way together and it's beautiful. And then other times, it doesn't quite happen that way — but this was one of those jobs that just was magical.
And I'm so, so glad we had such a great group of people that just really, really embraced each other. I think that's the big thing. It's being open to each other — and that was really beautiful about this job. I honestly loved it."
The Last Anniversary streams via Binge.
The Last Anniversary stills: Mark Rogers.