Playing a Woman Who Impersonates Her Teenage Daughter in a Dark Australian Comedy: Jackie van Beek Talks 'Audrey'

Some actors have a type. The films change, and the names of their characters as well, but it can feel as if they're always playing a variation of the same person. That sensation doesn't apply to Jackie van Beek's work. Many movie lovers discovered her on-screen as Jackie, the human familiar to a Wellington sharehouse-dwelling vampire in What We Do in the Shadows. In the decade since the hit comedy, she's helped end romances in The Breaker Upperers, which she also co-wrote and co-directed with Deadloch star Madeleine Sami — and then disrobed for Nude Tuesday, this time penning the script solo, alongside portraying a woman who attempts to reignite the spark in her marriage by heading to a couples' retreat where clothes are often optional.

Now arrives Audrey, a delightfully dark Australian comedy from first-time feature director Natalie Bailey (Bay of Fires, Joe vs Carole, Run) and screenwriter Lou Sanz (The PM's Daughter, 6 Festivals) that enlists van Beek as a former star. Decades after her Logie-winning heyday, Ronnie Lipsick hasn't given up on her showbiz dreams. The world beckoned when she was at the top of the acting game, but then she had her first daughter and settled into married life; however, she still knows what she wants. Her focus after 18 years of being a mum: ensuring that the movie's eponymous figure (Josephine Blazier, Fires) makes it big as well, whether she likes it or not. Nothing is going to stop Ronnie in this quest — not even Audrey falling into a coma.

There's regular second chances, and then there's Ronnie's path. When Audrey can't follow the route to fame and fortune that's been plotted out for her, Ronnie impersonates her instead. There's endeavouring to cope with tragedy, and then there's the Lipsick family's response to Audrey's plight as well — including on Ronnie's husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Force of Nature: The Dry 2) and younger daughter Norah's (Hannah Diviney, Latecomers) parts. 

As keeps proving the case across van Beek's filmography, no one will mistake Audrey for any other movie. After debuting at SXSW in Austin, the blackly and sharply hilarious feature now hits Australian cinemas in what's been a busy year for its lead. Off-camera in 2024, the New Zealand talent was one of the driving forces behind the Australian version of The Office, and also directed an episode of Time Bandits.

Audrey appealed to van Beek's love of dark comedy, she tells Concrete Playground. Unsurprisingly, Ronnie stood out as the kind of character that isn't a standard fixture on-screen. When The Breaker Upperers released in 2018, she chatted with us, alongside Sami, about creating roles for the two that didn't exist otherwise. Now, van Beek advises that when she was reading Audrey's script, she thought "oh, she's delicious. She's so challenging to like. I thought as an actor, it'll be such a great kind of joy to try, and to try to pull her off with some degree of charm."

"When I read Lou Sanz's script, Ronnie Lipsick is a morally ambiguous, very career-driven kind of obsessive mother, and I just thought 'what a delight'. Because you don't come across these characters — especially as a female — you just don't come across these characters very often. Well, I hadn't," van Beek notes. "I love dark comedy. I think I was probably told the premise, I imagine by Lou or the producer Michael Wrenn before I read the script. So as soon as I heard the premise, I was like 'ooh, this sounds perfectly dark for me'. I love comedy, but I do really like the edginess of this premise. I think someone who prioritises resurrecting her career over nursing her daughter back to health is a very interesting character to play."

Also built into Audrey: recognition that being a mother shouldn't mean giving up on your own journey, an adult coming-of-age tale and a woman's quest, albeit by highly questionable means such as pretending to be her teenage offspring, to reclaim her own sense of self. We discussed all of the above with van Beek, too, alongside what she drew upon to play Ronnie, portraying such a tricky character in a heightened story, what gets her excited about a new project, what you learn making a movie like Audrey and more.

On the Film's Ability Not Only to Rally Against Traditional Visions of Womanhood and Motherhood, But to Take That Idea to a Comedic Extreme

"It was an interesting take, because I think we've seen a lot of films, dramas and comedies, about women who are struggling, as a lot of us do — women who are struggling with that work/life balance, being being pulled one way as a mother, being pulled another way by their career. And I think we're quite used to those stories.

I think this film, obviously what I love, really pushes it to a comedic extreme. I mean, I find Ronnie kind of delusionally adorable, but also abhorrent. I hope that I'm a very different woman to her. But it was delightful to play, because pushing the idea that women aren't born simply to reproduce or mother, but are born to bring about your hopes and dreams, through a career or what have you, is fun.

I did find Ronnie Lipsick to be quite mentally unhinged, and in need of some professional help, I would say. She's really spinning off the planet. She's such an egotist. She's so vain. And she's really lost sight of what's important in life. But I do love this idea, to the extreme in Lou's script, that she absolutely prioritises her career over her over her daughter's health."

On Finding Inspiration to Play Ronnie — and Always Trying to Win the Audience Over

"I'm a mother myself. I have three children, so obviously I was able to easily draw on my own life for the harried mum aspect of the character — organising the pickups, all the logistics with the husband, wanting them to do well. So I've drawn on a lot of that.

In terms of her being  dangerously delusional, I didn't have much to go on from my real life. So what I did was, I came up through theatre, I was in theatre for like 20 years before I got into TV and film, and a lot of my training was about trying to win the audience over. So whether or not you were a hero or a villain, you try to charm the audience so much that you can have them onside. 

I really thought that would be a fun game to play, just for myself, over the course of production, to see — by finding vulnerability or delusion or asking the audience to sympathise with me in any way — whether or not I could win the audience over to my side, so they would, I guess, forgive Ronnie for some of the choices she made."

On Ensuring That Depth Shines Through When You're Playing Such a Tricky Character in a Heightened Story 

"It was hugely important for me to navigate a truth for the character throughout the story. And, in some scenes that was harder than harder than others, because it is a very heightened story, and a very heightened reality that we were playing within. 

Natalie Bailey, the director, was fantastic at helping me navigate that — as was Lou, the writer, who was on set the whole time, which was incredibly useful.

But it was really important to me that I could feel truth in every single scene. And so some of the more heightened ones, I really had to lean into Ronnie's delusion, I guess — so that I thought if I, as Ronnie, can actually believe what I'm saying, even if it seems ridiculous to everybody else in the scene and in the audience, as long as I can believe it, it should feel like a real human being that's going on a journey. 

But some scenes are more tricky than others. That's a fun challenge. I love reading a role where I go 'ooh, this is going to be quite tricky'. And it was. It was such a fun challenge to take on that part."

On Adult Coming-of-Age Stories Blossoming as a Genre — and Tales of Women Aiming to Reclaim Their Identities

"I'm not sure why it's coming up more now. Maybe because more adults have access to therapy and so people are reflecting on these things? Definitely on my to-do list is to carve out time to go to see therapists. I haven't quite managed to do it yet.

But I'm really enjoying the stories coming out at the moment, especially with female protagonists, about women around my age — I'm 48 — who have realised that they've lost a sense of self and they are really struggling to find a way to reclaim an identity.

I think what interests me is a lot of people, they don't go deep enough, and try to just reclaim their youth through surgery or affairs or whatever. I'm really fascinated by that. I think all women that I know have just read Miranda July's All Fours, which I think is an incredible examination of that kind of reclaiming that sense of self. It's a fascinating subject."

On Audrey, the Australian Version of The Office and Time Bandits All Reaching Screens Within Months of Each Other

"The momentum of that is quite strange because, of course, these projects all happened at quite different times and it really is coincidence, I think, that everything lands in the same few months. It all depends on how long the post-production is or the distributor. But it's exciting to have things come out. 

I'm always someone who really itches to get a project in front of an audience to get that response. But I'm also someone who doesn't really dwell on the response, because I've always moved on to a million other things.

But I love it — as I said before, I came up through theatre, so it was all about working as hard as you can and then opening night, the curtains open and you give the projects to an audience, you share that. So it's always a relief for me when something finally is out there and you're like 'oh good, okay, actually it's opening night, the curtains are parting, and people can actually now watch it and respond'.

I think I do find it hard when you're in development for a number of things, and nothing's on-screen or you're not delivering anything to an audience. You just feel like you're working in this weird, insular bubble, and what's the point if nobody is able to see this thing you're working on and respond to it.

And then, of course, with every response you learn so much about what we've created. And I then I take that onto my next projects. I'm very invested in learning, I guess."

On What Gets van Beek Excited About a New Project at This Stage of Her Career

"The most-exciting element for me with new projects is the team on it. There are so many people from all around the world, of all different levels of experience, that I'm just dying to work with. And so for my own projects, I of course seek these people out to collaborate with — actors, directors, writers. I think that is the driving force.

Second to that, well, actually shooting location is quite important for me because I have three kids and my youngest is still only 12. So I am always trying to prioritise projects like Time Bandits that can be made here in New Zealand, so that I don't have to be away from the kids and my family for too long.

And then, of course, the project itself — I'm very drawn, and always have been, to projects which will potentially polarise. I kind of find it thrilling to take on a project or be a part of a project that I think could go either way. The Office, for example, it did seem so silly to create the 13th version of The Office. But, of course, I leapt at the opportunity knowing it was going to be the first version with a female lead, and I knew that was quite high-risk because people are so besotted with the UK and the US versions. But it was that risk that really thrilled me.

And the same with when I get involved in some local low-budget films here in New Zealand, sometimes it's the project that draws me, like it's something that I've never kind of seen before or they're taking a big risk on something. And I'm like 'ooh, I'd love to be a part of that because I like the thrill of it'. I'm not really drawn to something that feels quite kind of tried and true, I guess."

On What van Beek Learned Starring in Audrey

"It's interesting. I think when I'm acting in other people's films or projects, I learn a lot about writing and directing. And then  I feel like when I'm writing and directing my own projects, I learn a lot about acting.

I think I learn a lot from the other people that are surrounding me. And I really enjoy jumping between acting, writing and directing for that. So I'm constantly shifting roles and having these experiences from both sides.

But I think with Audrey, I'm a real believer in 'if you say yes to a project, then you really are giving yourself over to that writer and especially to the director'. So once I say yes to something, I'm pretty much like 'what do you want me to do?' — like 'here I am, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything.'. I don't say yes to a project unless I unless I'm prepared to offer up everything."

Audrey opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 7, 2024.