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In a candid conversation, the acclaimed performer reflects on topics ranging from her latest role as a regal sea creature to the invaluable wisdom gleaned from onstage mishaps and fan interactions.

If You Could Be a Sea Creature for a Day

Your latest character portrays the monarch of the cuttlefish in The Pout-Pout Fish; supposing you had the opportunity to be a fish for a day, which one would you choose and why?

Straight away, that particular fish found at Clovelly beach – because it’s a local landmark, and people go there specifically to spot it. I just think it’s cool that a resident aquatic creature that people actually go and see and talk about – it holds a unique status.

A Cinematic Favorite to Return To

Which movie do you repeatedly watch, and why?

Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 comedy To Be Or Not To Be. I adore this film. During my growing up, it used to come on television occasionally, and one time I recorded it. I just thought it was hilarious. It stars the legendary Carole Lombard and Jack Benny. Not long ago they were playing it at a cinema and I discovered that it was also the favourite film of a friend of mine, and so we attended and just laughed repeatedly. It is a masterful work of comedy and all the actors in it are superb. The director Mel Brooks did a remake in the 1980s – that wasn’t as effective. But Lubitsch's version is a brilliant comedy, worth viewing often.

The Best Insight Learned From a Co-Star

What’s the best lesson you learned from someone a colleague?

I was doing A Doll’s House with Pete – my husband now, but at the time we were not a couple. We portrayed characters opposite each other and during the premiere I stumbled – I skipped forward some dialogue in the script. I was unaware what I’d done but I abruptly sensed something wasn’t right. I remember glancing toward him, and he completely saved me, and then our performance took off again and proceeded splendidly. But I think the insight gained in that moment was, firstly, consistently rely on the people you’re working with. When you lose your place, by looking and look at the people sharing the stage with, you can rediscover your correct position in some way. It is a profoundly communal thing, acting on stage. And secondly, just to have a lighthearted attitude regarding it. Sometimes when a mistake occurs, things actually spark off in a really great direction if you’re really present in that moment. It may become an unexpected boon when things go absolutely the wrong way.

Heartening Interactions with Fans

Can you describe your most memorable interaction with a fan?

It’s not a single specific meeting but when I meet fans of Lord of the Rings, especially female fans, I am told numerous accounts about how that character impacted them when they were growing up … things that had happened in their lives and the extent to which that character signified for them and was some kind of help to them in those times.

Which questions get asked most frequently by Lord of the Rings fans?

The most specific question is always about the stew that Eowyn serves Aragorn. “Was the stew as terrible as it looked?” It has evolved into such a joke, the entire episode about the stew, and everyone wants to know the contents of the pot, and its preparation method, and do you think she’s a better cook now, or do you believe she really is a poor chef? Fans seem, in my view, fascinated by the comedy of that situation. And I go into great detail listing the ingredients that made up the concoction – because I remember what they did; like they even adding pieces of colored thread to make it look like bits of veins in the meat. The crew employed great detail to render it as bad as they could.

An Awkward Star Meeting

What’s been your most cringeworthy run-in with a famous person?

I attended a pilates class and there was a woman on a mat exercising, and the instructor said to me, “Oh, Miranda, meet Miranda.” And I attempted a lighthearted remark inquiring, “might you be a journalist?” Since Miranda is an uncommon moniker and often when I meet another Miranda, they’re a journalist. I wasn’t really seeing who it was. And when she got up, it was the actress Miranda Richardson. At that point, I was at a loss for words. I still had to stay and do my class, and I felt intense awkwardness. I wanted to say: “Oh my gosh, I do know who you are!” I consider she’s so fabulous and I was simply too awestruck to say anything.

The Source of a Moniker

Articles have confidently claimed that you were given your name from Prospero’s daughter in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and yet I’ve read you saying otherwise – can you settle the matter once and for all?

Yes – I was named after the Sydney suburb. My mother learned via broadcast that they were inaugurating a shopping centre at that location, and she thought seemed a nice name.

Chaos on Location

What’s the most chaotic thing that’s ever happened on set?

While working in Brazil on Reaching for the Moon I experienced the least organized set of my career, and yet the film emerged incredibly well. But the local crew operated in such a different way. Their concept of time there is really different. In Australia, you receive a schedule and you have to be on set by a certain time. But this was sort of open ended – you come on set at one's convenience. It was a novel way of working for me. All aspects were being assembled at the final moment, and at times they wouldn’t know where they were shooting or the methodology. And then I would be in the middle of a scene and be like, “What caused that sound that just interrupted the scene? Ah, it was the producer opening a bottle during filming, because he’s making a party.” The result was great, but wow, it’s a distinct style of film-making.

A Secret Talent

Do you have a secretly good at?

I’ve always been an aptitude for numbers. I memorise numbers easier than I learn dialogue a lot of the time, I simply have a numerically-oriented mind. So I think had I not ended up in acting, I probably would have entered a field something to do with numbers, like math or accounting.

The Best Piece of Advice Given

What is the greatest piece of advice you have ever received?

When I was in high school, a speaker came to speak when we were graduating and they said, “don’t be afraid to fail” … which I think is supremely valuable counsel, because you learn so much more from setbacks than is gained from success. With success, you never really understand precisely why it happened. Failure, the lessons are abundant.