Transcribed by Adam Leuenberger
Tell us about your character in After the Dark.
Georgina is one of the students of the philosophy classroom of the International School in Jakarta. She's quite [an] outspoken girl; she's very fashion-forward in the way she dresses. We've tried to mix the batik Indonesian fabrics with the modern look to show how incorporated she is into her culture.
How did the screenplay first come to you?
I was first sent it by my agent, and I read it, and I was instantly drawn to - number one - how it was set in Indonesia. This idea that the universal telling of a student in a classroom, and the things they go through, can be universal no matter where it is. Whether it is in America, or England, or Indonesia. After that, I read it and put myself on tape for it, and then I met with John Huddles, and Georgia, and Cybill Lui, and then we just talked a lot about it and talked about the character. I think John and I wanted not to make Georgina how she can be read sometimes in the script. She can be read quite bitchily, or a bit forward-minded, and sort of speaks her mind quite openly, so we wanted her... We still wanted her to have a loveable aspect to her that the audience could feel for her in the situations where she was being chosen into the bunker. So I think that's what helped me to gain my angle on the character.
What was it like shooting in Indonesia?
I've never been to Indonesia before, I have been, a lot of times, to Asia, but I was interested in coming here. [It is] such a massive country and the population is just so huge, I don't think anyone ever realizes it. I think Jakarta as a city is pretty crazy. It is very loud and busy and full of traffic, but everyone seems still incredibly warm-hearted and kind, and all the places we've been to, you get such an amazing taste of how diverse the country is in terms of environments and weather and atmosphere. I think my favorite was... I loved all three locations, but I loved the island of Belitung. It was just [a] perfect paradise and absolutely in the middle of nowhere, which made the characters in the film really real in the sense [that] we could be the only people left on earth. I think all of us felt an amazing energy from the Prambanan temples in the sense that we'd been blessed to be able to film in such incredible historic locations. That, just generally, is never able to happen on film. That was an amazing honor for us.
Tell us about your experience driving a Land Rover in Mt. Bromo.
I was always excited. I remember when I passed my test I was always looking forward to driving an actual car in a film. I think my first ever time was a six-wheeled Land Rover in the desert lands of Mt. Bromo. It was a very slow car, and it was crazy. Luckily I could drive a manual stick. But It was pretty crazy because we were running and all this dust was going everywhere. And as we are driving, we couldn't see anything in front of us, so we were just going. So it was exciting. A lot of times you had to start takes again because it wouldn't change gears. It was really good.
