Interview with Laura Linney
Can you tell us when you first read the story of “Jindabyne”?
I read the script two or three years ago. Anthony LaPaglia called me on the phone and said there’s a script coming your way that a really great director is doing and you should do it. And I listened to Anthony. So, I kept an eye out for it. It arrived. I read it, loved it, of course. It’s based on the Raymond Carver short story... [MORE]

Interview with Gabriel Byrne
What is “Jindabyne” about?
The story is about four men who come upon the body of a woman in the river and, not out of any sense of badness or lack of feeling, decide to leave the body in the river and not report it to the police until they get back from their fishing trip. [MORE]

Deborra-lee Furness
“Jude, my Jude—you always get very possessive of your characters. Jude is in a lot of pain. She comes across on the page as sort of grumpy, and she’s mean to her granddaughter, but it’s like anything, when you understand where someone is coming from, you get them. I love her strength to battle on, to fight through what she’s got to get through to come out the other side." [MORE]

John Howard
“All of the characters have some struggle in their personal lives. Carl is a fairly straightforward and honest person who runs a caravan park. He’s a shambling, pot-bellied man, of generally good humor, who drinks too much." [MORE]

Leah Purcell
“What I loved about the script was there were six strong lead characters and they all had their own journey. An ensemble piece is hard to write and hard to cover and, although it was a smaller part, Carmel, my character, had a middle, beginning and end. That’s something you look for as an actor, so you can really sink your teeth into it." [MORE]

Stelios Yiakmis
“Rocco is an unbelievable gift to me as an actor. He doesn’t have a great deal to say, he’s not stupid, but he’s not a great intellectual. He comes from a very visceral approach to life. That’s what people are looking for in story telling. The punters really don’t care what you think, they’re interested in how you feel in a situation. They’re interested in how human beings viscerally respond to being thrown into peculiar and challenging situations.”

Alice Garner
"Elissa is quite self-possessed and prepared to stand up for herself and for Billy. What’s important about the relationship between Elissa and Billy is that Billy is a very young man and he’s still open to influence, particularly from other, older men. I think Elissa’s concern is that he not be moulded by them into a kind of hard and uncommunicative man, which is what those older men seem to her to be." [MORE]

Simon Stone
“Billy is what Ray calls a blow-in. He’s just been brought by the winds of chance into this town, and he’s one of those marvelous chameleons that can adapt himself to any situation. He finds a home amongst strangers. I think that’s his eternal attempt in the film, to fit in and belong." [MORE]

Betty Lucas
"Vanessa is a mother, a grandmother and a mother-in-law. I think she is bossy. She has looked after Tom from when was a baby until he was 18 months old. She has become part of the household and she has taken over. Of course this woman is very efficient, she is a good housekeeper, but she is bossy. People develop habits you know, and unless some-one tells them they just keep going. She is lonely, and every time she leaves the place the audience sees she is unhappy." [MORE]

Chris Haywood
"As a character Gregory is the embodiment of an evil spirit. Here’s a community which is carrying on day- “to-day life when suddenly there’s a shocking murder that takes place and the perpetrator of this event is living there amongst them as if nothing is happening. I think it’s a very good sort of analogy as to what’s happening with the state of the world at the moment.”

Eva Lazzaro
“Caylin-Calandria lives in Jindabyne, in a caravan park. Her parents own a caravan park—well her grandparents do. Her mum’s died, and she has no dad. I must say, a lot of the time I feel sorry for her." [MORE]

Sean Rees-Wemyss
“Ray was just really kind and funny. He gave me a spider because I really love spiders because I know a lot about them. I’ve read nearly all the books on spiders in the Melbourne library." [MORE]