CraveOnline: Last year, this year and next year, when you see the Hobbit movies come out, is it making you nostalgic?
Miranda Otto: Oh, I always feel nostalgic about that time in New Zealand. It was very, very special. It was such a big movie and yet it was so intimate. It’s hard to describe but Fran and Pete and Philippa, they make such a family atmosphere. Even though it could be six units shooting at once or seven units, it was everyone over to Pete’s place and watch this and do that. It was just a very unique special experience.
Is it weird to know there are more movies coming out without you?
Well, my character wasn’t around in The Hobbit. She wouldn’t have been alive so she obviously was never going to be a part of that, so no, I don’t feel like it’s weird. They’d have to be an elf or something to be back in The Hobbit. It makes sense that Cate [Blanchett] and Hugo [Weaving] are back there.
What is your role on the upcoming series “Rake?”
I’m playing Greg Kinnear’s ex-wife and the mother of his son.
Sam Raimi directed the pilot. Did he do any more?
Yes, he directed the pilot and another episode in it, and he’s an executive producer. He’s a lovely man.
How many have you shot so far?
We are just about to go into 106. I’ve shot five.
What is his interaction with the ex-wife going to be week to week?
Oh, you’ll have to wait. There’s a lot to do with our son as well and other relationships. I think they have a great relationship. That’s what interested me so much about doing it. I’ve seen the Australian show and I just thought that they did such a great job of writing such strong roles for the women as well. I think they have a really interesting relationship. I’m looking forward to people seeing it.
Have you been making moves towards doing U.S. television since “The Starter Wife?”
Yes, I like doing TV. I like the idea of going to work with the same people. I find in film, we’re always making things and having these intense friendships and then losing track of people. When I first start a job I’m quite nervous and it takes me a while to find my place, and then it feels like I’m just really loving it and feeling great and it’s all over.
I think with TV, you create kind of a family to work with. You come in and you’re working with the same people. I really like it, so yeah, I have looked more at that and just the idea of being in one place for a period and working on a character over a period of time and not really knowing in the beginning where it’s going to go is interesting to me.
Is “Rake” shooting here in L.A.?
Yes, it is.
So have you been here for a while?
You know, I’ve been here for a while because I did a pilot for earlier in the year, and then I did a film called The Homesman, a Tommy Lee Jones film, so I went down to New Mexico and worked on that so I went back for a month or two in the middle of the year to Australia but basically I’ve moved here now. So I’ve been here most of the year and I’m loving it.
Were you surprised that the “Locke & Key” pilot didn’t go?
Yes, I was. So many people ask me about that. It was so beautiful. I thought they did such an amazing job with it and the big rumor that I always hear or the word that I heard was that it was so good, they didn’t know how they could actually maintain that level every week. That was what I heard. The quality, the standard that they had set in the pilot was like, “How would you achieve that in a week to week show?” I heard now that they might be making a film of it which would be great.
It’s a terrific book, really terrific. The ideas in it are so interesting. The ideas in it are really quite hard. I was looking at it like how are we going to do all this stuff where they’re taking memories out of people’s heads and stuff? Maybe that’s another reason that it didn’t go, because that was so challenging. It’s quite big conceptually.
What character did you play on that pilot?
I was Nina. I was the mom of the kid.
If that had gone, would you have missed out on Reaching for the Moon?
I don’t know because when I signed on, it was going to be 13 per year and it was going to play over the summer. That was the idea for it, for the show. That’s what it was going to be so it may not have made me miss out because I’m not sure what part of the year we would have shot in and all of that, so I may not have missed out on it.
Are there some earlier movies of yours you would like our readers to rediscover?
There’s a film I did years ago, Love Serenade, that I still really love. It’s such an oddball sense of humor. It was a really special film for me when I did it.
What were the films or performances that inspired you to become an actor?
You know, I grew up watching my father in the theater. I think I was inspired by a lot of those things. I was very, very inspired by seeing my father play Uncle Vanya on stage. He was an amazing Uncle Vanya. I think that was probably one of the defining moments, but another thing I was really influenced by as a kid was I saw Bugsy Malone and I loved that movie so much when I was kid, and I still love gangster movies. I think they’re my guilty pleasures, any of those kind of movies set during the ‘20s, during that whole period, I find always really enjoyable.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
