Jacqueline McKenzie: ‘I recognise my country: it’s brutal, it’s beautiful, it’s dangerous’

The mainstay of Australian cinema talks ‘bucket list’ projects, climbing trees and recognising her own history on screen

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As Jacqueline McKenzie and I chase the setting sun around the foreshore of Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay I ask her why this particular harbour inlet is so special to her – and for the next 30 or so minutes the conversation follows her stream of consciousness.

It starts with a love of gardening awakened unexpectedly during the final weeks of palliative care for her beloved late cairn terrier Hershal (“my beautiful canine partner of 16-and-a-half years”), and takes a circuitous, improbable route through the blight of meth addiction in Vancouver (where she lived in the mid-2000s while filming sci-fi series The 4400), her theatre training at Nida, and kayaking with the Irish actor Fiona Shaw (at the time, the partner of McKenzie’s Deep Blue Sea co-star and friend Saffron Burrows).

Continue reading… The mainstay of Australian cinema talks ‘bucket list’ projects, climbing trees and recognising her own history on screenGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAs Jacqueline McKenzie and I chase the setting sun around the foreshore of Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay I ask her why this particular harbour inlet is so special to her – and for the next 30 or so minutes the conversation follows her stream of consciousness.It starts with a love of gardening awakened unexpectedly during the final weeks of palliative care for her beloved late cairn terrier Hershal (“my beautiful canine partner of 16-and-a-half years”), and takes a circuitous, improbable route through the blight of meth addiction in Vancouver (where she lived in the mid-2000s while filming sci-fi series The 4400), her theatre training at Nida, and kayaking with the Irish actor Fiona Shaw (at the time, the partner of McKenzie’s Deep Blue Sea co-star and friend Saffron Burrows). Continue reading… Australian film, Life and style, Culture, Australian lifestyle 

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