by Dov Kornits
With a lead role in the indie feature The Longest Weekend, and eye-catching turns in the TV series Run, Sweet Tooth and Pieces Of Her, and a major part in the rollicking dystopian short film Cooee, young Aussie actress Mia Artemis is making big-time headway in the local industry.
The very coolly named Mia Artemis really has it going on. She’s got the right role models (Cate Blanchett and Gena Rowlands, no less), the right training (The Australian Theatre for Young People), the right attitude (surround yourself with good people and work hard), and the right instincts (everything she’s done has been interesting in different ways). Mia Artemis also two things you can’t learn: talent and presence. She’s made the most of smaller roles in major TV productions like Run, Sweet Tooth and Pieces Of Her, and tackled a lead role with aplomb in the 2022 low-budget indie The Longest Weekend. Currently leading the pack in the dystopian girl-gang Flickerfest short film Cooee, Mia Artemis’ time is now…
What’s your journey to becoming an actor? Was it something that you’ve always wanted to do?
“I caught the acting bug in Year 4 when I played the Witch in a school production of Into The Woods. I would watch videos of Bernadette Peters singing ‘Last Midnight’ over and over again to practice. I loved doing school holiday workshops at ATYP [The Australian Theatre for Young People], and from a pretty young age I was drawn to storytelling and performance. But it wasn’t until I was completing my HSC and booked my first professional role in The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant at The Old Fitz Theatre that it really clicked for me that this was something I wanted to pursue seriously and full time. Being in a professional rehearsal room for the first time completely changed the way I understood acting. In an all-female cast that took me under their wing – Sara Wiseman was the best onstage mum and off-stage mentor – it suddenly felt less like a hobby and more like a life I could actually build for myself.”
Where’d you grow up? Which actors fascinated you when you were growing up, and why?
“I was born in Sydney, but I grew up all over the place. My parents’ work meant we spent a lot of time in South-East Asia. Being exposed to so many different cultures from a young age made me curious about people very early on, which probably fed naturally into acting and storytelling. As a teenager, I was completely obsessed with Cate Blanchett…who wasn’t? I remember watching Blue Jasmine for the first time when I was fourteen and being completely floored by it. It felt like one of those once-in-a-generation performances. Years later, I felt the same way watching Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under The Influence. It’s the kind of performance that almost recalibrates your understanding of what acting can be. In 2015, my dad took me to see Chekhov’s The Present at STC, with Cate playing Anna Petrovna, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. What I’ve always loved about her work is the strength and intelligence she brings to every role, no matter how complex or chaotic the character is. At the time I was doing after-school classes at ATYP, and one day I saw her leaving The Wharf Theatre car park. I seriously considered leaving a note on her windshield telling her I was a fifteen-year-old aspiring actor, how much I loved her work, and that we should get coffee sometime. Thankfully, I didn’t. I’m not sure that would’ve gone down particularly well.”
Do you have a favourite role that you’ve played, and what made it special?
“Oooooh, this one is tough. I definitely tend to gravitate towards slightly chaotic, hardened characters. I love getting to the core of them and finding the softness underneath. That’s always been one of the most rewarding parts of acting for me. My favourite roles I’ve played are probably Kelly Fisher in Run and Paprika in Cooee. They’re both incredibly strong-willed women who are still searching for something deeper within themselves, which made them really exciting to explore. I’m drawn to characters who have a kind of toughness or volatility on the surface, but are quietly yearning for connection underneath it all.”
How did you cope with being a lead in The Longest Weekend?
“Stepping into the role of Lou was definitely daunting, particularly because I only joined the project around two weeks before filming began, after just wrapping on the Netflix series Pieces Of Her. I felt a real sense of responsibility stepping into such an emotionally complex character, especially as so much of the film rested on her internal world. Lou is carrying a tremendous amount of pain, and I knew I had to approach her with a lot of care and empathy. After spending time with the script and connecting to the truths within her, I slowly found my way into Lou’s emotional landscape and began to understand her much more deeply. By the time we started shooting, I felt ready to carry her safely and with the love she deserved. In many ways, it was one of the most demanding roles I’ve taken on, but also one of the most transformative.”
How do you find working between film and TV? Is one something you chime with better than the other?
“For me, film is a sprint, while TV is all about endurance. Both are challenging and rewarding in very different ways. I love the intensity and immediacy of film, but there’s something really special about the relationships you build with castmates over the course of a television series.”
You’ve worked on bigger budgeted projects, and also microbudget. Do they both have positives/negatives you can speak to?
“Both are so different. The financial constraints of a microbudget project definitely add a new layer of stress, but they also create a real sense of closeness between cast and crew. Everyone becomes quite tight-knit, like a little family. With a bigger budgeted project, the possibilities are endless, and that’s exciting in a completely different way. But I still want to know everyone’s name.”
Tell us about Cooee – an expansion of a short film – and the role that you play in that?
“I cannot begin to express how excited I am about Cooee. We spent a lot of time in the Snowy Monaro region bringing this story to life, and the energy on set never dropped. Set in a rural dystopia where AI has well and truly cemented its place in society, the film follows a group of teenagers navigating life with very little direction and almost no rules. I play Paprika, the leader of her gang, The Spice Girls. She’s a mutt, in the best way. Toby Morris created such a vivid world, and gave me a huge amount of freedom to really lean into Paprika’s unpredictability and push her into unexpected places. Aaron McLisky also shot the film beautifully, and because we’d worked together before, there was already a real sense of trust and shorthand on set. I don’t want to spoil too much, but Paprika was an absolute dream to play.”
What’s next?
“I’m currently writing a film with my closest collaborator, Christian Byers. We’ve worked together across a number of projects over the years, and finally decided to channel the strange little world we create together into something we have full creative control over. We’ve already shot a proof of concept and had interest from a production team, which is incredibly exciting, so stay tuned.”
Run is streaming now on Foxtel. The Longest Weekend is streaming now on Prime.
