by Dov Kornits and Chris Daniel
Labelling Sarah Snook as a breakout star would be an understatement. The NIDA grad was raised in Adelaide and made her biggest professional impact with the androgynous role in Predestination, along with smaller parts in The Dressmaker, Oddball and Holding the Man. On television, she was the best thing about Spirited, The Secret River and The Beautiful Lie, and started making inroads overseas with a high-profile stage role opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder, and a supporting role in Steve Jobs.
Recently opening in the US to glowing reviews is The Glass Castle, from the makers of Short Term 12, and starring that film’s recently Oscar-minted leading lady Brie Larson. The film follows the remarkable story based on Jeannette Wall’s memoir of the same name, delving deep into the lives of her unconventional family in a time of extreme poverty. The film also features Woody Harrelson as Rex, an alcoholic father and Naomi Watts as Rose Mary, a painter and artist.
“Working between Australia and overseas at the moment is one of the great gifts of my life, and I hope I can continue it,” Snook tells us, having recently completed a role for her Predestination directors, the Spierig Brothers’ Melbourne-shot Winchester, opposite Helen Mirren.
In The Glass Castle, Snook plays Lori Walls, the eldest daughter of the Walls family. “She’s pretty smart and witty, with a sardonic streak,” says Snook. “I was in London doing The Master Builder, and a request to self tape a.s.a.p. came through. I had lunch to go to that weekend at my sister’s place to celebrate the birth of my niece, and this was the only time I could do it. So my sister helped me put the tape down. Except, that it was my niece’s feeding time and she had to… multi task. Certainly takes the pressure off putting down a good tape when your sister is breastfeeding on the other side of the camera…!”
In author Jeannette Walls’ story, she exposes all corners of her life, from the misery of her poverty-stricken childhood, to the beauty of art and the distractions it can create. “I met Jeanette when she came and visited set in the last couple of weeks,” says Snook. “I really could not imagine a more generous author, let alone one whose own life you are portraying on the big screen. Open to any questions, loaning her own clothing to be used as costume pieces, and even appearing with her husband as a passer-by in a scene!”
Although she got to meet Jeannette Walls, Snook chose not to pursue her older sister who she would play on screen. “I had inquired whether she’d be open to the idea of us meeting,” admits Snook. “The producers said that she’d been fairly distant from the production so far, and so I decided not to pursue it. I think it must be a fairly strange experience having your whole life first novelised, and then turned into a feature film. It is, after all, Jeanette’s story when it is told from her perspective. So I had a duty to play the character I saw through Jeanette’s eyes and what she’d written. Strangely though I met Brian Walls [Jeannette and Lori’s younger brother] at the premiere and he was convinced that Lori and I must’ve met…I guess Jeanette writes her sister well.”
Jeannette Walls transcended her challenging upbringing, becoming a revered journalist and best-selling author with The Glass Castle. These challenges informed and inspired the author. Does Sarah Snook have a similar tale to tell? “I think that everyone’s upbringing informs the person that they become. But the beauty of it, and the message of the film, is that it’s an individual’s choice how they respond to those experiences. In my own upbringing, I spent a lot of time camping with my family, as such I am a great lover of nature and the outdoors. However, another person with the same experience may never want to see the inside of a tent again.”
The Glass Castle is set for an Australian release on November 16, 2017
