by Annette Basile
“We’ve definitely made a lot of progress, but there is always a way to go,” says Riley Nottingham [pictured left, with Strange Creatures co-star Johnny Carr] when asked how mainstream Australian cinema and TV are travelling in terms of telling LGBTIQ stories.
“I think the more stories we make, the more variety we will continue to cultivate within those stories,” he continues. “LGBTIQ encapsulates a whole lotta different types of people and experiences, and we’re proud that Strange Creatures can showcase pansexuality and how that impacts – or doesn’t – two brothers’ relationship. I think it’s getting better every year though, it’s an exciting time for our community.”
Riley Nottingham co-produces and co-stars in Strange Creatures, a dramedy about two estranged brothers who are forced into an uneasy road trip, travelling from Melbourne to Narrabri in NSW to scatter their mum’s ashes on the family’s old property.
Nottingham is Nate – a clean-cut pansexual with a funeral director boyfriend – who supplies the brothers with a hearse to travel in – and a job as a paralegal. Nate is the polar opposite of his brother, the rougher and tougher Ged (Johnny Carr).
Strange Creatures was written and directed by Henry Boffin, who Nottingham has collaborated with several times before – most notably on the acclaimed TV comedy series Metro Sexual, where Nottingham plays a doctor in a sexual health clinic.
“Henry cast me in one of his first short films back in 2010,” Nottingham tells FilmInk, “and then we made We are Darren & Riley with Screen Queensland funding, Hitstroke FM for TVNZ and Virgin Australia, and two seasons – so far – of our sitcom Metro Sexual … We’ve also done little music videos and things here and there. Henry will take on anyone’s ideas and is often called one of the friendliest directors that people have ever met. He’s very humble but has a clear vision – I always tell people, he’s the Chris Nolan of our generation. You heard it here first!
Asked how Strange Creatures was born, Nottingham explains that he and Boffin “were brainstorming a bunch of different ideas.
“I really wanted to do a feature film after a few years in TV world, so we held a writers’ room back in 2022, and I think it was on the last day that Henry pitched this personal story he’d been working on for a few years – it was about family, about relationships – and we both just went, ‘That’s it!’ We pitched it to some investors and partners and it wasn’t too long until we started pre-production!”
While Nottingham stresses that Strange Creatures is a work of fiction, it was inspired by Boffin’s life and family. And as the youngest of four boys, Nottingham can “definitely relate to the importance and uniqueness of those relationships.”
Some road trip movies move from place to place but fail to take the viewer anywhere – but Strange Creatures takes you on a real journey as it explores the fractured relationship of two brothers who were once so close that they were called the ‘cuddle brothers’. The film takes in superb scenery along the way, and was filmed, says Nottingham, across “something like 27 or 28 different locations.
“Each day had the additional logistical stress of, ‘Where am I going? What’s the traffic? Where do I park?’, which is pretty boring [laughs], but is just an added brain stress.
“We filmed all through Victoria and a bit into NSW and everyone was so accommodating … Driving in the hearse though, with windows closed, no A/C … that was pretty hot [laughs]. I think it was 40-something degrees internal temperature.
“There had been recent flooding in some of the areas we were in, but despite that, all the locals were so positive and I think excited to be having a movie shooting in their hometown. We filmed a fair bit in Broadford [central Victoria] and a number of the locals were happy to be background actors in the movie too.”
Strange Creatures is already making waves overseas and the film was selected to screen at the Cannes movie market, Marché du Film, which runs parallel with the celebrated film festival. The Cannes experience, says Nottingham, was “amazing” – and hearing “people laugh in the right spots” was “electric.
“There was lots of interest at Cannes, and we actually closed a global sales deal out of it … I want to go to Cannes every year, it was so bloody awesome.”
Metro Sexual also broke out of the Australian small screen and is streaming across the four corners of the globe. No doubt the talented Nottingham’s next projects will meet with the same success…
“My husband Declan and I have created a new TV series set in the world of politics, and he’s been madly writing that for the last year or so. We’re excited to announce something on that front soon, and we also have a couple of features in the works – one a horror. We’re also about to start filming a short film. And we’re always looking to do Season 3 of Metro Sexual if anyone’s listening!”
Strange Creatures is in cinemas from 21 November 2024
