AUSSIE SUPERSTAR PHOEBE TONKIN IS BACK, THIS TIME PLAYING A VULNERABLE CHARACTER IN NETFLIX’S LATEST MINI-SERIES, BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE. ALTHOUGH THE SHOW DEPICTS HEAVY TOPICS OF DRUG ABUSE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, TONKIN SAYS THAT THE ATMOSPHERE ON SET REMAINED JOYFUL AND POSITIVE, WITH A FOCUS ON CONVEYING A MESSAGE OF HOPE. WHAT’S NEXT? TWO FEATURE FILMS IN 2024 - KID SNOW AND AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY, AS WELL AS A DESIRE TO EXPLORE SOME MORE DIRECTING OF HER OWN IN THE FUTURE.
I first encountered you in H20: Just Add Water, a magical show that only spanned over three years but influenced so many childhoods. What was it like for you growing up with that show? Also, have you seen the “Oh Naur, Cleo” memes?
I went so quickly from school to working 12-hour days that I didn't really have anything to compare it to. It was like jumping in the deep end and I had no choice but to learn or I would probably be fired. I’m to blame for everyone thinking that all Australians speak like that, because that’s not the case. I was hoping I didn’t say “no” too much in Boy Swallows Universe. It's sweet to think of newer generations watching it because it’s been on Netflix for so long. I think what people loved about it back in the day, and seem to still love about it, is that there wasn't anything sassy about it. We didn't really care about boys, we cared about our friends and not getting caught.
Following H20, you played small roles in soaps like Packed to the Rafters and Home Away. Would you say that Australian soap operas are also incubators for Hollywood superstars?
In Australia, there's just not that many jobs. It's quite a small industry so it's like a right of passage. The same way that I had lived with H2O, here, you're not working 2 hours a day… you are learning 12 pages of dialogue every day! It's as hardcore of a learning experience as it gets. I would almost argue that every one of those actors sees it as one of the harder jobs because there's just so much, you're working every day and moving so fast. When I went on Home and Away, I realised that you get one or two takes, and then you’re moving on, so you better hope that you know the lines for the next seven scenes until you can go home.
You transitioned into the American market on the CW network with a show called The Secret Circle. I loved that show, I was ready for witches to become the NEW fantastic trope. How does an actor deal with a series being cancelled?
That was a unique situation because Kevin Williamson who did The Secret Circle had done Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries. So when he called to tell me The Secret Circle had been cancelled, that same phone call was to tell me that they had a part for me on The Vampire Diaries. But I was really sad when I got the call because I did love that show. I'm still so close with the actors, they're all my best friends and have been since we shot that.
But also thank god for the cancellation because we wouldn’t have discovered you in The Vampire Diaries franchise as Haley. What did you take away from being a part of The Vampire Diaries and the spin-off The Originals participating in yet another influential fantastic universe?
If H20 felt like a high school experience, then this definitely felt like college. We all lived in apartments in the same area. We all went to the same restaurant every weekend, to the same bar after the restaurant. It was very close knit. There was something safe and special about being in Atlanta together, working crazy hours together. I was excited to explore new things but I felt really safe in Atlanta.
Boy Swallows Universe, based on the coming-of-age novel by Trent Dalton, is an intense story about a family entangled with crime in Australia. How did you feel when you first read the script? Have you already read the book prior?
I was given the book as a Christmas gift a few years earlier and I was very well aware of Trent Dalton. It was a great resource to have and John Collee, who wrote the series, did an amazing job at adapting it. It's always hard to adapt such a beloved book and a story that everyone, especially in Australia, loves so much. It was really nice to be able to draw from the book, especially in the details. For example, when my character Frankie goes to pick up the Atari with Lyle and the boys, she’s wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt that she’d had since she was younger, and suddenly she feels really out of place wearing that in the suburbs. Those specific little details from the book allow you to focus on things. Sometimes in scripts you don't really get the backstories, you don't get to feature them as much.
The show depicts graphic criminal activity shown through a kid’s perspective. How did that affect your portrayal of Frankie, the protagonist’s mother?
It was written through Eli's perspective which helped because when I was thinking about some of the really traumatic scenes, I focused on what pieces he would notice as a kid. For example, the scene where Frankie is coming off drugs, in his 12-year-old mind, that’s as much of a horrifying scenario as it gets. I really wanted to focus on making sure that even just my hair looked quite scarring and frightening so that physically it replicated what he was imagining. This story is being told by an adult, an older Eli revisiting his childhood memories. So what would you remember from that moment? Would you remember the dirt under the fingernails? The sweat on the t-shirt?
That scene was really impactful. How did you prepare to embody your role?
I read a lot of stories online. I really focused on addicts writing letters to their family members explaining that the situation is out of their control. Addiction is a disease and they're not trying to hurt their loved ones. They're not trying to hurt themselves, they're in so much pain, they're suffering so much and this is just as bad for them as it is for their loved ones. So that was really important [for me] to ground Frankie. At the end of the day, she just wants to be the best mum she can be. I looked at this woman who was trying her best with what she had at that moment. On the other side of that, a lot of the moments that we see Frankie in, she is healthy. So if anything, most of my focus was on recovery and people who have gone through traumatic experiences and successfully came out of it.
The series highlights a lot of important issues like the broken prison system, drug abuse in Australia and domestic violence. What would you say the show wanted to denounce?
Drugs are some people's only option. Lyle is dealing to take care of his family. That is the only option that he sees within the restraints of his life that he has to get his family out of this situation that they are in. So I think that there's this sense of compassion that the show has for that world. Even with the domestic violence aspect, it was obviously really difficult to film, but again, it showed that Frankie moved into it trying to make a safe home for her children. And that scene where she is breaking plates after she sees this literal representation of a family dinner being destroyed by Terry’s dogs is some kind of breaking point for her.
It's poetic, there’s a lot of symbolic imagery which serves as a foreshadowing. What do you want people to take away from the show?
As cliché as it is, the idea that what doesn't break you makes you stronger. Sometimes those really hard moments are what shapes you as a person and dictates the way in which your life can go. I think that's why Trent made this book.
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Discover the full story in our upcoming SS24 CRAZY LOVE Issue - mid March release.
Interview by Gabrielle Valda Colas
Photography by Olivia Malone
Fashion by Carolina Orrico
All clothes Chanel
Casting by Imagemachine Cs
Hair by Hikaru Hirano
Make-Up by Kara Bua
Set Design by Kelly Infield
Stylist’s assistant Mari Enos
