film

I was walking through the Queen Street Mall with my maternal grandparents. The mall was quite empty of people but there was a film crew filming a scene of a movie. We walked quietly past, out of view of the cameras. The crew stopped filming and came to talk with us—they told us it was a film about (or by) the Australian artist and poet, Michael Leunig and that they needed to cast a part for a 16 year old run-away singer. My grandfather told them that I would be perfect for the part and that I was only 19. I laughed and told them that I was twenty years older than that but they seemed to think that with the right makeup and lighting, I could pull it off. (I was only around that age when my grandfather died so I would probably be only 19 or 20 in his eyes.) I started a three-month training program to get in shape for the role. B & I were throwing a big plastic garbage bag full of clothes to each other, as part of the fitness regime. Next, I remember sitting down to watch the film. We laughed as we watched the section where, as the 16 year old run-away singer, I sang a song called ‘Starlight’ from inside a bus, gazing out the window. They had given me braces and had a soft-focus lens on the camera to make me look younger. It was still a little dubious as to whether the transformation was convincing.