‘Screaming girls chased me down the street’: how we made Strictly Ballroom | Culture

Tara Morice, played Fran

Baz Luhrmann was this great guy two years ahead of me at NIDA, the acting school in Sydney. After graduation, I joined his six-year-old company and the show Strictly Ballroom came out. It was inspired by Keith Bain, who taught school administration. He was a ballroom dancer who left Australia for South America in the 1950s and came back with these amazing steps. We talked a lot about the Paso Doble, and from there came the Spanish immigrant Fran. I decided to call it Frangipani because Sydney has frangipani trees everywhere. On my way to rehearsals, I usually take one flower to put in my hair.

I was doing that play when I met Craig Pearce; he and Baz were old friends and ended up working on the screenplay. Craig and I were together for 13 years, and we have a daughter. But it wasn’t obvious that I would play Fran in the film. I tried seven shows over the course of a year. Craig tells me, “I always think of you when I write Fran.” At this time, I was asking myself: “What will happen to me and him if I don’t take the part?” I felt Fran’s ownership because I worked with her for a long time.

I was just told I was cast the night before we started. Even once we were filming, I had doubts: I’m not pretty enough, I can’t dance well – which is 100% Fran.

Baz had already offered me a production job with Paul Mercurio, who played Scott. Paul was a wonderful dancer with the Sydney Dance Company but had never done anything, while I had done the show but had very little dance experience. We met in the middle. Fran and Scott are in the middle of their natural world surrounded by larger than life characters. This is similar to Baz’s style, unique. It has changed over the years but Strictly Ballroom is where they made it.

None of us could have believed that we were making the film. It was very difficult to get money, and everyone told Baz it wouldn’t work. But I will never forget going to the set. Fran’s house was very nice. It was winter and frangipani didn’t flower so Catherine Martin (a designer and Lurhmann’s wife) made them and stuck them on trees. We did the show until 2am because they needed the train to go through Fran’s house.

Paul and I traveled the world for a year promoting the film. There was crocodile Dundee, but this was different. Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert came later, and I think Strictly Ballroom set the stage for Australian filmmakers who made bold choices and created a different image of the country. It’s still a blokey culture, let’s be honest. But something changed.

Paul Mercurio, played Scott

I got a call from a great guy named Baz, who said he was making a film about ballroom dancing. They wanted someone to record Scott’s unconventional ways. I said: “No problem.” Then he called again a year later when he had the money to make the film. He wanted me to try to play Scott.

I always love watching Baz work. He was very thoughtful and intelligent: a little loopy, a little out there. I have a line from that movie on my fridge: “Dance your steps.” I always did this to myself, even when I was a little kid doing ballet in the 1970s. I had friends in elementary school who wanted to beat me. There was such a thought: boys don’t do ballet. Billy Elliot was like my story.

One of my favorite things about Strictly is fulfilling a dream I had, she says: “Men’s dancing is better.” A guy came up to me once, a big guy six feet tall, three and a half, in a singlet and shorts. He said: “My wife dragged me kicking and screaming to your video – and it was the best thing she ever did.” People who usually wanted to fight me were buying me beer.

The Cannes premiere was absolutely crazy. To go from being a small Aussie movie that nobody wanted to watch in the middle of the night to stand up was amazing. I think the fact that I had a wife and kids at home, and knowing that I would be back to change diapers, helped keep me from panicking.

I was being held hostage in Sydney. I was walking down the street once and a group of screaming school girls chased me. That doesn’t happen anymore, sadly.