Seated in the sun-drenched living room of Englert’s Bondi apartment,I’d planned to wait a bit to bring up the mum of it all,but Englert was so accommodating – all self-deprecating nervous energy – that I went there immediately. How much reality are we supposed to read into this volatile on-screen relationship?
“The story’s a complete fiction,” Englert explains. “I understand that people are gonna bring up[my mum] for the rest of my life – I get it,I’m interested in my mum and myself as well – and if people want to read into[the film],it’s fine. But my aim is not to make work about my actual life,because I want to have that feel kind of private. But I do want to make things that I have at least some intimate knowledge of,so I’m not just talking out of my arse,you know?”
On set and in control:“I didn’t want to hold back. I was more interested in trying things than playing it safe,” says Englert.Supplied
The film follows Lucy (Jennifer Connelly),a former child actor in the grips of spiritual turmoil who’s seeking enlightenment at a wellness retreat led by the enigmatic guru Elon (Ben Whishaw),while also navigating her relationship with daughter Dylan (Englert),a stunt-performer with an impulsive streak who’s off hooking up with unavailable men. Part satire of privileged egotism,part bleakly funny family drama (a scene where Lucy and Dylan playfully probe the specifics of a suicide attempt is mesmerising),the film strikes an offbeat tone built around its complex female leads.
“I watch a lot of Bravo so I think there’s a much bigger audience for complicated women than a lot of people think,” Englert laughs. “For me,writing those kinds of characters is paramount. It’s just what I see. I don’t think complicated female,or female-identifying,characters should be niche. I think they’re everything.”
After debuting at Sundance earlier this year,the film will have its local premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in June,in the same program in which Campion’s work is being celebrated with a retrospective. “It does feel kind of insane,” says Englert of the festival’s family affair. “I love all of Mum’s movies,so I’m really excited to see them again.”
The film is Englert’s feature-length debut after multiple shorts and years working as an actor in films and TV,including inTop of the Lake:China Girl and Starz’sDangerous Liaisons. At 28,her career feels more or less preordained.
Englert as Dylan,a stuntperson with an impulsive streak,in Bad Behaviour.Supplied
Her matrilineal line includes pioneering New Zealand actor Edith Campion and theatre director Richard Campion (her grandparents),who founded the New Zealand Players,the country’s first professional theatre company,in 1952. Her father is Australian film and TV writer and producer Colin Englert;Campion and Englert divorced in 2001.
When Campion won her Oscar for best original screenplay forThe Piano in 1994,Englert was there on stage too,in utero,as from actor Jeremy Irons. In some bizarre foreshadowing,Englert would later star alongside Irons in the filmBeautiful Creatures almost 20 years later. “I don’t think Mum ever told me that story,” Englert laughs when I ask if Irons ever mentioned it on set. “It’s pretty nuts. So silly.”
Born in Sydney,Englert split her childhood between Sydney’s north and New Zealand’s South Island,and wherever Mum’s work would take her. “I always felt homesick for New Zealand because my bestie was there and I’ve always been a bit more mountain-leaning than city-leaning. But I was all over the place when Mum was shooting stuff. I would just film-brat to wherever she was.”
Englert with her cast,Ben Whishaw and Jennifer Connelly,at Sundance in January.Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
Being on film sets as a child was,understandably,formative. “I was on set all the time – well,maybe not all the time because sometimes there would be sex scenes or murder – but it was definitely an environment I was fascinated by from an early age. Watching a bunch of adults suddenly stop and be extremely quiet and then just watching two people doing some,you know,weird bullshit,I just loved how absurd and surreal and focused it was. I’d never seen adults be like that.”
At 16,she told her mum she didn’t want to go to school any more and dropped out of Bradfield Senior College in year 11. By then,acting had already presented itself as a vocation. “I was like 13 or 14 when I knew I wanted to be an actor. I know,how obnoxious,” Englert jokes. She was just a normal tween,interested in horses and fantasy novels,when in 2006 Campion recruited her and her best friend to be inThe Water Diary,a short film she directed as part of the UN anthology series8.
“The acting thing started because Mum would try out scenes that she’d written on me,like forBright Star and stuff like that. I think she just thought it was fun. And,like,she’s kind but she’s also pretty realistic with you about whether you’re doing good or not,” Englert laughs. “And because she is so fluent in her film language,in her story language,I could always feel it and it was very beautiful to me. I think for her,watching me exist in that space too,that’s kind of how we started to really understand each other,through the ‘pretending to be other people’ thing.
“So,yeah,it was a severe case of nepotism,” she deadpans of her entry into acting. “To the utmost.”
Englert with Campion,and her Oscar for directing The Power of the Dog,in Hollywood in March 2022.Valerie Macon/AFP
Her unique perspective from the inside of the industry offered a realistic picture of the actor’s life from the get-go. “I’d seen what actors were like and I knew that the glam of it was a facade. I knew the focus,the intimate part of it,and the fun. I liked the fact that this kind of playful and professional environment was possible. I still think it’s beautiful,” says Englert. “Because people work so hard and they have to be so good but what you’re doing is still,like,ridiculous. That’s what drew me into it,this feeling of,‘Oh god,I know this is all fake but it makes you feel like you can be real.’”
In 2012 she landed her first major role,opposite Elle Fanning in Sally Potter’s coming-of-age dramaGinger&Rosa. The following year,she starred inBeautiful Creatures,an adaptation of the bestselling young adult gothic fantasy novel,directed by Richard LaGravenese. Looking to emulate the success of theTwilight saga,Warner Bros. had franchise hopes for the film,which were scrapped when it bombed. It was an early brush with mainstream success that Englert feels grateful didn’t pan out.
“I loved doing it because I got to talk to Emma Thompson and Viola Davis;I was like,‘I shouldn’t be allowed to be here,but I’m glad the entertainment industrial complex brought me into your orbits!’” Englert recalls. “But I remember feeling very trembly about the idea of actually having to be a teenage personality in the public eye. The more we got into it,the more that feeling became real and the more I was like,‘Uh-oh’.”
There was a sense of relief when the film tanked,Englert admits. “It’s weird at that age to be getting attention. Just being a teenager you’re already self-conscious,and I think it’s tough if you’re just learning how to present yourself instead of how to be yourself,and that’s what made me shake. It was like,I don’t want to spend my life just trying to hang in there,just trying to keep up. I want to be in my actual element,I want to be able to be interested in other people and not just thinking about myself all the time!”
Englert as Camille in Dangerous Liaisons.Starz
On a recent podcast,I heard Javier Bardem – who,like Englert,comes from a long line of film industry professionals,in his case generations of Spanish acting royalty – talking about growing up in that world. He said he witnessed a fun and inspiring environment,but also long periods of despair and desperation,his parents just waiting by the phone for work.
“Oh my god,that is so real,” says Englert. “It’s such an insecure industry. Doesn’t RuPaul say we need to be secure in our insecurity,or something? That’s enlightenment.”
I imagine the same must’ve been true of Englert’s experience of the family business. Does she remember,for example,the feeling in the household aroundIn the Cut,Campion’s 2003 erotic thriller which was ravaged by critics upon its release and all but shot the filmmaker’s Hollywood goodwill until,well,The Power of the Dog just two years ago?
“Oh,it’s my favourite,” Englert says of the film. “I mean,I was like 9 or 10 or something,and I think the feeling in the house was that it went really well! I remember I would go to the editing room a lot with my mum on that film because that was in one of my ‘I won’t go to school!’ periods. I’d be able to sit in there when they weren’t doing the provocative stuff and then I would just,like,play in the park or eat cookies in the waiting room when they were doing,you know,inappropriate things.”
Englert says she “learnt about editing” on that film which,for most of us,is a bizarre lesson for a nine-year-old,but such is the life of a filmmaking scion. It’s the equivalent of a chef showing their kid how to dice an onion or a tax accountant giving their child their first Excel spreadsheet (I don’t know what accountants do). In Bad Behaviour,Englert got to return the familial favour,casting Campion as a nurse in a brief cameo.
“Oh,it was super cute!” Englert says of directing the director. “She came out of her room and she was like,‘I’m nervous.’ I had to talk her down. But she actually kept the scrubs. She wore them to the wrap party.”
With its confident voice,Bad Behaviour points to a promising filmmaking career. Englert has other film ideas in her – not to mention,she’s still auditioning,she also sings and makes music (“I feel like such an amateur but I can’t help myself,it’s the Leo in me … I have like 26 followers on Spotify,” she jokes),and is in the process of writing a fantasy novel (“Not a particularly good move,but it’s one of my favourite genres and it’s got a really amazing history,especially for gender-fluid and queer perspectives,” she says) – but she’s under no pressure to strike yet.
“I like to wait till the momentum I created with my career subsides before I start doing something else,” Englert laughs. “I like to feel supremely unimportant and redundant before I come up with a new idea. So I’m kind of a submerging artist right now,as opposed to an emerging artist. It’s a good place to be creative.”
Bad Behaviour screens at the Sydney Film Festival on June 11,12 and 15.
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