The four movies Rose Byrne couldn’t live without: “I have to stop and watch it every time”
Although she isn’t exactly a major Hollywood name like many of her peers, Rose Byrne is one of the most versatile actors of recent years.
From dramatic roles in thriller classics to comedy stints in higher-profile Hollywood movies, Byrne has one of the most impressive résumés, proving that there really is no challenge too steep for her to take on and master. And each time, it’s with more emotional nuance than most other actors in the same arena.
Perhaps this is because Byrne knew exactly what this looked like from an early age. After all, the first time she realised she wanted to be an actor was when she saw Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge in the theatre. An unrequited love story set in 1950s New York, A View From the Bridge tackled many of the justice issues experienced by Italian communities at the time.
To Byrne, it was an “uncomfortable” watch, but in the best way, because it also exposed her to feeling morally conflicted while watching something for the very first time, particularly when it came to the characters of Eddie and Catherine, who made her feel simultaneously endeared and yet unsettled at the same time.
“As the complexity of the story built and built and built, my heart was in my throat as I wondered what was going to happen. It was electric,” she explained.
Many of Byrne’s favourite movies follow a similar pattern – either they’re a comfort watch or have something inexplicably charming that she keeps coming back to time and time again. In terms of style and genre, a film doesn’t necessarily have to follow a set of rules or formats to grip Byrne and have her coming back for more; it just has to resonate with her emotionally in some way.
“This is impossible,” Byrne said when asked about her favourite movies by Elle. “I mean… Goodfellas… It’s so obvious, but it’s so good that I have to stop and watch it every time it’s on TV, and then, I love Opening Night, John Cassavetes with Gena Rowlands. Extraordinary and seminal; she’s so brilliant in that movie. Thelma & Louise. I loved the performances in that movie, the music, it’s so entertaining, and then I would say Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. That’s such a beautiful movie. So evocative, and I love the strength.”
Many of those might seem contradictory, especially when you look at their tone and subject matter, but that’s precisely what draws Byrne to them every single time. After all, in the same interview, she also explained her opinion on the difference between comedy and drama with a viewpoint that might surprise some – she said there wasn’t one.
Actually, in her eyes, comedy and drama can be approached exactly the same, so long as you believe in your character and the story. Obviously, there are distinctive differences between the two as an audience member, and to a point as an actor, too, but in terms of getting under the skin of different characters across both, Byrne enjoys pulling off both in exactly the same way.
The only thing that does set them apart, however, is that she finds comedy more inherently challenging, mainly because of how meticulous the genre is and how dependent the reaction is on each audience member.
As she put it, “Comedy is subjective: Something that’s funny to me is probably not funny to you. So that makes it, I think, even harder. But I always loved that bit of a tightrope.”
