Bergman Island’s Mia Wasikowska: All work is personal

For the young Australian actor who has starred in the likes of Alice in Wonderland and Only Lovers Left Alive, all work is personal.

Mia Wasikowska says all her work is personal. Picture: John Phillips/Getty Images for BFI

It’s all personal to Australian actor Mia Wasikowska.

The Canberra native stars in Mia Hansen-Love’s new film, Bergman Island, and if there’s one thing she admires most about the French filmmaker’s work, it’s that Hansen-Love is open and honest about the personal connection to her work.

“She just seems completely at ease about it,” Wasikowska told news.com.au. “She says that it’s not autobiographical and there’s a lot of creative licence but there’s no point pretending that we don’t have personalities that inform our work.

“When I do an acting job, it’s personal. It’s all my feelings even if it’s not my story necessarily. There’s no way of pretending it’s not. There’s a huge amount of us in all the work we do.”

Mia Wasikowska as Amy in Mia Hansen-Love’s Bergman Island.

Wasikowska stars in Bergman Island alongside Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth and Anders Danielsen Lie. The story is centred on Chris (Krieps), a filmmaker who travels to Faro Island (nicknamed Bergman Island for Ingmar Bergman who lived and worked there) for a creative retreat.

Chris finds herself struggling, but eventually starts to write a screenplay about a young filmmaker named Amy (Wasikowska), who ventures to Faro for a wedding, where a former lover is also in attendance.

The multilayered construction of Bergman Island means that Amy becomes a creative stand-in for Chris, who is a screen stand-in for Hansen-Love – but, again, even if it’s not autobiographical.

Wasikowska, playing the stand-in of the stand-in of the filmmaker, said that Hansen-Love was always generous and open about what the characters and the story meant to her.

“This is a lot of her story and experiences,” Wasikowska explained. “I often find with acting you are playing the director or the version of the director – because it has to mean that to them.

Wasikowska saw a lot of Hansen-Love in Amy.

“I often see a lot of the director in the lead character I’m playing. And I saw heaps of [Hansen-Love] in this, which is a treat.

“I think sometimes people dismiss stuff that’s quite personal or they think it’s indulgent. But [Hansen-Love] just admitted she did that and I hope more people do it because we’re all examining our lives and the people around us.”

Wasikowska, 32, has been working steadily in the industry since her teens, first starring in Australian productions including Suburban Mayhem and an episode of All Saints. Her big international break came when Tim Burton cast her as the eponymous Alice in Wonderland in his big budget live action remake.

Since then, she’s fronted up for filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro (Crimson Peak), Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive), Cary Joji Fukunaga (Jane Eyre) and David Cronenberg (Map to the Stars).

Her blistering performance in Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy and Punch saw her pick up an AACTA nomination for Best Actress.

As Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland live action remake.

She has also turned her hand to behind the camera, having directed two short films. Working with Hansen-Love has given her more confidence in how she approaches all her creative endeavours, even though she admitted that it was difficult to get her own projects made.

“As someone who would love to write and direct things, it makes you feel confident in a way. [Hansen-Love] is very upfront about her doubts or uncertainty, and I just love that discussion in general. I want to try and be more honest about things.

“I love how [Hansen-Love] has always written almost all of her films, they’re all really close to home for her. She’s examined her brother’s life, her mother’s.”

And the project she’s trying to get off the ground is very much personal to Wasikowska.

“It’s not autobiographical, but absolutely it’s personal.”

Bergman Island is in cinemas from Thursday, March 10