Q&A: Jocelyn Moorhouse, 61, film director

Director Jocelyn Moorhouse on Hollywood’s madness, making Savage River - and her obsession with realistic-looking blood.

Australian stories: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Picture: Steve Baccon

You lived in Hollywood with your husband, film director PJ Hogan, and children for about 15 years. Is Hollywood as gloriously dysfunctional as it appears? Yes, it is. I would not deny that. It’s a combination of too many egos, too much money, too much power. And so you get all these excruciating and really abnormal situations. But there’s a lot of great people in the middle of all that trying to make good movies and trying to survive the kind of weird madness that goes around every production.

What brought you back to Australia? I really missed the authenticity of being Australian when I was overseas. I always felt in America that I was trying to assimilate into an American way. But part of me was constantly fighting against that because, you know, deep down, I am an Australian and I want to tell Australian stories. We both realised that we should go back to telling the stories that are really meaningful to us.

Your new murder-mystery TV series Savage River is set in rural Victoria. What was it like to film there? The landscape felt like I was coming home; my parents were pretty eccentric and although I was raised in Melbourne they always had a bush block throughout my entire childhood. I spent a lot of time camping in this little cabin they built on one of the blocks, being left to walk around the bush with my brother and sister. I really let it sink into me when I was a kid. And I guess that’s why choose to film in these regional areas – because I have a love for them.

What was it like working with the talented young lead actor, Katherine Langford? Oh my gosh. She’s amazing. I had seen Katherine in Knives Out – and also in 13 Reasons Why, which was deeply disturbing. But I remember thinking, “Wow, she’s very special.” And of course, she has grown up a fair bit since then. She’s very intense about her character; she basically doesn’t stop thinking about her character from the minute you’re in rehearsal until you stop shooting.

You also worked on this series with the renowned cinematographer Don McAlpine, right? Don is a legend the world over. One of the movies that inspired me to want to be a director was My Brilliant Career, which was shot by him. The other one that I loved to death was Breaker Morant, also shot by Don – so to end up working with him on The Dressmaker and also on my husband’s movies, I was just so happy that he said yes to this. He had a ball. He loved it.

You like dark television. True crime. Noir. Some of Savage River is set in an abattoir, and there’s blood. Congratulations: the blood in your show looks very real. Well, I’m a bit obsessed with making blood look real. I hate it when it looks too red. You know, it is hard to get the right colour. And of course, it’s arterial versus venous. But if they’re going to bleed out, that’s going to be arterial, isn’t it?

You were one of only a handful of female directors when you made a splash with your first feature film, Proof… There were only a few of us back then in the ’90s. But all I needed really to inspire me was Gillian Armstrong and Nadia Tass. I thought, “Well, if they can do it I can do it…” And that turned out to be true. Then Jane [Campion] came along. It has changed a lot and I’m really happy to see that because I like to mentor younger female filmmakers. There are more opportunities now than there were back then, and I’d like to think I played a part.

Savage River premieres September 4 on ABC-TV and iview