Rose Byrne on career longevity and being an Aussie outsider in Hollywood

Australian actor Rose Byrne discusses the movie that changed her career and how she and co-star Seth Rogen bonded over being outsiders in Hollywood.

Rose Byrne has a theory about why she and her regular comedy collaborator Seth Rogen work so well together – it’s a Commonwealth thing.

Aussie Byrne and Canadian Rogen first teamed up more than a decade ago when they played new parents in the hit 2014 comedy Bad Neighbours, which made $415 million from its $28 million budget.

The pair hit it off so well – and had so much respect for each other’s talent, style and humour – that they reunited for a sequel two years later and then parlayed their real-life friendship into the acclaimed AppleTV+ comedy Platonic.

“There was some crazy stuff we did in that movie,” recalls Rogen of Bad Neighbours.

“Early on in filming I could see the look on her face of, ‘Is this okay? Should we be doing this?’”

Picture: AFP

Their easy banter and connection as old friends Will and Sylvia, who reconnect when both are married to other people, forms the bedrock of Platonic as it enters its second season, and Byrne says that their similar outlook on life and comedy come partly from a shared feeling of being outsiders – even underdogs – in their adopted US home.

“I am just not born and bred of it,” Byrne says of her place in US film and TV industry.

“I’m a foreigner still. I’m married to an American and Seth’s married to American but we’ll always have that sensibility of being a bit different.”

Rose Byrne arrives at the premiere of Platonic in Los Angeles. Picture: AP

Seth Rogen, left, and Rose Byrne. Picture: AP

Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in season two of Platonic.

Rogen, whose last TV comedy The Studio is up for a staggering 23 Emmy Awards, agrees, although he says their connection is not something he likes to analyse too deeply.

“I just appreciate it when I see it,” Rogen says, “I do try to work with those people over and over again.”

Although he’s now a serious power player in Hollywood as an actor, writer and producer – in addition to starring roles in movies such as Steve Jobs, Long Shot and The Fabelmans, he’s also part of the creative team behind Preacher, The Boys and Invincible – Rogen remains fiercely proud of his Canadian heritage and its comedy traditions.

“I think a lot of Canadians and people from the Commonwealth are successful in American comedy because we grow up with all of American culture, but it’s not our culture,” he says. “We’re kind of raised to look at it as outsiders rather than as participants.”

Picture: Getty Images

Byrne was initially a bit nervous to return to the part of Sylvia in Platonic – “you never quite know with a season two” – but her mind was soon put at ease with a season she says is “even stronger this time around”. It helped that the first season, with its hilariously flawed characters and real life problems centred around friendship, relationships, family and career had resonated with friends and strangers alike.

“I had a lot of people come out of the woodwork and say, ‘I enjoyed this – it’s just what I needed – a show that’s really fun to watch and is really relatable’,” says Byrne, as Rogen nods in agreement. “It was lovely that it people really responded to it.”

Part of Sylvia’s story in season two is her returning to the work force as her husband goes through something of a midlife crisis and her feelings of being unprepared and inadequate after years of being a primary caregiver.

Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne at SXSW in 2022. Picture: Getty Images for SXSW

Byrne, a mother of two sons with actor husband Bobby Cannavale, has spoken of her feelings of “impostor syndrome” and the transient and unpredictable nature of acting for a living and says that while she still feels “very privileged to work in this business, it’s very hard”.

“It’s not an easy place to have longevity, particularly as you get older and as a woman and those sorts of cliches,” she says. “But they’re not not true. So I mainly try to have gratitude about it. Obviously, things change when you have kids and family and all that sort of stuff.

“But I’m still the fan in the room if I’m in a room of people that I admire. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it’s that person’. I still revere writers and actors and directors and sports people.”

She will also forever be grateful for Nick Stoller, who created and directed Platonic with his wife of 20 years Francesca Delbanco. It was Stoller and producer Judd Apatow who cast Byrne in her breakthrough role as a bonkers pop star in the 2010 comedy Get Him To the Greek and entirely changed the trajectory of her career, paving the way for bigger roles in comedy hits such as Bridesmaids and Spy.

“It changed everything for me,” she says. “It allowed other doors to open. I was not the first person to come to mind to audition for a comedy. I’d been doing Damages, which was an extremely serious drama with Glenn (Close) in a very dramatic role.

“So it was extraordinary for me for him and Judd to see what I could do. They are very open-minded like that. They always take a risk on people and unconventional ideas and I was definitely an unconventional choice for that role.”

Rogen is now casting his mind forward to the second season of The Studio after its first season broke the record set by The Bear of the most Emmy nominations for a comedy debut. Not only is the show itself up for Outstanding Comedy Series when the awards are announced in September, Rogen is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy series for his role as the insecure but idealistic studio boss Matt Remick. Rogen, who roped in mates such as Charlize Theron and Dave Franco as well as film greats including Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard, knew that Hollywood would be watching his sometimes brutal showbiz satire, so set out “to make something that felt truthful and like an honest reflection of what it is like to work in this industry”.

The response from his peers and colleagues, he says, suggest that he and his long-time creative partner Evan Goldberg nailed the brief.

“What’s funny is people outside the industry are always like, ‘Wow, the show is an insane exaggerated look of what it must be like to work in Hollywood’,” Rogen says. “And people within the industry are like, ‘Wow, the show is a 100% accurate representation of what it is like to work within Hollywood’, which speaks to how people view Hollywood. But if anything Hollywood is much crazier than people think it is.”

Guy Branum, Luke Macfarlane, Francesca Delbanco, Nicholas Stoller, Rose Byrne, and Seth Rogen of Platonic. Picture: Getty Images

Byrne meanwhile has flicked the switch back to drama with her next film If I Had Legs I Would Kick You, which will open the Melbourne International Film Festival next week ahead of a wider opening later in the year. She won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlin Film Festival for her role as a mother with a sick child whose life is crashing down around her, with some tipping her to be an early contender for next year’s Oscars.

“I don’t really know how to pitch it,” she says, “but it’s really like a strap yourself in and go for the ride. I’m so, so proud of the movie and I’m so thrilled to be opening at Melbourne. Conan O’Brien is in it and he plays my therapist. He’s wonderful in it so and you’ll be like ‘wait, is that Conan?’.It’s really quite transformative.”

Platonic streams on Apple TV+ on August 6. Read the full interview in Stellar on Friday in today’s papers, and for more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as Rose Byrne on career longevity and being an Aussie outsider in Hollywood