Original-Cin Q&A: The Royal Hotel's Kitty Green on The Outback and Women Living Dangerously

By Bonnie Laufer

Following her success with the film The Assistant starring Julia Garner, writer-director Kitty Green is back with another film reuniting her with the actress.

In The Royal Hotel, Americans Hanna (Garner)  and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are backpacking in Australia and take a temporary live-in job in a remote Outback mining town. Soon, they find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.

CLICK HERE to read Liz Braun’s review of The Royal Hotel.

ORIGINAL-CIN:  I find the premise of this film quite terrifying.  Two girls, traveling through Australia run out of money.  So they go to a remote bar to work - even being warned that they might have to deal with some unwanted male attention. I mean seriously? That would be my first warning to get out of dodge. What are these girls thinking? What inspired you to write it?

Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick in The Royal Hotel

KITTY GREEN: I'm Australian and weirdly enough I have never made a film in Australia. I made all my movies elsewhere and my mother suggested that it was about time to write a movie set in Australia.

So I think that was the main inspiration. And then I saw a documentary about two Scandinavian girls who were working in an Outback pub. It's a common thing in Australia for backpackers when they need to stay or want to stay a little longer, they take a job. They either pick berries, or they work in a pub somewhere. Often they're sent into the middle of nowhere because that's where they need to work.

The documentary followed these two Scandinavians who didn't understand the culture and were trying to make sense of it.

I felt like it was something that I was interested in, like thematically. But also I felt like it was a good role for Julia Garner, who I'd worked with before on The Assistant.  So it kind of came together quite well.

O-C: I remember back-packing in my early twenties. And let's face it, we all do dumb things and look back at it now and say,
“What was I thinking?” But I don’t think I would put myself in the same situation as these girls do.  What would you do?

GREEN: I don't know.  It's interesting because being from Australia, it's not as scary for me as it might look to people from other Countries and cultures.

I think foreigners find it a little scarier than it is for Australians. It's sort of a place where Outback pubs are, and it's not an immediately scary thing for Australians. It takes a little while to be freaked out.

I can totally see how it would make some people scared. I too have done some backpacking and you're right.  I did some silly things and we drank a lot, you know, we're a little crazy. So I kind of know what that's like.

But in this case, the girls are just trying to figure out how to make a few extra dollars so they can continue their trip, and it’s not until they arrive that they're a little uncomfortable.

Writer/director Kitty Green

Jessica Henwick, who plays Liv, is trying to make the best of it and trying to learn about the culture and be accepting of people.

And Julia’s character is a little more cautious and tries to figure out what's going on.  She's always sort of assessing her environment, essentially. So they take different approaches to it.

O-C: Although you’ve worked with Julia before and know her pretty well, you didn’t know Jessica. The two of them together is magic.  Did they have instant chemistry?

GREEN: Yeah, honestly it was instant. The girls hit it off immediately. It was almost like they became best friends from the minute they met.

When I met Jess, I had a zoom with her. I'd seen some of her previous work, more serious and action-oriented roles. But  I hadn't seen her Glass Onion role, which is a little more wacky.

So, I wasn’t sure if she was going to be weird enough for us (laughs). But as soon as I met her on Zoom, I immediately felt she  had the right spirit and the right kind of energy for this film and I knew it would work really well.

O-C: Plus, finding the male actors as well must have been an interesting process because they have to be so intimidating. Casting Hugo Weaving, who I didn't even recognize at first because he usually does not  play these kinds of characters. I'm sure you didn't have to twist his arm to sign on.

GREEN: I actually did a little bit I think because you know, he's been around forever and I'm this up-and-comer. So we got him to watch The Assistant and I wrote him a lovely letter.

We sort of explained what it was about, and later had a lot of conversations about the role and the character and he eventually agreed to do it, which was great.

We wanted him, not just because he's a brilliant actor, but also because he’s such a good guy, someone that the crew could look up to and would respect.  He was terrific, and so great in the role.

O-C: Finding the perfect location, was that something that was easy? It was so remote and desolate and definitely an important character in the film.

GREEN: That was the first place we went to check out because it's an abandoned pub on the side of the road that goes to where all the gas pumps are.

So we sort of passed by  it and it saw that it was abandoned. We were able to kind of convince the owner to let us use it. The nearest town only had  29 people, so we were able to go to the townspeople and explain to them that we wanted to sort of take over for a few weeks and they let us, which was great.

It really worked out quite perfectly, even though it was really far from everyone. It was quite hard actually for everyone but we made it work.

O-C: Your films follow a theme of men who prey on women. Aside from the obvious, what is it about that theme that really makes your blood boil?

GREEN: I'm not sure. I just write about my own life experiences and somehow they end up being horror movies (laughs).

You know what I mean? Instead of just being a woman in the world and it's difficult, that's sort of what we're about. It's about how often we feel uncomfortable. Some spaces that make us feel uncomfortable.

But you're unsure, especially with this film, these girls are unsure if they’re safe or not. I feel like maybe it's okay. They’re unsure and a little scared about that awkward and confusing situation.

They’re not sure if they were  set up or just being paranoid about what's going on around them so it was sort of about that kind of ambiguity.

O-C: How much did you let Julia and Jess create these two women apart from what was in the script?

GREEN: It’s funny because when I gave them the script, they immediately embodied these people, but at the same time brought a lot of  their own spirits and personality to it.

Yeah, I don't know, I always find it interesting how someone takes on a character I’ve written for them. In this case,  I just watched them naturally take over that bar, run it and feel comfortable.

Jess  looked comfortable in it and enjoyed everyone's attention and company and it was really wonderful to see her do that. Julia was naturally a little more cautious.

So how much of that was the characters? How much of it was their own personalities? I'll never know, but I am just grateful that they totally made it work.