From writer/director Robert Connolly and based on the book by Tim Winton, the family drama Blueback tells the story of Abby (played by Mia Wasikowska, along with Ilsa Fogg and Ariel Donoghue), a young woman who grew up in a coastal Australian town with an understanding and appreciation of the beauty of the world’s oceans and what’s contained within. Beyond just wanting to ensure its survival, Abby went on to become a marine biologist, in order to protect the ocean and its creatures from the dangers that threaten it, especially the wild blue groper that she met and befriended as a child.

During this interview with Collider, Wasikowska and Eric Bana (who plays local fisherman Macka) talked about why they keep returning to work with Connolly, the appeal of this story, connecting to their characters, the experience of working so deep underwater, and the advantage of getting to work with a fish puppet instead of leaving it up to CGI.
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Collider: Eric, as a producer on this, why was this a story you thought was important to tell? Did you have an agreement with Robert Connolly, that if you were gonna do The Dry, about what a drought can do to a town, that you then had to do a film that water plays such a big role in.

ERIC BANA: No. I was aware that Robert had been developing this for a really, really long period of time, and that he felt very passionate about it. The first inclination that I had that it was potentially going to become a reality was when he walked into the office one day with a cut-out polystyrene fish groper and sat behind his desk for a while. I was like, “What’s going on with foam fish?” And then, the foam fish got bigger and bigger, and I realized that this was becoming a reality and, in fact, the fish was gonna be a real mechanical fish, not a CGI fish.

We obviously enjoyed collaborating together, and I love this story. I felt like it had a really great immersive experience for the audience. Rob has a great history of drawing wonderful people together, and I’d heard so much about Mia [Wasikowska] through Rob because we’re both friends with him. When Mia came on board, I was really excited. I just really wanted to be a partner. It’s a small role, but I really, really love the idea of Macka being this mysterious solo character that exists. He’s this old sea dog. It was just a lot of fun.

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Since you both know and have worked with Robert Connolly before, when he comes to you about something, is it just always, “Yes, I’ll work with you,” or does he send over a formal, “This is what I’m doing and what I’d like you to do with me”?

BANA: He’s got a real charm, a real way of getting you excited and of pitching things with real enthusiasm. I challenge anyone to sit down and spend more than 10 minutes with him, and then say no to Rob. It’s almost impossible. His projects always have this pedigree to them and attract a lot of like-minded people.

MIA WASIKOWSKA: As a person, he’s got such heart and such enthusiasm, and I really felt that in this film. I just found it really moving and very emotional, with the highs and the lows. He really brings all the emotion and passion and heart.

Mia, you made your directorial debut on a segment of his film The Turning. What was that experience like for you? How did you establish that working relationship with and build the trust that you’d need to do something like that?

WASIKOWSKA: I have such a soft spot for Robert Connolly because he gave me that opportunity to direct a segment of The Turning. I was 20, at the time that he said, “Yeah, you should direct one of these pieces.” A few years later, I got to do it, and he just blindly trusted me. I had the best time making that short film. It really sent me on a whole other journey. And so, we’ve stayed friends since then, and we always had this really wonderful friendship. I know that whatever I do with him, I’m gonna have an amazing time. He sent me the script one evening, I read it that night, and the next day, I was like, “All right, I’m in. I’m coming to Western Australia and we’ll go see Orcas.” He’s just got that really infectious enthusiasm. I don’t think you can have a bad time with him.

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Eric, you’ve also done Force of Nature with him. What has the evolution been like with him, as an actor, with the interesting characters in the films that you’ve done together?

BANA: Force of Nature, which is a follow-up to The Dry, was a huge thrill. When we set out to do The Dry, it was in our wildest dreams that we would get to do a follow-up, and we got the chance to do that. We just finished the post-production. The film looks amazing. We can’t wait to share it with everybody. It’s now our fourth or fifth collaboration. We really enjoy working together. We share an office together. We have formal arrangement. We each do our own thing, and we come together when it suits us both. We just really enjoy counseling each other. It’s a lot of fun. Acting is a really solo job, so to find people to collaborate with does make it more exciting. It makes it less lonely and it means that the successes are twice as enjoyable because you get to share it with someone. It’s been great.

Mia, did you immediately connect to Abby and her story? There’s just something so beautiful about her and about just how she experiences her own environment. What did you most deeply connect with, when you were introduced to her?

WASIKOWSKA: When I read Blueback, the character of Abby really reminded me of my nephews and my niece, who are all growing up in small coastal towns in Australia, surrounded by nature and just really inspired by it. The attention to nature and to animals, specifically, I just thought was beautiful. It really reminded me of my family, and I find them inspiring. I wanted to make a film that, I would have loved to see as a kid. And Ilsa [Fogg] and Ariel [Donoghue] just did an amazing job of bringing her to life. They brought Abby to life in a way that’s so charming. Female scientists are leading the charge with climate change, so it’s a bit of a nod to them, and hopefully it helps inspire the next generation, as well.

Eric, did you do any research or talk to anyone to understand what this guy was like, or do you know guys like him?

BANA: I liked the loner quality to Macka. There’s something dark and mysterious about him, as much as there is fun. As a kid, you really gravitate to that sort of character and that sort of aura. I remember, as a kid, if there was a guy in the local suburb that just seemed a little bit mysterious, there was always something about them that drew you to something a little bit dangerous. And I love the interactions that I got to have with the two young Abbys. They’re two wonderful young actors, and we had a lot of really fun scenes together. Ilsa, who plays the older of the young Abbys, this is her first acting job. It’s her first film, and she was amazing. It’s always great to get to work with young actors like that, at the beginning of their career.

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He feels like the kind of guy who you would want to hang out with because he would just have endless stories to tell you, if you could just get him to open up and talk to you about them.

BANA: Yeah. I also love that less is more feeling. We’re left wanting to know more about Macka that we don’t really get. I really enjoyed the little window into him.

What do you think it is about this mother and daughter that gets through to him, in a way that even his own family doesn’t seem to? Is it the fact that they all share this very specific connection to the water?

BANA: I think so, yeah. It’s the mutual respect of this shared playground. For him, it’s a workplace. For Abby, the way that she’s introduced to this world and the way that enables our audience to feel a real immersive experience, it’s really special. It’s a unique interplay between child and adult. There’s also this mutual respect with the community, as well.

WASIKOWSKA: It’s intimate, but not. You don’t have the deep intimacies of family that are so dramatic, but you’ve got that sense of being from the same place.

The ocean is so interesting because it’s beautiful, but it’s also terrifying. It’s so vast that you don’t know what could be hiding in it. Mia, what most surprised you about being underwater and working underwater? How did you feel most prepared for it, and what were the biggest challenges of doing it?

WASIKOWSKA: I loved it. I love the water, and I’ve always felt pretty comfortable in it. I’m quite obsessed with the ocean. I really had a great time. I learned to do some scuba diving for the film, which I’d never done before. I remember having a moment, during my first dive, when I’d been underwater for about 20 minutes, and I was having a bit of a freak-out. I’ve never really been out of my element for so long, and being so deep underwater, for such a long period of time, it felt quite surreal, like being in outer space. You’re dependent on these machine and buttons to keep you alive, which gives you this feeling of fragility, being so far underwater. In that way, you feel the power of it. I just loved it. And we had this amazing puppet that we worked with, which was Robert Connolly’s call, to have a real-life puppet instead of a CGI fish. Seeing these guys move that puppet and bring it to life was pretty spectacular.

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As an actor, what was it like to work with the puppet and establish what’s such an important relationship with that fish?

WASIKOWSKA: That was really easy, actually. They made it move so effortlessly. It had gills that would flap, as well. The only thing that they animated was the eyes blinking and moving. It was pretty easy to forget that it wasn’t real. But also, the young Abbys did most of that work. I only had a couple token moments with Blueback, but the girls did an incredible job setting up that relationship and letting the audience feel the awe of that. It’s all their hard work.

BANA: It’s a really beautiful old craft technique, from the artists that created that and made it come to life. It’s really beautiful, and I think you feel it, as an audience member. We’re so used to seeing CGI. There’s something that lures you in about Blueback, and that’s the fact that it’s a real physical thing, as opposed to a tennis ball at the end of a pole.

Mia, what was it like to figure out what the relationship would have been between Abby and Macka, and to know how he would have influenced her, since you’re not the one in those scenes with Eric? How did you find that dynamic?

WASIKOWSKA: Yeah, I really just inherited his boat. That was my main connection to his character when we were actually filming. And Eric and I didn’t even really cross over, during the shoot. We were in separate parts of the film. It wasn’t something that we really thought about that much. But I did enjoy driving the boat.

BANA: It was a cool boat. Today is the first time we’ve actually been together.

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Mia, how did you incorporate the different ages of Abby into your performance? Did you get to spend any time with the two younger actors that you shared the character with?

WASIKOWSKA: We crossed over by a couple of days. At the end of filming my part of the film, they were just about to start, so we had a few days of crossover. Rob got us all together to meet, but we didn’t go into depth and we didn’t try to have any conscious crossover. We wanted the kids to feel free to be how they are, and not be hampered by thought. They were just so wonderful. It was really great to get to know them. And then, to see the film two years later, it’s gorgeous. They were really sweet.

Blueback is now playing in theaters.