Rachel Griffiths

Rachel Griffith....

I haven't seen much of her stuff really.

I haven't watched Six Feet Under, but it's been highly recommended to me by my brother-in-law and my friend Michelle. Maybe someday I'll watch it.

I saw Griffiths in Muriel's Wedding. I love her in that.

Recently, I saw part of a movie she's in. I don't remember the name. It's Australian, though. She plays a woman who takes over the life of her doppelganger.

Well, let's go hang out with Lord Wiki for awhile.

Oops. I've been spelling her name wrong. I left out the S at the end of her name.

I fixed that.

I'm glad I caught it early this time.

Griffiths was born 18 December 1968.

Birthday Website Time!

She's a Sagittarius. I'm kind of half that; well, because of my cusp situation.

She's a 9 in numerology like my sister and new nephew. The humanitarian.

This website says this about the 9 Conversely, you are charismatic. Despite the cool and distant personality you project, people are attracted to you. You tend to express your love somewhat impersonally. You tend to be preoccupied with your vision or cause, and sometimes overlook the needs of those closest to you. You need to be reminded to give your love more personally and more openly. Ironically, you are a very loving and sincere person, but often neglect to express what you truly feel. In the same way, you can overlook your own needs.

I'm trying to figure out if this reminds me of my sister. Maybe? It TOTALLY reminds me of my nephew. No, I'm joking. He's only about ten weeks old. He just eats, poops, sleeps, and smiles. He COULD be preoccupied with his vision or cause. Perhaps he just can't express that yet. Who knows.

Oh! Griffiths is now on Brothers and Sisters. Maybe I knew that before and forgot. I've never watched that one either.

Griffiths was born in Melbourne. Her mom was an art teacher and art education consultant. It seems her parents split up, because Lord Wiki says Griffith grew up with her mom and two older brothers.

Lord Wiki doesn't say anything about her early schooling. For her higher education, Griffith went to Victoria College which doesn't exist anymore. Well, it seems it didn't just vanish. It kind of got absorbed up into other schools. It seems most of the classes are now at Deakin University.

This is good. Deakin University offers grants for students affected by the Bushfires. That's very decent of them. I can imagine some of the students are having a lot of financial difficulties now.

Back when part of Deakin was Victoria College, it was mostly for education. Griffiths got a bachelor of education in drama. No wait. Drama and dance. I wonder if she planned to be an actress and saw teaching as a good fall-back position. Or did she actually dream of being a teacher? I'm leaning towards the former. Although her mom was a teacher, and maybe that inspired her to want to teach as well.

She joined a community theater group called the Woolly Jumpers. Then in 1991 she entered the Melbourne International Film Festival. Her project was called Barbie Gets Hip.

The next MIFF festival is in July. The 25th to the 9th of August. Have any of you Victorians attended?

The entry fee for the festival seems pretty reasonable if any of you are filmmakers out there. Sixty dollars for a short and seventy dollars for a feature. I don't think you have to live in Victoria.  At least I'm not seeing anything about that.

I wonder if every submitted film is at the festival. Or do they narrow it down first? Well, there are a lot of films listed for 2008. Maybe they do show every submitted film.

I wonder if people liked Griffith's Barbie movie.

Three years later she got her big break. Muriel's Wedding. Lord Wiki says that she and Toni Collette were not well known. Here she is in her first movie and she wins both an Australian Film Critics Award and an Australian Film Institute Award. I'm impressed.

Two years later, in 1996, she was in the movie Jude. Is that the one with Kate Winslet?

Yes. I don't think I've seen it before, though.

It sounds good though! Forbidden love. How can I resist that?

Griffiths plays a pig farmer's daughter in that movie. And it seems she's not the one who gets the forbidden love. Winslet wins that.

in 1997, Griffiths pulled a Lady Godiva by appearing topless and uninvited to the opening of a casino. Women do Lady Godivas usually to protest something. I think? At least that's what happened on an episode of Charmed. Phoebe used her breasts to protest against people who are against breastfeeding in public. Anyway, what was Griffiths trying to protest? Gambling? Lord Wiki doesn't say much. I'll try to read more about it later.

Griffiths was in My Best Friend's Wedding. I saw that movie, but don't remember her. I just remember Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz.

The director of My Best Friend's Wedding is P.J Hogan. He also made Muriel's Wedding. Wow. I didn't know that. I'm adding this guy to my list. He's also the director of the upcoming Confessions of a Shopaholic. And that's starring an Australian...Isla Fisher. Oh wait. Maybe it already came out! IMDb says it was released in February and the movie already has user ratings. Yikes. I missed that one. I have read some of the books. I thought they were entertaining. Have any of you seen the movie? Recommend it? Or recommend that I stay far away from it?

In the same year of My Best Friend's Wedding, Griffiths was in My Son the Fanatic. It's a romantic comedy that involves Islamic Terrorists. That sounds interesting.

In 1998, she was in the movie Hillary and Jackie. I remember hearing about the movie, but never saw it. She got an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. She lost to Judi Dench.

In 2001, she was in Blow. I don't remember that movie. Johnny Depp is in it. I mean it's not that I have a huge infatuation with him. I haven't seem all of his work or anything. But I'm usually somewhat aware of his movies. Oh well, maybe it's the year. 2001. That's when Jack was born. I was probably too busy to notice movies. And it's about cocaine. I'm not really into drug films that much.

2001 is also the year that Six Feet Under began. Griffiths plays a massage therapist named Brenda. For that role, she won Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for an Emmy. She also has received nominations for her current role in Brothers and Sisters.

Okay. Now Lord Wiki is telling me which high school she went to. Usually, he provides that information earlier.   Well....Lord Wiki is full of surprises.

Griffiths went to Star of the Sea College. Really? That's one of the cutest school names I've ever heard, or at least the most unique. It sounds like a can of tuna. I actually hate canned tuna, so maybe it's not so cute to me after all.

It's a girl's school. I'm guessing Griffiths liked it because Lord Wiki says she got married there. I don't think I've heard of anyone getting married at their high school.

Her first son was born on my 31st birthday. They named him Banjo. Banjos remind me of Gina. Unlike the French toast, though, this time there's actually a logical reason behind my association.

Her second child is named Adelaide. I guess they like South Australia for some reason. Maybe?

Ah, she is pregnant again! I wonder what this baby will be named.

Lord Wiki now has a list of all her movies. Some of them he didn't mention above. One of them is Cosi which came between Muriel's Wedding and Jude. She teams up with Toni Collette again. That's sweet.

In 1999, she was in Me Myself I. That's the movie I saw (well part of it, anyway) involving the doppleganger.

After she did the movie Blow, she then did a movie called Blow Dry. Is there deep spiritual meaning behind that, or just a funny coincidence? This movie is about hair rather than cocaine.

She had a role (seems rather small) in Ned Kelly--the one with Heath Ledger. She played the character of Susan Scott. I wonder if her character actually existed in history.  Or was she just invented for the film?

There are more films listed, but I'm not going to list all of them. If you have a favorite that I've missed, please speak up.

All right. Time to leave Lord Wiki. I'm going to see if I can find an Enough Rope Interview. I can't imagine there not being one.

And I'm right! There is one. She was interviewed in 2004.

She talks about parenthood. I've disappeared. I think that's what happens in the first year of new parenthood. And I love that thing, that you actually don't think about yourself and go for days without really thinking in the 'I', you know? It's all about someone else and it's quite liberating.

I totally remember that feeling. I remember my parents kissing Jack good-bye and not me. I remember not caring at all. It's like when they kissed Jack, they were kissing me. When they brought Jack a gift, they were bringing me a gift. There really was no separation. When someone loved Jack, they loved me. I still feel that way somewhat. One way to get me to love you is to show genuine affection towards Jack. One way to get me very angry is to show disrespect towards him. But I do want attention for myself now. As Jack gets older and older, I begin to see myself more and more of a separate person. And I have a need for an identity outside of Jack. I do get annoyed now when I talk to someone and most of the questions they ask me are about my husband and child. I want to shout out. Hello! I'm a person too you know. I know Tim and Jack are super thrilling and exciting, but I actually have a life outside of them.

Griffiths and her man considered naming their baby Gough; but decided although they like Whitlam, they weren't too happy with his name.

Denton asks Griffith what kind of mom she wants to be. She says she wants to be fun, but she has a hard time being that way.

I think I'm a pretty fun mom. Well, maybe? I guess Jack should be the judge of that. I can imagine him reading this when he's an adult and whining to his therapist. What? My mom thought she was fun. Who was she kidding?

Maybe I should just say I'm fun SOMETIMES. Other times, I'm probably really boring.

Griffiths said she's better at being a friend when you're in trouble and need help. She's not that good at being a friend when you need some fun. Well, that's fine. There's way too many people out there who are good at being a friend when fun is in the picture and then disappear when you're sad and need a shoulder to cry on.

I'm trying to picture what kind of friend I am. Maybe I'm like Griffiths. I try to be there for people when they're sad....probably more as a listener/reader. I'm not sure I'm one to take action. I've never rescued a friend at 3 am in the morning. Although I've never been asked. If I was, I'd probably wake up Tim and make him do it. I don't want to drive that late at night. It would scare me. Although maybe Tim could drive, and I'd ride along in the car.

I don't know if I'm fun. I can be. Maybe? I guess it depends on what your definition of fun is. If you like deep conversations and impromptu sing-a-longs, I'm your girl. If you like wild and crazy nights filled with alcohol, half-naked dancing, and Ecstasy, you'll probably find me to be very boring. I also don't really like massages, pedicures, facials, and shopping for designer handbags.

I feel like I'm doing a dating site here. If you like long walks on the beach and singing Abba Songs....Actually I AM hoping to find more friends....especially local ones in Fort Worth. So if you qualify, please apply.

Griffith was a very serious child. A friend or two called her grave.

She didn't laugh much. She blames that on the Holocaust which she learned about when she was seven. There was some documentary or something on the television and it plagued me, you know, how we could do this to six million of our own people and "Why didn't Australia take them?" It was always on my mind.

I saw something scary when I was young too. The Exorcist. I saw it when I was six. That plagued me for a few years. I know the Holocaust is worse when it comes down to things. But The Exorcist had that very scary demon voice and that head spinning stuff. That was SCARY!

Jack knows a little bit about the Holocaust, but not enough to depress him. He knows some bad people called Nazis killed some Jews. He doesn't know the details so that's probably why he's fine with it. I didn't know about the Holocaust until I was a teenager, I think. I had heard the term and knew about Anne Frank. But I just thought the Holocaust involved unfortunate people having to hide in squishy attics....like A V.C Andrews book. I don't think I knew about the death camps. Well, then again my parents did have pictures of the camps. They visited one or two when they went to Europe. But there's no suffering people in the photos. I don't think I grasped the severity of any of it.

Griffiths does say she saw Blazing Saddles as a child and was able to laugh at that. She laughed during the farting scene. I'm embarrassed to admit this. But farts still make me laugh. Well, at least sometimes. I watched this silly Lost video and was embarrassed to find myself choking with laughter. Am I very immature? I think the video is well done, though.

Back to the Holocaust....

Griffiths isn't Jewish, but wanted to be.

In the interview, she says she was at Melbourne University doing Indian Studies and Philosophy. Does that mean Lord Wiki lied about her studying drama and teaching? Or maybe she did both?

Okay, she started with the Indian studies/philosophy and then moved onto drama. She didn't yet know she actually wanted to be an actress. She did love the people she met though. Griffiths says, And I remember when I first went to this very kind of daggy, lowly credited drama school that I got into, which was an absolutely wonderful, creative haven with very eccentric teachers who were passionate about their students and their field. I remember meeting all these people on my first day there and it was just like...I felt like I was...I'd found my pack.

It's great finding people you can fit in with well. Usually I find the opposite, but every so often I luck out. I guess that makes those rare times even more precious.

Oh! This reminds me of me. On the set of Muriel's Wedding, Griffiths thought they were going to find out she couldn't act. When she saw the producer and director together, she'd think they were talking about her; planning to fire her.

I'm totally paranoid like that....maybe MORE than that. I think someone out there is mad at me almost everyday. When I look at my blogroll and see a title like "I'm So Disgusted" or "How Can People Be So Stupid?" I immediately get scared they're going to be talking about me or my blog. To my credit though...although I make immediate delusional assumptions, I don't attack or get mad until I know that they're talking about me. And usually they're not. I guess that's what makes me still sane. Although I have frequent delusions and/or paranoid thoughts, I'm usually cognitive to the fact that there's a good chance I'm wrong. To me, insanity is when you have delusions and don't stop to question their validity.

In the interview, Griffiths says she still considers the Waterloo scene in Muriel's Wedding as her favorite day of work.

Oh and now Toni Collette is in the interview too. She and Griffiths traveled around Ireland together.

Both their husbands were born on New Years Day. Interesting....

Griffiths read about the potato famine when they were in Ireland. I hesitated reading Leviathan while in Sydney because I knew it gives the dark depressing view of the city. I ended up doing it anyway. I don't think I regret it. I was having too much fun to get depressed and dwell on stuff. And Birmingham has such a beautiful conclusion to the book. It was therapeutic in a way. I fell in love with Australia knowing only the fun happy stuff.  And yeah, well that's not completely true. I knew some of the dark stuff too. Yet I still saw Australia through rose-colored glasses. The more I research, the more I know about Australia's dark side. Now I have a much more realistic image of Australia. I don't love it less, though. I love it more. I think Birmingham helped me understand some of these feelings. Actually, I think he just expressed my feelings for me. He put into words what I couldn't.

Oh yeah. Back to Griffiths. She talks about something I don't quite understand. It's called the Free Trade Agreement and it's related to film. She says, And what we're about to do is trade away Australia's ability in the future to determine our own cultural policy. We're going to be alright for a few years with television standing as it is but in the near future, when new media forms come in, Australia will no longer be able to determine how much local content Australians are watching.

That sounds scary. I think America does have some great television. I know Australians who are fans of certain TV shows--Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Medium, etc. But I think Australia gets a lot of American crap as well. It surprised me that when I turned on the TV at night in Australia, I'd usually find American shows.

Here's some information about the Free Trade thing. I don't understand it completely, but it sounds pretty wrong.  Disturbing. It sounds a bit like what's going on in Aussie publishing. The problem is American culture is being pushed on Australia and it's really not happening in reverse. I mean I know we have the Bloomin Onion which is undoubtedly the most authentic Australian food you can consume. But besides that, we're lacking in knowledge about Australia. When I talked to Alex, an Australian teenager, he was shocked to know that we Americans don't get Australian TV shows like they get American ones.

I mean it's not completely bad. We have some children's programming from Australia. Hugh Jackman hosted the Oscars. There are Australian actors in America that are household names. BUT for the most part, these actors use American accents. I don't even think most Americans are aware that these actors ARE Australian.

I bet many people who watch Six Feet Under do not know that Griffiths is Australian. They also probably have never seen Muriel's Wedding.

It's not like we can know everything and see every movie.

But it's just not fair.

It's like friendships between people.

I think we've all had them.

They email you and talk on and on about themselves. You listen. You respond. You know all the details of their lives. Then you reveal something about yourself, and they act completely disinterested.

Okay...about the casino. I guess she was against it because she mentions protesting with Reverend Costello. And he was against gambling.

Oh, this is sweet. She says this about JK Rowling, Yeah. I love that she's made a billion dollars giving so much joy to the world and not ripping anyone off or exploiting anybody... I give her every pound she's made. I actually had a little tear in my eye from reading that. I love Rowling. Anyone who is a fan of hers....well, I have to love them at least a little bit.

I'm going to look at IMDb now. They sometimes have fun trivia.

Her father was a Jesuit Priest. No, wait her uncle is. Oops. I was confused because I read down further and saw her father had run off with an eighteen-year-old. I thought I was looking at a brilliant scandel there. A father walking out on his family for a teenager is scandelous in itself, of course. But it would be even better soap opera material, if he had been a FATHER father.

This is funny. She played Johnny Depp's mother in Blow and she's five years younger than him. That I've never heard of before. I have heard of people close in age playing parent/child relationships, but never anything as extreme as that.

I'm looking at Google News now.

She's going to be appearing at the Logie Awards which is this upcoming weekend.  It will probably be in the past by the time I post this.

Anyway, I better end this here. There's a big storm coming. I gotta go panic about that. Thunder scares me. Okay? I admit it. I prefer that over vomit, though. Just for the record....