What I love the most about my show is how boundaries and preconceptions are detonated with every conversation I have. The impossibly beautiful, Sarah Jane Kelly is a case in point.
She glides onto the set in an emerald green and flowing chiffon situation, blinged-up footwear and a fiery red mane…
Old Hollywood glamour, quiet and subdued elegance, right? Well, yes… but then she opens her mouth and the sass, the verve and the sheer unapologetic energy she has when she speaks her truth is, undeniable.
I first met SJ when she was my eldest son’s drama teacher at Sydney’s NIDA many years ago. My boy may have had more than a little bit of a crush on her at the time (!). Sorry, Dean – it’s Mama’s job to embarrass you.
Fast forward to a few years later, and I bumped into SJ again at a Sydney theatre. We talked about acting, the trials, the tribulations, the bar work between gigs. Sarah Jane didn’t have stars in her eyes, but there was definitely fire there. I wanted to yell, ‘Get thee to a casting director in L.A, you’re gorgeous, you’re talented, they’ll love you. Won’t they?’
Yes. I’m a romantic about most things, I get it. But Sarah Jane wasn’t buying into my Hollywood version of Hollywood.
Her approach, pragmatic. Her dreams, not spun from fairy floss.
#LisForLuminous is not about rags to riches, or talent-spotting across a crowded (insert improbable location here). It’s a real story about life on the edges of fame and fans when all you really want to do is live your purpose and – act.
In her own words,
“You know what? Stuff it, I am an actor. I’m here and the world better get used to it.”
I’m tellin’ ya, the woman’s got flaps the size of Oz.
