How we made Strictly Ballroom

Baz Luhrmann was this cool guy two years ahead of me at NIDA, the drama school in Sydney. When I graduated, I joined his theatre company Six Years Old and the play of Strictly Ballroom came out of that. It was inspired by Keith Bain, who taught movement at the school; he was a ballroom-dancer who had left Australia for South America in the 1950s then came back with these shocking new steps.

We talked a lot in rehearsals about the paso doble, and from that came Fran’s Spanish immigrant background. I thought up the name Frangipani because Sydney has frangipani trees everywhere. It was while doing the play that I met Craig Pearce; he and Baz were ancient friends and ended up working on the screenplay.

I did seven screen tests over the course of a year and was only told I’d been cast the night before we started. Even once we were filming, I had this sense of doubt: I’m not pretty enough, I can’t dance well enough – which is 100% Fran.

Australia, Sydney

baz luhrmann, strictly ballroom, nida, sydney, six years, keith bain, paso doble, frangipani, craig pearce, screen tests