Rose Byrne’s Recent Movie “Wrecked” Her—and Redefined Her Career

What did it look like at the end of a tough day for you?

The hardest parts are the night shoots, because I’m useless after a certain hour anyway. I’m not a night owl. Everybody’s a different beast. But they were really the true night shoots, where we’d see the sun come up, and you’d sleep all day—I’d come home to my little hotel room. At one point they said, “Do you want to stay at the hotel where we’re filming?” Because that’s where Mary was staying. And I was like, “I’m good.” Church and state. But I would usually text Mary at some point later, going, “I think I screwed this up. Did you get enough of this? I’m sorry if I didn’t get that.” I’d go through a series of thoughts in my head of what I could have done better, what we missed, how we’ll fix it—just neurotic actress things.

Mary mentioned to me that she wouldn’t run a lot of takes.

She didn’t. It’s a miniature movie—it’s not like a Kubrick film where you can do a hundred takes. Or allegedly, those sorts of things you hear about. [Laughs] This was four weeks. It was like doing a play. I just stepped onto the set, but before I knew it, I was off the set. The adrenaline of it got me through all of that.

Did it take a toll—physically, emotionally, all the above?

It’s humorous—having miniature children, they just couldn’t care less if it’s taking a toll on you or not, whether it be work or something else. That’s always very grounding. But I felt unhappy it was over. It was such a gift to be able to do it.

Because the camera was so close, it was a very technical exercise as well a lot of the time. And my scene partner, you never see. There’s twists in the filmmaking that people will hopefully recognize, but that was wild, going, “How’s that going to work? How’s this story going to be told?” It’s just all from the perspective of Linda, in a way that I’ve not experienced for a while in the cinema—watching it, just like, “Oh, you are inside this person’s eyeballs.”

Do you remember what state of mind you were in when you finished filming?

Whew. I have an Australian kind of relaxed, laid-back quality that I know is culturally similar, but I am peddling speedy underneath a little bit. I was just like, “Is this okay? Did I fuck it up?” I didn’t want it to be over. When Mary and I talked again later, I was having separation anxiety from the character—and from Mary, and Mary as part of the character, and our friendship. I felt a little of that when I was coming away from it. And I felt pretty wrecked, physically.

There’s the physical toll I was asking about!

[Laughs] I admit, I looked busted.

You play another intense role in the film Tow, which premiered to mighty reviews in Tribeca. But it still hasn’t found distribution, correct?