Robyn Butler Now Add Honey Interview

Cast: Butler, Portia De Rossi, Luc Fry, Lucy Durak, Hamish Blake, Robbie Magasiva, Angus Sampson, Erik Thomson, Ben Lawson, Philippa Coulthard, Lucinda Armstrong Hall
Director: Wayne Hope
Genre: Comedy
Rated: M
Running Time: 98 minutes

Synopsis: Caroline Morgan (Robyn Butler) is delighted when her sister Beth (Portia de Rossi) brings her movie star daughter Honey Halloway (Lucy Fry) home for a visit. But when Beth is suddenly sent to rehab, Caroline is forced to move Honey in to her suburban home. Honey struggles with life without an entourage and her cousins, Clare and Harriet struggle with a movie star hogging the bathroom. But after Honey leads Caroline to uncover a family secret, Caroline struggles as her life quickly falls apart. Trapped together in the house, a middle-aged woman and a teen starlet must each wrestle with who they really are.

Now Add Honey is an uplifting, laugh-out loud family comedy that celebrates women and girls being who they want to be.

Now Add Honey
Release Date: November 5th, 2015

Interview with Robyn Butler

Question: What inspired the creation of Now Add Honey?

Robyn Butler: I felt like I wanted to talk about all the issues which are in Now Add Honey. I wanted to talk about how it feels to hit middle age and feel as if you are becoming invisible and there is pressure to have botox, fillers or collagen and wear spanx - anything that will make you feel and look as if you're not ageing.

It was weird because at the same time I have my own company, I make a lot of television and I have a 'voice' than enables me to express my own ideas; it felt as if I was being told what to do and I don't like it.

 

I am a mother of two girls and I was really aware of the music videos they are watching and what they see on Facebook and Instagram such as girls willing to take their tops off at parties. It made me wonder what decade we are in, it is crazy behaviour that is all so external which inspired me to think of the most interesting way I could dramatise the concept. The way I did that was to take a middle-aged woman who gets her sexual power sucked out of her and put her next to the most hightened version of the young-sexualised girl before her time, which was Honey.


Question: What was the biggest challenge regarding the entire process of Now Add Honey?

Robyn Butler: Largely it was making a story about women and girl issues which is quiet hard to get off the ground as it's not seen as how we typically make a film. We are used to films being about crime, outback-drama or stories which have a more familiar ring to them. A film about body-image, self-esteem and girls and women in the suburbs isn't seen as generically interesting enough and that was the biggest challenge. Luckily I have the most awesome husband in the world who directed Now Add Honey (Wayne Hope) who came on board and said "No, no this is a totally great cinematic story, which we will tell" and he helped me convince a lot of others.


Question: Was it difficult to star in a film you'd also written?

Robyn Butler: Not really as I've done that a lot of my career, written and acted at the same time. I think the writing process is so seperate from the acting process; once I get on set the writing is complete and I turn myself over to being an actor. They are both different headspaces which I do not find difficult, I find it incredibly joyus, actually.


Question: When writing for Caroline Morgan did you think ahead of how you would act these out?

Robyn Butler: What is really interesting is I write as if I was acting it for all the characters this allows me to get inside every character. The only way I can write truthfully is to act as if I'm that person. I would put myself in Honey's shoes to think 'what would she say next?' and sometimes when I'm writing I can almost make myself cry, a little bit, if I'm feeling the emotion of the character. I believe all writing should be like that, it's important to really invest in all the characters. So, when I was writing Caroline Morgan, I did know how I would deliver it but even having said that, often I would get on set with Wayne Hope (director) and he would say "do you want to try this?" or "pluck this line out" and that would bring more out than I'd realised which is the joy of having a great director.

Question: I loved the cast; it was fantastic to see so many of my favourite Australians in one film. Did you have any other actors in mind when writing Now Add Honey?

Robyn Butler: The only actor I had in mind was Hamish Blake which was quiet considered as I knew this story would be full of women and girls but I didn't want men to feel as if they couldn't see the film. I wanted to write a character that was really funny and accessible; for me, Hamish Blake is the most funny, accessible person out there, I adore him and I think he is ridiculously talented so I wrote the part, for him. It was very lucky Hamish Blake said yes to do Now Add Honey.


Question: Did your script change at all during the filming process?

Robyn Butler: No, the script didn't change but how an actor would deliver the line may change. The script is pretty intact as I did many, many drafts. Wayne Hope and I went over the script many times and he would question certain moments and ask "do you think this moment could be fleshed out?" to ensure the script is very intact when we get on set. A couple of times Hamish (Hamish Blake) would throw in a line but most of the time it was scripted.


Question: What is the main message you hope Now Add Honey portrays to Australian audiences, particuarly young girls?

Robyn Butler: I hope that girls and women feel better about themselves when they walk out of the cinema. I would hope that young girls trust what they have to say and who they are is more important than how they look. It's not to say that we don't all want to look fantastic and feel great about the dress we've chosen to wear, or the nails we've painted or the hair style we've got - it's not that, it's about feeling like we're enough and not comparing ourselves to what we see on big, small and phone screens because that reality is often not the truth and our truth is who we love and who loves us and what makes us feel good, everyday.



Question: Did you have a particular scene, in the film, which you were most excited to see on the big screen?

Robyn Butler: Yes, I really love the exercise scene, I really do because I feel like it encompasses the film in many ways for Caroline's story. In terms of the way I like to work it is comedy and drama at the same in one scene. That scene is brave as it shows a women wetting her pants and the shriek of laughter than comes from the audience at that point is so delightful as women cannot believe that they've seen what happens to them, on a daily basis, on the big screen. I really felt that scene would have an impact which is why I was excited to see it and I'm always excited to see that scene as it always plays well.

Question: What's next, for you?

Robyn Butler: It will be television again, but I cannot say anything about what I am working on for a couple of weeks but it is for television early next year.


Now Add Honey
Release Date: November 5th, 2015

Interview by Brooke Hunter