Philip Key talks to the creators of Gone about the trials of filming in the Outback
by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post
"THEY loved my eyes," New Brighton-born film and television actress Amelia Warner tells me with a grin. She was not referring to casting directors or even her many fans. Flies - that's what she was talking about.
She was plagued by them while shooting her latest film, Gone, which opens in British cinemas today. The seven-week shoot was a gruelling one, travelling up the east coast of Australia and venturing into the outback where film companies have been a rarity.
The psychological thriller tells the story of three young people making a road trip, one which eventually results in violence and sudden death.
A low-budget chiller enjoying a limited release, Gone is giving Amelia her biggest role yet in a career which has seen her move from classic television heroine in Lorna Doone to supporting roles in Hollywood blockbusters.
This week, she was back in Liverpool promoting the new movie alongside the director, Ringan Ledwidge.
Although she left New Brighton, aged four, with her actress mother Annette Ekblom, she has been a regular visitor over the years. "When my nan was alive, I came up all the time, often in the school holidays," she explains. "And I still have cousins here."
Indeed, one cousin was working in the Liverpool hotel where we were meeting. Well, had been. "I asked after her but apparently she left on Friday," said a clearly disappointed Amelia.
LIFE has been pretty full for her since leaving New Brighton, for some time studying art at Goldsmith's College in London.
But the acting bug was in her and after working with a youth theatre group at London's Royal Court she found herself with television work in series like Kavanagh QC, Casualty, and Mansfield Park. Lorna Doone, in 2000, marked something of a breakthrough, the same year appearing opposite Michael Caine in Quills.
There was a short marriage to fellow actor and Hollywood bad boy Colin Farrell the following year - part of her life she cares not to discuss - followed by supporting roles in movies like the sci-fi thriller Aeon Flux and Stoned, the story of Rolling Stone Brian Jones.
