An obsessive pharmacist-turned-stalker, Jack (John Jarratt), and a flirtatious nurse named Emily (Kaarin Fairfax), who isn’t quite the victim she appears to be. They’re the simple ingredients toStalkHer– a battle of the sexes that features not only a myriad of twists and turns, but a delightful injection of inappropriate romance and humour.
Even from the trailer alone, audiences will be able to determine how new and inspired the concept of StalkHer is. However, the film itself was originally born out of necessity, says Jarratt.
“My company was going to make a film called Passing Winds, which is a comedy Western I had written,” he says. “Unfortunately, we realised that it was going to cost six or seven million bucks. So we needed a two-hander; something that was achievable, hopefully at night. Something cinematic with a really gritty story.
“My producer [Kristijana Maric], who can do anything, had written this script. After I read it I texted her saying, ‘You bitch – you can write as well!’”
A witty, dark and occasionally violent romance with a dialogue-heavy script may be a relatively original concept for a film, but it did draw inspiration from other cinematic depictions of warring partners.
“It’s along the lines of the classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, War Of The Roses; those kind of domestic, full-on and vibrant films,” says Jarratt. “We created a genre for it called ‘wrong town’.”
The plot of StalkHer revolves around the character of Jack planning to take Emily by force, only to find himself waking up tied to her kitchen chair and trapped in a night of witty repartee, violence and sexual tension. With this in mind, one has to expect the dialogue is truly stellar.
“The film has brilliant dialogue and some of it was pretty hard to get your tongue around,” Jarratt agrees. “We had to know it all too, because you can’t get on set and not know it, because you want to be able to play with it.
“It was probably the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life, but also some of the most pleasing things I’ve ever done too. It was exhilarating at times. It was great.”
Despite him playing a thwarted stalker and rapist, I wonder whether there is any part of the veteran Australian actor who actually likes the character of Jack.
“Oh no, he’s a nihilistic, ‘the world owes him a living’ kind of guy. He’s me if I had never gotten counseling in the ’80s and ’90s and became a better person. He just never worked on himself, so he’s a bit of an emotional infant.”
Needless to say, Jarratt didn’t turn to method acting to prepare for the role.
“The only character I’ve had to do a bit of method with was [Wolf Creek’s] Mick Taylor,” he says as I let out a slightly alarmed laugh. “Only because he was a long, long way away as far as his sensibilities are concerned, not so much his character and make-up as a human being. His country upbringing and all that, I relate to that.”
Moving back to Jack, Jarratt says, “It was important for me to give this guy a backstory because he’s not like me. He’s a pharmacist and I could never be a pharmacist’s backside. So we gave those characters very strong backstories that really worked well for us.”
A particularly amusing part of the movie – for lovers of violence, anyway – sees Emily beat the living hell out of Jack. The scenes seem like they would have been fun to film, considering the long professional history Fairfax and Jarratt share, as well as the fact they co-directed StalkHer together.
“Well it was obviously pretend, but it was definitely fun to play it. A couple of times Kaarin did get stuck into me, but she’s only five-foot-nothing and didn’t really hurt me because I’m big and ugly,” Jarratt laughs.
Of course, Emily doesn’t always hold all the cards. The film is very much a game of cat-and-mouse throughout.
“I love the games that they play with each other and the one-upmanship,” says Jarratt. “Sometimes the Emily [character] is in control and other times mine is. It’s a kind of a tennis game, if you like – who’s got the ball. We have a wonderful script and we’ve put it on the screen; we can’t do better than that. It’s really up to the movie now.”
Another interesting element of StalkHer is that two of the highlight songs from the soundtrack are performed, respectively, by Jarratt himself and Fairfax’s daughters.
“The composers are also great singer-songwriters in their own right and they wrote ‘Killer In Me’, which I perform, and Wishful [the band featuring Fairfax’s daughters Maddy and Memphis Kelly] perform ‘StalkHer’, which has been put up on YouTube. If I do dare say so, they are both great songs.
“It’s just so good to be in the business for 40 years and to know you’re doing something refreshing and different,” Jarratt concludes. “It’s not only a great script but there’s something unique about this – I don’t think Australian film has seen anything like it.”
StalkHer (dir. John Jarratt and Kaarin Fairfax) is in cinemas now. Music From The Motion Picture StalkHer, featuring Nick Cave, The Go-Betweens, The Angels, Sarah Blasko and more, is out now via Remote Control Records.
