Lucy Fry Now Add Honey Interview

Cast: Robyn Butler, Portia De Rossi, Lucy 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 Lucy Fry

Question: How did you come across the Now Add Honey script?

Lucy Fry: I read the first draft when I was 18 years-old; I auditioned for Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope and I remember thinking they were the absolute bees knees and it would be a dream to work with them. Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope were sourcing financing and when I was 20 years-old, two years later, I was in LA with Philippa Coulthard (who plays my cousin) and we sent in our self-take for the character of Honey which we shot together. Philippa Coulthard and I were thrilled and very excited when I was given the role of Honey and Philippa got the role of Clare; it's a treat to be able to work together.

Question: What appealed to you about the character of Honey?

Lucy Fry: There was a lot that I was attracted to in Honey; the transition from being a child to being an adult is the tipping point that Honey is sitting on where she is coming into a greater awareness of herself. Honey has many influences in her life: her mother, her career, her manager but although she's been kept from her family she's been able to process the influences on a greater scale and a deeper level.


Question: How are you able to relate to your character of Honey?

Lucy Fry: When we started filming Now Add Honey I was coming into a greater awareness of who I am, where I've been and what I'm growing into.

It was exciting to play in a space and the process of: What is it to grow up? What is it to be a child? What is it to be given a chance to not be a child? And, how does this all affect the person you grow into. Does Honey find the strength to take her childhood back when it's almost over? All these really great questions come up for Honey and I was really excited to delve into the project and discover the process.


Question: What, if anything, did you learn about yourself whilst filming Now Add Honey?

Lucy Fry: I learnt the importance of valuing health, happiness, family and wellbeing over the what is perceived as what you should do. For example Honey is getting pushed, pulled and manipulated by her mother, her agent and her producer; what Honey does is finds a way to get back to her own truth amongst the chaos of her world.

I was only just beginning in the American industry when I was filming Now Add Honey after working in Australia and I was at a place in my life where I was feeling very manipulated by the people around me; Now Add Honey gave me a chance to recognise that all of the influences are other people's opinions and I need to, on my own, decide what is best for me – that is what Honey learnt and that's what I learnt from the process too.


Question: Your wardrobe in the film is amazing; did you get to keep any of the pieces?
Lucy Fry: I loved the little black and white strapless dress I wear at the end, when Honey has come into herself; the dress is cute and innocent – it's the first outfit that Honey wears that is free, not quite so styled and Honey could be more settled in herself as in the rest of the movie she is caring so much about what she looks like and what's -fashionable'; even in the family house where everyone is in jeans, she is trying to impress. The dress is my favourite because it wasn't quite so though-through.


Question: What did you enjoy about working so closely with Robyn Butler?

Lucy Fry: The inspiration that she shares with all of us. Robyn Butler is such a beautiful, inclusive and loving women; anytime I had questions regarding her journey with the script or how she went through and created the piece from scratch she would kindly answer. Robyn Butler has been such a mentor to Philippa Coulthard and I, as we are both young women starting off in this industry and we want to make changes to the industry the way Robyn has. Robyn has gone out and fought to get her script made with all strong female stories; it was a treat to be included in Now Add Honey especially as she was so welcoming of us into her perspective and process. The love that Robyn shared with us makes me grateful to have had this experience.


Question: What was the most difficult part about filming Now Add Honey?

Lucy Fry: Singing! I was really afraid of singing so I received help and in the end Wayne Hope said 'you can sing Lucy" which started a whole journey of me participating in a singing course and receiving lessons to get over my fear of singing and the mental block that said 'I can't do it".

Since filming Now Add Honey I feel as if I've got the confidence to sing.


Question: Can you tell us about the filming process/locations of Now Add Honey?

Lucy Fry: We filmed Now Add Honey around Melbourne which was lovely and a suburban environment is not something you see a lot in Australian films – middle class suburban Australia even though the majority of us are living in. To see the perspective of suburban Melbourne presented on the screen was really exciting. I loved being around the beautiful Melbourne homes and parks was fun and it also felt very grounding and natural to act a family story in a place that was familiar.


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

Lucy Fry: I was really excited to see the finale scene as everyone put so much effort into the scene and it felt almost theatrical as we acted through each characters shot which is why I was excited to see how it was cut together.

Question: What message do you hope young Australian girls take from the film?

Lucy Fry: Robyn Butler said beautifully that she was hoping to 'unburden women of all the cultural pressures that are placed on us".

It's great to see the sexual pressure, from Honey's perspective, to be sexy when she still doesn't actually understand what sex is. I hope teenagers get a chance to talk to family such as an Aunty, an older sister or a parental figure about what sex actually is. I want Now Add Honey to create discussion because there is a disconnect between what we see in the media and what actually gets talked about, they are oceans apart.

I hope discussions regarding the reality can begin and therefore teenager girls can learn how to handle the situation. I know when I was a teenaged girl I didn't understand the concept and believed I should look -sexy' without knowing what it meant or what it was.

On the other hand, I hope Now Add Honey also aids in freeing middle-aged women of the pressure to look 16 years old. When Robyn Butler started writing Now Add Honey her perspective was isn't it ridiculous that 16 year olds who don't know what sex is are told to be sexy and a women who is at the prime of her life in her 40s is told -you're done'.

I hope Now Add Honey gets the conversation going about how wrong it is and then changes are made. We want women to feel more empowered about wherever they are in their lives and that they don't need to cater to popular culture.

Be whatever you are wherever you are at; be honest with yourselves about it.


Question: Can you tell us a little bit about the Wolf Creek series you are currently working on?

Lucy Fry: Yes! Wolf Creek is going to be awesome; it's very psychological thriller. The shots that I have seen so far of the vast Australian landscape, the grungy road-houses and the locations we are filming in are beautiful, gritty and realistic. Tony Tilse is making it very grounded in reality and the tension feels a lot more pressing. The character I am playing really transforms throughout the journey and I'm excited to share that, when it's ready.


Now Add Honey
Release Date: November 5th, 2015

Interview by Brooke Hunter