Receiving three Best Actress nods for a film is a stellar achievement in its own right, but it is even more incredible for Busselton’s leading lady Emma Booth, who rejected her award-winning role twice.
Booth triumphed at the recent Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards, winning Best Lead Actress for her role in psychological horror Hounds of Love.
The role has already earned the beauty Best Actress honours at the Brussels International Film Festival and a European horror festival.
Booth stars alongside actor Stephen Curry as Evelyn and John White.
In the film, the perverse couple kidnap and terrorise a young woman, who observes the twisted dynamic between her captors and realises she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive.
Booth explained to the Mail her original reservations revolved around the subject matter and confronting content of the role, which was written for her by the film’s writer-director Ben Young.
“It was more graphic in the original script and I said I know I’m an actor but I just don’t feel like I can do some of the things I’ve read in the script,” she said.
“The script got changed and things got taken out and some things were just insinuated and I thought ‘actually maybe I’ll give this a go’ but I was terrified taking on Evelyn.”
The feature, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, explores the complexity of co-dependent relationships and the emotional power struggles within the deeply disturbed, alienated couple.
Rather than graphic gore, a lot of the violence is insinuated by Young – who preferred to focus on the psychology of the characters.
Booth started her acting career at 14 when she was cast in the children’s television series The Adventures of the Bush Patrol.
She went on to appear in the acclaimed TV mini series The Shark Net and Underbelly:The Golden Mile, which earned her a Logie Award nomination for Most Popular New Female Talent as well as The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent.
Despite being a seasoned performer, with an AACTA already to her name for her performance in 2007’s Clubland, Booth wasn’t sure she could do the character justice.
However, she decided to ‘throw herself in the deep end’.
“The physical transformation I went through was incredibly rewarding because I didn’t actually look like me,” she said.
“I was really changed physically to not be the so called ‘pretty girl’ so it was really freeing for me, I could do whatever I wanted and just go crazy with the character.”
The character development of Evelyn was a collaboration between Booth and Young.
A process Booth said she had to be involved in for a role like this.
“I’m the one playing her, so I need to really develop everything about her,” she said.
“All these organic moments come when you are on set and so it was like she just developed from me kind of playing with her and adding lots of layers to make it interesting.”
This relationship with Young was also a huge factor in Booth accepting the role.
“Ben is a dear friend of mine and this is his first feature so it was like this is either going to be really amazing or not very good at all,” she said.
“He then he got this extraordinary cast behind him and the film turned out phenomenal so we are very proud of it.”
For West Australians, the critically-acclaimed movie would be reminiscent of the terror inflicted in Perth in 1986 by the David and Catherine Birnie.
However, Young, whose mother Felicity is a crime writer, studied six couples who kill after being intrigued my women who kill.
He found none of them had acted alone, but rather as the willing accomplice to an influential male partner.
Booth said all involved were conscious of links to real life and victims.
“If you watch the film it is not actually the same as the Birnie’s at all,” she said.
“It is an extremely tough subject matter and a triggering one for some so we had to be really aware of that.
“Shooting it, there was moments I was just completely horrified thinking this has actually happened to people and will continue to happen to people because of the world we live in and that made me really sad at times.”
The actress had little time to celebrate her recognition, flying back to Vancouver the following morning to film American ABC fantasy-drama Once Upon A Time.
She said she was incredibly humbled to receive the highest honour in Australian acting.
“I think any actor would love the chance to hold the gold statue with the title to their name so I am incredibly humbled,” she said.
“It’s not the easiest thing to win, let’s be honest, but we’ve had so many amazing reviews with the film I thought ‘well I might be in with a chance’.
“I thought if it’s going to be any time in my life, it’s going to be with this film but I was still so surprised.”
Booth currently stars in Glitch on Netflix and has worked again with Young on the upcoming sci-fi thriller Extinction.