Interview of Marny Kennedy by Freya Bennett // photos by Sabina Wheatley
Fresh from releasing Last Days and welcoming her first child, actor Marny Kennedy chats about navigating red carpets and night feeds, the lessons her newborn’s already taught her, and how motherhood has cracked her heart wide open.
Hi Marny! How are you feeling as you step into this new chapter of motherhood during a major film release, and managing life in between?
I can already recognise that this is going to be one of the best times of my life to look back on!
Just four weeks into motherhood and Umarrah has already taught me more about life and love than I ever could have conceived. It feels incredibly serendipitous that Last Days is now being released into the world too, just a few weeks after giving birth. I feel empowered by the way in which my two worlds have managed to collide; it makes me feel as if a balance between the two is well within reach.
You found out you were pregnant right around the time Last Days premiered at Sundance, that must have been a surreal moment. What was it like navigating such a career high while carrying such a big personal secret?
It was genuinely one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I took the pregnancy test a few days before flying to LA and then onto Utah for Sundance, but I wasn’t with my partner- he was back in Tasmania while I was in transit in Melbourne.
I knew he had to be the first person I told, but I also wanted to tell him in person, so I made the decision to keep it completely secret until I returned home!
I remember being in Park City, sharing a house with four of the Last Days boys, and desperately trying not to let anyone hear me vomit. I relied heavily on the ‘I’m doing Dry January’ trick, and made sure I was still always one of the last ones standing each night, so somehow managed to get through without anyone finding out. I love that my little man was quietly with me for that whole experience, from the premiere at Sundance right through to the cinema release now.
You’ve been acting since childhood from Mortified to Home and Away to now working with Justin Lin on Last Days. How has your relationship to acting evolved over the years?
Acting was irrefutably my first true love- it has broken and healed my heart in equal measure over the past two decades. As with any relationship that lasts twenty years, my relationship with acting has definitely involved extreme highs and extreme lows.
It has given me some of the most important friendships of my life, it has allowed me to travel to incredible places and temporarily call them home, and it still feels as exciting and purposeful as it did when I first stepped onto a set at eleven years of age. It’s the camaraderie of being on set that I love and miss most when I’m not working. That’s what I’m always trying to find my way back to. That’s when I feel most at home.
Last Days looks like an intense and powerful project. What drew you to the role of Melanie, and what was it like working under Justin Lin’s direction?
I’ve never been a naturally competitive person, but when the audition came through for Melanie, I felt a visceral sense of ‘I have to do this. This has to be mine.’
I instantly resonated with Melanie’s moral perspective and connected so deeply to the way in which she crosses John’s path at such a pivotal moment in his journey.
I remember doing the callback with Justin via zoom, and feeling immediately comfortable with him- to the point where I said ‘Is there anything in particular you want me to do this time? Or I can just do it, and if it’s shit, you can tell me.’
Justin is without a doubt one of the most humble, generous directors I’ve ever worked with, but more importantly, he’s a genuinely good human. He has never forgotten where he came from, nor lost the same fierce work ethic he had at the very beginning of his career, and he has brought along all the people who were there with him from the beginning, which is what I respect most about him.
I’ve been on his case about shooting something out here in Australia too, so leave that one with me.
You’ve recently worked on everything from crime thrillers to biographical dramas. Is there a particular kind of story or character that excites you most at this stage in your career?
I feel as if I haven’t really had a proper run at a comedy yet, at least since I was a child.
As much as I gravitate towards heavier, dramatic material, and definitely still feel as if I want to explore more there, I would actually really love to do a dry comedy. That’s when I’m most excited and motivated for an audition, especially when the writing and dialogue is rapid fire.
I think I’ve paid my dues playing the ‘Distressed blonde wife of famous white man’ for the majority of my twenties. I’m ready to throw a few punches now.
You somehow managed international trips, including Greece with Zimmermann while keeping your pregnancy under wraps. Do you have any funny or behind-the-scenes stories from that time?
That entire trip within itself was hilarious. Here I was at six/seven months pregnant when I get a call from Maia saying ‘So I know you’re pregnant, but how pregnant are we talking? Like, could you still potentially fly to Mykonos with me for a week?’
And somehow, two weeks later, there we were on the dance floor at 2am belting out ABBA with the entire Zimmermann family, in Greece.
It wasn’t lost on me that people wait their entire lives to travel overseas, and here Umarrah was in my belly, clocking up his second overseas flight for the year.
Keeping the pregnancy under wraps at a highly publicised event was where the comedy really kicked in though- there was lots of excessive hugging photos where Maia would just throw herself in front of my bump like a grenade.
You’ve done so much across TV, film, and voice work. How do you see this next chapter shaping your artistic life and the kinds of stories you want to tell?
I feel like motherhood granted me almost immediate access to a newfound range of emotions that I’d never experienced until now. You suddenly exist in such a raw, stripped back state; perceiving the world around you in such a deeply intuitive way.
I’m so excited for an opportunity to arise where I’m able to just bring all of that to the table, for a story that calls for it. And if that story doesn’t reveal itself anytime soon, it might be time to write it myself.
