In 2002, Miranda Otto found herself in the mountainous wilds of New Zealand learning swordcraft to play the role of Eowyn in the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. On the South Island’s golden grasslands, she delivered one of the series’ most memorable lines while dispatching the Witch-King of Angmar, who had said that no man could kill him. As Miranda plunged her sword into the foe, she ripped off her helmet and declared, “I am no man!”
It was a favourite role, and one Miranda says will stay with her forever. It also gave her the chance to spend some time with her half-sister, Gracie, then 13, who stayed with her for a week on set. Gracie ended up appearing in the trilogy, and having her eyes opened to a side of filmmaking she’d never known.
The epic scale of the project was such that it was common for visitors to be recruited into the Middle Earth cast. “I think everybody’s family was an extra at some point,” Miranda laughs.
As transformational as the role was for Miranda, the visit left a lasting impact on Gracie, too. She had been raised around actors, and so had a better understanding of the craft than most, but she had never been given up-close access to such a grand production.
“It was great. I remember walking around and seeing [director] Peter Jackson in his gumboots and thinking, I just want to be like that guy. I found his job the most interesting,” she says. “I loved the film and TV world. I just never really wanted to be an actor.”
Two decades after that memorable family holiday, Miranda and Gracie have reunited on set, working together for the first time on the Disney+ series The Clearing. Miranda plays the role of Adrienne, a fearsome matriarchal figure inspired by Anne Hamilton-Byrne who presided, in pearls and a bouffant, over the 1960s Victorian doomsday cult, The Family.
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