Photography by GREG SWALES

ROSE BYRNE

Actor

The Australian actor’s quietly disarming humor has made her the patron saint of the romantic comedy. This year, she flexes a different muscle as the lead in the drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and will be seen next in the chilling limited series The Good Daughter.

WHAT IS YOUR TRADEMARK? Still looking for it!

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? Figuring out my trademark.

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? I moved to New York at 28 to begin shooting Damages. I was super homesick. I happened to pick up the second volume of The Diary of Anaïs Nin at a thrift store—she also moved to New York around that age. I found this beautiful chronicle of her time there very inspiring.

“"Bushy eyebrows and curly blonde hair."”

NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE. Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SURPRISED YOURSELF IN YOUR PRACTICE? I was truly shocked to win the Silver Bear at Berlin for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. I’d already flown home when I received the news.

WHAT DO YOU WANT NEXT FOR YOURSELF ABOVE ALL ELSE? To not forget to put the capoeira uniform in [my son] Rocco’s backpack every Monday.

DESCRIBE A RECENT CROSSROADS AT WHICH YOU FOUND YOURSELF. I recently left all our passports on the plane en route to Sydney. This is a crossroads I do not wish to visit again.

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR? Bushy eyebrows and curly blonde hair.

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