Andrea Moor is too young to be a grand dame of Queensland Theatre. Still, she’s an inspiration to many and has a helluva resume to date. At the moment, Moor is starring, alongside Matthew Backer, in QTC’s production of the Joanna Murray Smith play, Switzerland. Directed by Paige Rattray, the play is a fictional episode in the later life of author Patricia Highsmith. Moor left Brisbane as an 18 year-old at the end of 1970’s and moved to Sydney. Accepted into NIDA, Moor subsequently lived in Sydney for 26 years, with stints in London and Los Angeles. Moor has been back working in Brisbane for 11 years. Moor is a  superb actor, educator and mentor to many. Sean Sennett recently caught up with Ms Moor in QTC’s Green Room.

The first time I became aware of your work was in the Carl Schultz directed film, Tavelling North (based on the David Williamson play). Of course, the great Leo McKern was in the film. Did he pass on any tips?

That was my first film out of NIDA. Working with Leo was pretty amazing. I was terrified. Back then especially, you didn’t do any film training. You just did a one or two-week exercise with the ABC which didn’t really teach you a lot.

I remember this first scene we had, we were in this lovely house and we were in this study. Leo and I were in a very small room, and the whole crew were there, and then Leo and I had to go out this little door to exit. I was just performing it all to the crew. I had no idea. And Leo said, “There’s no such thing as bringing the size down. As long as you’re truthful you can be as big as you want.” He was very generous with me, and I took in everything he said.

In recent years you’ve had quite a few forays into directing (Venus in Fur, Grounded, Australia Day, Boston Marriage and The Quartet). Is it easy for you to change hats and be a director one ‘week’ and then go back to being an actress?

No, ultimately directing I think is more stressful, for a start. Much, much, more stressful because when you’re an actor, the director shields you from all the other stuff that’s going on, all the politics, all the ‘We can’t get the design we want because of the budget’…  all that stuff.

As a director, you feel very, very responsible for delivering the product, and you have a very close relationship with the artistic director. And you’re getting notes from the artistic director, whereas, as an actor, that all gets filtered through your director. The director is there to make sure the actors are happy and comfortable and can do the best job. It’s much, much more stressful being a director. Also, you’re balancing all these personalities. You’re balancing the designers, the design team.

You have to be a psychologist.

You are, and the actors  always, no matter how wonderful the cast is, there are always dynamics you have to balance. And you’ve got an actor who works ‘that’ way and you want your show to be ‘this’ way. All that stuff, insecurities and all, you’re balancing all of that.

And then you may have an artistic director or another voice  could be anyone’s voice who sees things differently to how you see them. You’re then having to go what do I take in, when do I go “Thank you very much, but no”? That voice can come from within your own design team or anything. You’re constantly having to go ‘No, this is my vision. Or am I wrong?’ It’s really challenging.

What drew you back, to say ‘I just want to be an actress in this?’

I never was not an actor. I had to really convince Wesley (Enoch – former QTC Artistic Director).  Wesley was absolutely wonderful in that he completely supported my move into directing. He was a champion and he’s a dear friend. I miss him. Not that Sam’s  (Sam Strong – current QTC Artistic Director) not fantastic too. Wesley was a really wonderful mentor.

I kept saying to him ‘it’s great you give me these opportunities but I am still an actor’. So he was very adamant that we found something for this year’s season. He was adamant last year too, but we just didn’t find the thing I really wanted to do.

Who found Switzerland?

The Sydney Theatre Company wanted us to take their production and I was on the repertoire committee, so I was reading all the plays we were considering for this year’s season. When I read the play I said ‘this is it’. This is what I want to do. This is fantastic.

Luckily, STC were really happy. They gave us the rights. Of course, also, I was very keen for Paige to direct the show, so because she works at STC I think there was a kind of ‘Okay, it gives Paige an opportunity’. I think it was a bit of a trade-off for them.

And QTC have built your own sets: which are very impressive. 

“It’s very exciting because the designer is in residence, Anthony Spinaze. He’s just fresh out of NIDA. He graduated last year. He’s become resident designer this year, which is fantastic. It’s so exciting because he’s a Brisbane boy, he’s got several degrees. He’s a very experienced young man.. an extraordinary artist, actually. He did visual arts too.He’s also doing… St. Mary’s in Exile. He’s been assisting the wonderful Richard Roberts on Much Ado. He gets to do a lot in the year, which hopefully he’ll then get to know the company very well and then he’ll be able to build and grow and work everywhere.

Had you seen a production of Switzerland?

No, thank God. Sarah Pierce who did it in Sydney, I’m a massive fan of. She’s exquisite, and I think if I’d seen her I would have gone ‘Oh, no, I can’t possibly do that’. Because the STC production is going down to Melbourne, I am thinking about going down in September and seeing it, which I think would be really interesting. From what I’ve heard, our production is very different from hers. You can’t compare them because the directors have taken a very different approach.

How did you develop your character for Patricia Highsmith? What was your process for that?

I was just saying to Sam the other day, apart from one or two things at NIDA, I don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to actually play someone based on reality. So it’s kind of wonderful to do that.

I was very methodical about it. I read the script a couple of times and went, ‘I’m not going to even think about the script. I’m just going to put that aside for now’. In fact, the first two times I read it I read her previous drafts, so I hadn’t even gone back to this, which is not terribly different. It’s just the ending.

I went “Okay, I’m just going to go into her world.” I thought I’ll just read all the Ripley novels first, get a feel of her as a writer, and then go to her biography. There’s a couple of very good biographies.

That was really great to do that work first and then come back and start doing research on the play. When we started rehearsals, the three of us  Matt, and Paige and I, were all kind of totally confused about what was Joanna Murray-Smith’s voice, what was Patricia’s writing, what was Patricia’s life. They all became melded into one, which says what an amazing writer Joanna is, because you feel her voice so clearly. You feel Highsmith’s voice.

There were all sorts of interviews I listened to, and so she had a very particular way of speaking. It’s that educated New York…  it’s a bit old-fashioned now. You wouldn’t hear people speaking like that now, but she’d still say things like “Noo York” and “cawfee” and still have these little New Yorkisms, but she’s say “whaht” with a more open vowel. And sort of a singsong way, slightly seductive, which is very interesting.

Listening to all that, and I did some work with Melissa (Agnew) our voice coach just on the rhythm of her speech. There came a point where I actually had to not listen to Patricia anymore and throw it away, because I had to make it my own.

I hear you had a possum drop by the other night during the show, is that right? 

It was absolutely hilarious. Just before we opened the doors, there was a little rain of possum poo. So we saw the possum, thought we got rid of it, and just as the lights were going down, I hear this “pft, pft, pft”  and saw possum poo coming down onto the set on top of me. Some of it landed on the stage. I thought ‘Oh, my God, he’s in the building’. Then we heard a crash back stage. It hit a light.

And then I hear this noise (on stage) in the kitchen. I turn around and we’ve got this bowl of cat food and there is the possum in full view of about half of the audience, just eating the cat food. So I found all these reasons to go back up into the kitchen to get rid of it. Then I was worried because we had some food pre-set that I bring out later. But luckily, the ASM backstage had covered that up.

I was still doing the whole dialogue. Hadn’t changed anything. It was very funny. Luckily, some audience members did notice and they were lovely. They were very forgiving and understanding, and the possum has since been released somewhere in the wilderness, I hope. We called it Ripley.

QTC’s production of Switzerland plays unto June 26 at the Billie Brown Studio.