ARIELLE CARTWRIGHT TALKS WHITE BLOOD

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

How early on did you know that you wanted to be an actress?

From as young as I can remember my mother always said “save it for the stage Arielle”, mainly because I was a little dramatic kid but my love for performing and entertaining started as soon as I could walk. The perseverance is hard to explain but it’s like wanting to eat chocolate when you’re on a diet, with the short lived satisfaction and high you, just want more. That’s how I feel when I am on set, it just feels right. The passion and fire just continues to live and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else for this lifetime. Including all of the highs there are of course the lows, and we all know being a creative is a lot of "unemployment" but the beauty of this is time to grow, learn, and gain more life experiences which inevitably helps you as an actor. I’m really lucky to have beautiful friends and family who support and believe in me.

Were there any particular actresses you admired growing up?

I’m surprisingly not like most actors who grew up "wanting to be like" their favourite actor. Living in a tight household I was not allowed to watch television or didn’t have access to a computer. So my love for performing came from self expression and a love for playing pretend. It wasn’t until I got older that I realised there’s a job for storytellers, which conviently also helps you become a better person through compassion and self awareness.

Has it always been easy to keep your enthusiasm up, even with the strongest of love a lot other external factors come into play. What is your way to make sure your love always stay strong?

Keeping the enthusiasm is definitely not easy, just like anything, it takes training to become skilled, in this case it’s training your mind and belief in the vision. I believe in fate but I also believe we can create the person we want to be. It’s takes a balance of perseverance and hustle but also allowing yourself to have other avenues of happiness and having a great support network is also really important. Going to LA, on my own, gifted me with a life lesson of surrender. It may sound contradictory but with having faith means to let go and to let it be and self belief is setting time to live the vision but also letting the grasp not be so tight as to how you think things should be right now. For me it’s about trusting that “what is meant for you will be yours”. 

What if things don't just come?

I would say I'm an ambitious person, so to keep myself busy and preoccupied, I’m currently studying a degree at university, have a podcast and am rewriting my feature film.

What are dream roles for you?

My dream role would have to be something my imagination can completely run wild, like a fantasy along the lines of Daenerys in 'Game of Thrones'. I'm also very excited to play a psychopathic and manipulative character along the times of Nicole Kidman in 'To Die For'. I’d also love to dip my toes into comedy but one of the reasons I love acting is to open up parts of yourself we all have hidden as humans due to society confindments so I tend to lean into drama and more complex characters.

I guess a role such as this one in ‘White Blood’ is an example of the kind of role where there's lots of complexity. Beauty and tragedy intertwine in a way that's so undeniably human and so fragile, as life is. What drew you to tell this story?

You’re absolutely right, the story definitely doesn’t beat around the bush regarding the rawness of human nature and the lows that most are so scared to talk about. As humans we all experience trauma and learn of our impermanence on this planet. Most people know me as a bubbly and outgoing sunshine, but what drew me into the story and Betty was a mirroring of my own trauma. I lost my father and brother both to suicide, some said I was crazy to do this role, “why would anyone want to revisit the pain”. But in a way of healing I wanted to express my darkest fears through Betty. This allowed me to hold the highest form of compassion for my character, the story and the toxic relationship with her partner Mark. It was such a privilege to play an ark that really starts at a tragic decision to end your life, and to discover self awareness and benevolence throughout the story-line. Unfortunately for Betty it was too late but it’s a mirror of being a human being, growth and healing isn’t linear.

From the very first frame of this film, there is this darkness that keeps eating away at its light. While there for Betty was never going to be a perfect ending, the story of Mark however is a different one. He increasingly seems to be her sickness personified, only playing on the hopelessness of all of it?

This dynamic between the two characters was an interesting, and complex one, to navigate through but it become really clear that Mark truly was the toxic dark cloud that kept eating away at any hope and life that Betty was trying to fight for. Mark held all of the power, and the moment Betty tries to fight for that, you can see she has not stood up for herself before. Mark was like an itch you couldn’t scratch for Betty, he got under her skin and her realising this, almost, saved her life.

How did you and Liam Walker go about that dynamic together? 

Liam was an absolutely great co-star. It helps to have an equally open minded human being who has experienced their fair share of heart ache too, we were really able to go through the pain and the lows of the story and still connect and have fun throughout it.

Are there any other upcoming works for us to look forward to seeing you in?

Yes. Year is off to a great start, as I have signed with my new agent, Rob Woodburn-Agency here in Sydney, Australia. In terms of upcoming work, a pilot filmed in 2022 'Casino Beach' by upcoming producer and director Bonnie Cee and Netflix writer Jo Anne Brechin is being adapted into a feature and we’re set to film by August this year. I just wrapped on a first season for a series adapted by the book trilogy 'Awakening Rejected Mate' by LT Marshall and currently in pre-production for season two. I will be on set later this year for a horror-comedy called ‘The Beautiful Beer’, and also something very exciting filming overseas that I can’t leak information on yet but keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. It’s been a crazy couple years of Covid and the strike, but things are definitely on a roll now and I couldn’t be more ready.