The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart: Asher Keddie returns to screens for dramatic role alongside star-studded cast

Asher Keddie may have dedicated her career to bringing stories to life on screen but some of her favourite narratives have been enjoyed in the bedroom. Or the living room, on holiday, in the park — wherever she has the chance to indulge in a good book. She’s seduced by the kind of story that lingers in the back of your mind all day. A novel laced with intrigue, a pacy plot and nuanced characters who keep you guessing right up to the final page. This love isn’t a guilty pleasure. When Keddie adores a book, she’ll let you know. Such was the case after devouring The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart — the international bestseller by Australian author Holly Ringland. “I completely fell in love with the book,” Keddie tells STM from home on a particularly chilly Melbourne afternoon. “I made it known to everyone that I needed to make it known to that I was completely enthralled by the story and I would like to be part of it. “When I read that book I couldn’t get into bed quick enough to keep going.” Like a song you can’t get out of your head or a former partner who continues to dance through your daydreams, Keddie can vouch for the almost otherworldly hold the book has had on many who have read it. When nine-year-old Alice Hart loses her abusive father and adored mother in a fire, she is taken in by her grandmother June, a flower farmer who lives on a property run by women. The novel follows Hart for two decades as she wades through the heaviness of a dark past that tries to cloud her future. As the title reveals, flowers play a powerful role within the pages. Alice is raised on the language of Australian native flowers, each species representing words that are often too hard to say. Flannel flowers mean what is lost is found. Sturt’s Desert Peas encourage courage, to take heart. A journalist and friend, who similarly to Keddie, couldn’t put the book down, recently had a Cootamundra Wattle, meaning “I wound to heal” tattooed on her arm. Ringland says she found her voice in Alice’s story, and readers around the world are glad she did. The book has been printed in 30 territories across the world and has won prestigious awards. In a happy twist of fate, it caught the attention of Made Up Stories, a production company founded by Bruna Papandrea. When Ringland was doing what felt like the 40 millionth edit of her manuscript in 2017, she sat down with her mum to watch Big Little Lies, a Made Up Stories production. They joked about her work being made into a TV series, with Ringland declaring she would only give it to the women whose show had left them emotional wrecks. More than a year later, she was in talks with the team that had left her in tears. “From the second Jodi (Made Up Stories’ managing director of Australia) told us we had to read this book, despite how much we had on our slate we knew from the first page we had to tell this story,” says Papandrea. “I was completely bowled over by the beauty of Holly’s writing and I had never read an Australian story that felt like this.” The Adelaide-raised film and TV producer had previously worked alongside Reese Witherspoon on the popular films Gone Girl and Wild, before launching her company in 2017. She’s since been on a mission to champion women within the industry, starting with the characters in her female-led dramas such as Big Little Lies — starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Witherspoon — and Pieces of Her, a thriller that had Aussie Toni Collette front and centre. The commitment doesn’t stop there. The company also adapts female-written books and is dedicated to employing women on set. It’s a goal that resonated with Keddie, who previously starred in Made Up Stories’ Nine Perfect Strangers — the unhinged wellness retreat drama shot in Byron Bay. She’s also working with the team on Strife, an upcoming series inspired by women’s media mogul Mia Freedman’s memoir. “It’s their commitment, and my commitment now too,” says Keddie. “The landscape has changed for our industry as a whole and streamers (streaming services) have become a part of that landscape. “We’re able to push out internationally now, much more than we were able to do even five years ago. “That has allowed us to open up the kinds of drama and female-led stories that we’ve been wanting to tell for decades.” Keddie is no stranger to playing a strong and complicated female character. During her career she’s starred in The Hunting, played Ita Buttrose in Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, and perhaps in her best-known role ,won over audiences (and influenced many fashion purchases) as Nina Proudman in Offspring. She also has several theatre productions and film credits to her name. After a nearly four-year hiatus from series television (she’s being working on personal projects and flies to Perth as much as possible to visit her mum and sister, who are based here) it was this special project that finally drew the Gold Logie winner back in. Keddie joins an all-star cast including Sigourney Weaver, who is also an executive producer, actor and author Leah Purcell, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frankie Adams. She plays Sally Morgan, a big-heated local librarian who entwines herself into Alice’s world in ways that will leave viewers wide-eyed. She’s impulsive, generous and, above all, yearns to be a mother. Offspring fans will quickly recognise her policeman husband is played by Nina Proudman’s former flame Alexander England. “It was really great to explore different territory together as actors as there’s a trust and a second-hand with us now. We’re friends and we respect each other and give each other space,” she says of the experience with England. “As an acting partnership we’re all the things that you kind of want.” Their relationship, as well as unfolding Sally’s past, can be confronting to watch. Keddie says she had to put on her “brave pants” to tap into the truth of her character’s complex experiences. “There was so much in it (her part),” she says. “There were so many layers of actual story of Sally and her partnership with John (England). It wasn’t difficult to access emotions as I was performing it. “I think we all understand emotional challenge within relationships and also conflict, but also things that are hidden until we’re brave enough to reveal them to not only ourselves, but to the people we care about. “That was the part of the journey that I enjoyed exploring the most.” As with any book to screen adaption, thought and care was poured into what was included, developed or omitted. Introducing Keddie’s character at the start, instead of towards the end, was adjusted by writer and showrunner Sarah Lambert. Expanding the journey of June, played by Golden Globe winner and Academy Award-nominated Weaver, and her partner Twig, played by Purcell, was also reworked to tell the story as a mystery. The changes allow the story to sing on screen. Whether it’s because Weaver’s hardened character is too intimidating to look away from, or throughout the years her shell begins to crack and vulnerability begins to peek through, the acclaimed actor is a formidable force to watch. “I thought she was just captivating,” says Keddie of Weaver. “It’s beautifully nuanced, her performance. It was like that working with her. She was low-key, very thoughtful, very respectful, nice and quiet on set, and I like that too. “But warm and giving, very giving (is) Sigourney.” The screen role of Twig was specifically written for Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman best known for her role in Wentworth. Her character’s big heart and unconditional love perfectly offset Weaver’s steely exterior. A scene showing Twig on country surrounded by aunties and a culture she’d never really known was one of the most powerful in the series. Bringing the book to life in a way that does Ringland’s poetic writing justice was no easy feat, admits Keddie. “It’s so evocative, Holly’s writing, and you can’t help but visualise what she’s imagining or feeling,” she says. The series was designed to be experiential, Keddie says, to make viewers feel like they’re going through the experience with the characters and their stories, as opposed to just watching them go through it. “It’s like music, isn’t it?” Keddie says. “When something is so visually evocative, it’s like what music can do with drama when you’re watching it. It can support the storytelling in a way that is really strong, and I think this show has achieved that.” Thornfield, June’s wildflower farm where viewers see the secrets of the women slowly unfolding, was particularly important to get right. Finding a grand home that could reflect the picturesque setting, not to mention surrounding it with fields of kaleidoscopic wildflowers, was close to impossible. In the end the team found a 130-year-old home in Scone, New South Wales, which was seamlessly stitched with two other NSW farms. Keddie says the first time she saw it, the property took her breath away. Weaver recalls wondering if viewers might think it’s CGI because it looks so incredible. Other scenes were shot around Alice Springs, as well as Grafton in northern NSW. As Keddie reflects on the series, which will be released on August 4, it’s the delicate and sensitive approach to a story (which tackles heavy themes of domestic violence and sexual assault) that is equally unapologetic and confronting that stands out. “What I’ve taken most from it, and what stayed with me having delivered it as an actor who worked on it but also then watched it, is the incredible resilience of women and children,” she says. “I think it’s that, the resilience of people after having experienced such extreme trauma, that I find the most hopeful thing about the show.” As we wait eagerly for Keddie’s next collaboration on Strife, we’re equally excited to learn if she’s read anything else incredible that she’d love to see on the screen. The good news is, she’s reading every day and keeping a keen eye out for opportunities. The bad — it’s too early to share what they might be. “There are (books), but I don’t think that I can mention them right now … I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot,” she says. “Watch this space.” The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart starts on August 4 on Prime Video