“I like to go out of a film asking questions - having things not completed for me. But I don’t want nihilism”

“I would love to tell more Australian stories. The stories I want to tell are always going to be dealing with the big questions.”

Rachel Ward was born into the English aristocracy, attended art school in London, but left age 16 to become a model, because, she says, she “couldn’t do much else really”.  Modelling led her to America, and to Hollywood where she played in Thorn Birds, opposite Richard Chamberlain, for television and Against All Odds opposite Jeff Bridges.  It was in Hollywood that she met Bryan Brown, whom she married.   This apparently odd/mismatched couple have remained together and now have three grown children.  For a while Rachel dedicated herself to being a mother and wife, but gradually returned to acting, albeit in a much more low-key, but probably more satisfying, way.  In the 90s she also returned to study and did a post-graduate degree in communications, which led her to writing and then directing short films with some success and eventually directed Beautiful Kate, her first feature film which has been critically well received at festivals around the world.  She has said that she finds directing much more satisfying than acting, because of the creative control.  In addition to her career in film she has also dedicated her name and her time to many ‘worthy; causes and in 2005 was awarded an AM (member of the Order of Australia) for “raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people”.