Fed: Miranda Otto says Aussies not part of Hollywood beauty race

00-00-0000
Fed: Miranda Otto says Aussies not part of Hollywood beauty race

By Anthony Stavrinos

SYDNEY, Dec 20 AAP - Hollywood is still a beauty contest and Australians are competing- but a growing contingent of world-beating Australian talent works outside the square,actor Miranda Otto said today.

Otto, who this week celebrated her 35th birthday, said the reason for the disproportionatenumber of Australians sharing the Hollywood spoils in recent times was unclear.

"It's hard to work out where the phenomena comes from," she said while on the promotionaltrail for her latest film, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers.

"Maybe it's something about being isolated down here (and) this freshness to a lotof people (so) that when they go over there (Hollywood) they're kind of a bit differentand have a different background and that maybe makes them interesting."

She conceded that many female American actors had attracted attention by virtue oftheir looks rather than their talent.

But some stars with beauty pageant grounding are actually talented - "let's not getthat wrong", she said.

"I do think that in the US and the tradition of Hollywood that it has been a bit ofa beauty contest," Otto said.

"There was so much that came from people winning beauty contests and going to Hollywoodand becoming actresses."

The cream of the crop among Australian female actors have that "extra individuality".

"A lot of the women you're seeing doing well over there from Australia are women whowent through drama school, are very committed to acting and are very beautiful but alsovery individual," Otto said.

"They're not your kind of dolly-looking model types."

Hundreds of fans turned out for the Australian premiere of the latest instalment ofthe Lord Of the Rings trilogy in Sydney last night, which Otto attended with her Australianactor boyfriend Peter O'Brien.

Also at the event was another of the film's Australian stars, David Wenham, US singerChris Isaak, ARIA Award winning country music star Kasey Chambers and local acting starsPia Miranda and Toni Collette.

Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and his wife Blanche D'Apulget were also among thehobbit `hobnobbers' to mix with the A-list crowd at the premiere's after-party at theSydney Opera House.

Otto said it was refreshing being in a film where the violence, mainly in battle scenes,wasn't limited to guns.

"I find guns really boring ... watching swordfights is really fun and all the choreographyinvolved in them," she said.

Otto's character in the film, Eowyn, showed she wasn't just a pretty face and couldswing a sword as well as anyone, courtesy of several weeks of training in general swordplayand positioning, before filming began in NZ.

"It was actually Liv Tyler that put me onto it ... (she) said to me `you have no idea,you have to do all your own fighting and horseriding' and all these things," she said.

Otto said she received no injuries.

"I was very aware of the fact that a sword across the face could change my career abit and (I'd) get to play a lot of Brad Dourif roles," she said, referring to co-starDourif's latest film role as a gangster in El Padrino.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers releases nationally in Australian cinemas on December 26.

AAP as/nf/was/de

KEYWORD: RINGS AUST (PIX AVAILABLE)