“Are you going to light me well?” Baz Luhrmann asks when Georgia Godworth, a comedian who interviews strangers on the street, stops him in Sydney to ask about his love life.
“I think you need to put the camera – I think it is there,” the famed Australian director says while, well, directing the shoot of Godworth’s TikTok vox pop.
Godworth, unaware of who she is speaking to, replies: “Yeah that’s good, get the light, get the angles.”
She begins by asking Luhrmann if he’s single – he has of course been married to the Australian costume designer Catherine Martin for nearly 30 years – and he replies: “No … I’m married.”
Godworth later moves the interview on a Newtown street to, um, group sex. But before then Luhrmann delivers some considered reflections on long-term commitment and love.
“During that journey of marriage, the person I’m married to and I found our own really genuine and authentic concept of what our contract to each other should be,” the 61-year-old says.
“But I think more importantly, marriage is not so much about what exists between you and another person, it’s about advertising to other people that you love and care as to what the dealio is.”
Love and respect and communication, Godworth riffs. Luhrmann goes on to say that if you care about someone and they fall in love with someone else, “there has to be some form of acceptance”.
“It’s a contract of communication.”
Godworth notes: “It’s a loose contract where you can fuck other people occasionally. Monogamy is hard long-term and you know people come into your life?”
Luhrmann, who appears to be on a night out, interrupts: “Let me think about that. I’m not sure what that means.”
Godworth continues: “Occasionally you can have the open dialogue, whether that be a threesome, a foursome, an orgy.”
Luhrmann then asks the interviewer: “How many foursomes have you done?”
“Maybe like six,” she replies, before Luhrmann says: “So, I mean, what is the point of the conversation we’re having?”
The coalescence of the celebrated director – whose work includes The Great Gatsby, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge – and a young, relatively unknown comedian on a Newtown street, delivers two minutes and 18 seconds of part-sarcastic, part-earnest fun.
The video was posted to Godworth’s TikTok on 30 May and had garnered 100,000 views by Friday.
Godworth spoke to Luhrmann in March – it was her first time trying the street-interview format.
“I was nervous and a bit hasty,” she told Guardian Australia on Friday.
When Godworth stopped Luhrmann she thought he was “dressed elegantly”. She didn’t learn it was the famous director until a month later when she posted a snippet of the interview on TikTok in early April and her best friend called “to tell me who he was”.
“Moulin Rouge was my favourite film as a child and I absolutely love Romeo + Juliet,” Godworth said. “I see him as an icon – I just didn’t recognise him!”
Godworth thinks Luhrmann “knew that I didn’t know who he was” but “he willingly participated anyway”.
When Luhrmann re-directed the frame to improve the lighting, the TikToker thought “this man has an authority about himself”.
“He knows what he wants and I respect that,” she recalled thinking at the time. “I was amused by him. He had personality and charm. His warmth and spontaneity was really fun.”
As the interview wraps up, Luhrmann says in the video: “I usually don’t do interviews, so I’m glad to be part of yours.” Godworth replies: “Thank you very much. I’m honoured, I’m honoured.” End scene.
