Strictly Ballroom stars Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice came together on Friday night in Canberra as the National Film and Sound Archive screened a special 30th anniversary of the joy-filled Australian film.
A sold-out crowd enjoyed the 1992 film back on the big screen "in fully restored splendor" as Mercurio re-lived his role as Scott Hastings and Morice as Fran, in what was Baz Lurhmann's debut as a feature film director.
Strictly Ballroom, which received a seven-minute standing ovation at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, is now part of Australian film legend, as it celebrated the victory of the underdog in the feathers-and-glitter world of ballroom dancing.
Mercurio, 59, a first-time grandfather and aspiring Victorian state politician, said he still had many fond memories making the film 31 years ago.
"It was still in the innocent time of making films because it's become quite serious, I think," he said.
"Half the cast were very experienced actors and the other half had never done a film before. It was just fun. Friday nights I'd bring home brew in and we would watch rushes of the week's filming and have a laugh at the performances and the bloopers and have a snack. It was a real family-type environment."
Baz Luhrmann had approached Mercurio, a trained ballet dancer, a year before filming to contribute choreography to the movie.
"Then he came back and said, 'I've got the money to make the movie' and asked me to audition," he said.
The film was embraced by Australians and so loved the stars even ended up on a stamp ("Yes, you've licked my butt," Mercurio joked.)
"I didn't have any expectations," he said. "Certainly I hoped people would love it. When we made it, we just had a great time making it."
A councillor on the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, Mercurio is a Labor candidate for the seat of Hastings in the Victorian state election in November.
"It's Scott Hastings running for Hastings," Mercurio said.
"The other thing is, I might not have had the career I had without Labor because they're the only government and party who have truly supported the performing arts. So it's my time to give back."
Tara Morice has a special connection to Canberra, moving from her hometown of Hobart more than 30 years ago to study history in an arts degree at the Australian National University. She was then accepted into NIDA, did the play version of Strictly Ballroom and then won the starring role of Fran in the movie, which was released in 1992.
"It sort of doesn't feel that long time ago. It's a very strange feeling to be here with a restored version. It's like, 'Yeah, great'," she said, with a laugh.
"I guess it's one of those funny things. I never would have imagined the movie would still get sold-out screenings and still be loved by so many people. So that is a great honour to have that. It's kind of surreal."
Morice said "she felt an incredible connection" to the character of Fran, fleshing her our in the play version first.
"It was just amazing that we were actually making the movie because when we did the play at the Sydney Theatre Company, that was when Ted Albert from Albert's Music, his wife dragged him along to the play and that's when he decided he wanted to make a movie of it," she said, of the music executive who bankrolled the movie.
"My memories of the shoot are we just had so much fun. It was hard work because it was so low-budget. We were all working really long hours but we were just so excited to be doing it."
Morice, who has a daughter who is 26, said promoting the film was an important part of the journey.
"Paul and I travelled around the world for about a year opening it in all the different countries. So we were having this whirlwind time and met all these incredible people.
"I guess the amazing thing was that every country we went to, the reaction was the same. By the end, the audience was so involved and so invested, that we always had the same reaction, which was really heartwarming, all these different cultures having the same reactions."
Morice and Mercurio keep in touch by phone. They had a recent reunion for the movie but, before then, hadn't seen each other face-to-face for years.
"He's so easygoing, it's like, 'G'day Tara'," she said, with a laugh.
"But it's that thing in life and as you get older, if you've had an intense experience that you've shared with someone else at work, you do have that kind of unspoken understanding of what you've been through, without sort of talking about it too much.
"I think we've had that similar experience of always being connected to the film over all these years which is a strange phenomenon but you also feel quite privileged. I think if there's even one role you are remembered for, that's a great thing."
Morice said she felt proud to have remained a working actor throughout the 30 years since Strictly Ballroom, including on the Australian teen drama Dance Academy.
"I feel really lucky," she said.
