Rachel Griffiths ‘I OFTEN WONDER, WHAT WOULD RHONDA SAY?'

The star is older, wiser and home from Hollywood – and searching for our most iconic Aussie portrait

- Claire Isaac.

For actress and director Rachel Griffiths, coming home to Australia after 10 years in the US meant a chance to regroup, to try new things and also soak up some good old Aussie home life.

“I didn’t want to be under a TV contract for five years,” she tells Woman’s Day of her decision to settle in Melbourne. “I’d been under contract consistently for 10 years on two shows. As well as that, I realised I’ve suffered terrible homesickness in all the periods I’ve been out of this country.”

Now 52 – “I look so old, my phone doesn't recognise my face. It’s decided I’m no longer Rachel Griffiths!” – Rachel, her artist husband Andrew Taylor and their children Banjo, 17, Adelaide, 15, and Clementine, 11, don’t regret a thing after making their return in 2012.

Rachel smiles at just how quintessentially “home” she is. “I’m living in St Kilda, where I lived in my early 20s. I live 50 metres from a share house I used to live in. I go to the same cafe I went to when I was 18!”

STRENGTH TO STRENGTH