ROSE

This month's cover star, Australia's own Rose Byrne, fills us in on her exciting upcoming projects across film, theatre and television, before we dive into Chanel and Louis Vuitton's latest looks and check out Gucci's new eyewear

- WORDS ALEXANDRA ENGLISH

She's worked with just about every A-lister you can think of in every genre there is. But with her new, nerve-shredding project, Rose Byrne has entered uncharted territory

By the time the video connects on our Zoom call, Rose Byrne and I are already apologising to each other. Me, because I've blurred my background and I don't want her to think it's for privacy - who am I to deny Rose Byrne the chance to snoop inside someone’s apartment? (If you've seen those Domain ads, you know she'd want to.) It’s to hide the hellscape of a recent move. She, because she’s in the car on her way home to make dinner for her kids after a long day of work. She assures me she’s not the one driving - and it is reassuring, because it’s clear her eyes are not on the road.

That I've caught Byrne in the in-between of work and motherhood is fitting, because it segues nicely into her new project and the reason for my call, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, Legs is a film about a woman, Linda (Byrne), on the brink as she attempts to cope with an increasingly unwell child, a husband who travels for work, a collapsed ceiling and flooded apartment, a temporary relocation to a dodgy seaside motel and an endless barrage of clients at her therapy practice.

The film is a masterclass in how to make an audience feel claustrophobic for one hour and 53 minutes, with just enough restraint to keep it from being unbearable. For the majority of Legs, the camera is less than arm's length away from Byrne’s face. Her daughter is only seen once; otherwise, she’s shown in magnified fragments: a leg swinging, an ear being whispered into, fingers playing with food.