INTERVIEW WITH ACTRESS LYNN RAINBOW

Today I have the great pleasure of welcoming a very special guest, actress Lynn Rainbow AM, to CINEMATIC REVELATIONS for an interview. While Lynn has acted in two motion pictures over the years, being the big-screen version of NUMBER 96 [my review of the film can be found here] and the animated film SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SIGN OF FOUR, she has acted prolifically on Australian television. Some of Lynn’s television credits include the series version of Number 96, Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, A Country Practice, and Home and Away, to name a few examples. In this interview Lynn will be discussing her role in the NUMBER 96 movie, acting, being recognized for her work as a Member with the Order of Australia (AM) in 2016, and as Vice-President of the Actors & Entertainers Benevolent Fund in Brisbane, Australia.

Welcome to CINEMATIC REVELATIONS Lynn!

Athan: When did you first realize that you wanted to be an actress?

Lynn: I think it was in my DNA.  I am the fourth generation. My great grandfather John Fuller came to New Zealand from England and was known as the ‘Silver throated tenor of New Zealand. My Grandfather Sir Benjamin Fuller was a theatrical entrepreneur with his brother Johnny and created Fuller’s Theatres all around Australia and New Zealand. My mother was a dancer and her partner was Ron Shand (Herbie in Number 96).  Then there was me.  I don’t remember not performing.

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Athan: Where did you study acting?

Lynn: With Dame Doris Fitton at the Independent Theatre school, North Sydney. We were taught by the wonderful movement teacher Keith Bain, Robert Levis and Peter Summerton. Doris only paid the main 2 or 3 actors so all the smaller parts were played by the students. Also the students performed the Saturday afternoon Children’s plays. There is nothing harder than a restless young audience.

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Athan: I loved your performance as Sonia, a young woman whose husband attempted to steal her fortune by trying to drive her insane in NUMBER 96. You had left the series the previous year, and were invited back for the movie. How did it feel reprising the role of Sonia for the NUMBER 96 movie?

Lynn: Well I knew the character so well even though the circumstances were different. I had been working solidly in theatre since I left the TV series.  I remember how much fun it was to be back with the old gang. We were a very close knit unit and we were truly all good friends. By this time Tom (Oliver) and I were married. It was a very happy time.

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Athan: What did you most enjoy about the experience of filming the NUMBER 96 movie?

Lynn: Enjoy is probably not the word. Sadly, it was shot so fast like the TV series. I shot 18 scenes in one day. It was lucky I knew and understood my character. There was no time to get deep and meaningful, ‘just say your lines and don’t bump into the furniture’.

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Athan: What for you was the most demanding, but emotionally satisfying segment of making NUMBER 96?

Lynn: In the TV series it was probably the relationship and kiss I had with black dancer and actor Ronnie Arnold as it was the main reason Number96 the series could not be sold to the USA.

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Athan: Have you kept in contact with any cast members and crew from NUMBER 96?

Lynn: Oh yes! I was very close to Bettina Welch (our families shared Christmases) and darling Elaine Lee and Gordie McDougall until their deaths. Sheila Kenelly knew my second husband before me, as she bought one of his bulls and lived near us. I see Joe Hasham whenever I go up to Indonesia. Liz Kirkby and Carol Raye live in the country now, so I don’t see as much of them.  David Sale (the creator of Number96 the TV series and the film) and I are still close as he has recently moved up to Queensland.

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Athan: NUMBER 96 was directed by Peter Benardos, who also directed the series version of Number 96, and was his only feature film. What was it like being directed by Mr Benardos in the NUMBER 96 movie?

Lynn: Peter was such a nice man, a gentle director. He was under pressure to get the film done, but he knew we knew our characters and so I think he trusted us not to let him down.  Just few gentle words here and there.

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Athan: You filmed all your scenes in the NUMBER 96 movie over the course of a single day, and subsequently acted on stage in a play the same evening, which is a significant achievement. How was the experience of undertaking this for you?

Lynn: Yes, as I have said I shot 18 scenes in one day, then went straight to the theatre to play the lead Elvira in “Blythe Spirit”, which was the same night my in-laws who had just arrived from England, came to see the play!! You might say a very full day.

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Athan: You have done much stage work, and in television. What were the differences you found in acting for the screen, and in the theatre?

Lynn: I am a creature of the theatre. Film and Television technique were not taught when I was at drama school. I always felt at home on stage it was my domain and our voices (with no mics) had to reach the back stalls and the gods 6 nights and 2 matinees a week.  It is so much fun winning over an audience on a cold winters evening when you know they’d rather be at home. I never felt comfortable on camera as I felt too constricted.  I learned by watching others, by the seat of my pants really.

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Athan: You received the Order of Australia in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours for ‘significant service to the community through support for a range of cultural and charitable organisations, and to the performing arts as an actor’. How did it feel to receive this tremendous honour?

Lynn: Oh, it is such an honor and such a secret to keep. You are contacted several months before, to see if you are willing to accept the Honour.  I was like a little bubbling kettle.  The strap on my shoe broke just before the ceremony at Government House in Brisbane.  The shoe was whisked away, fixed and placed back on my foot a la Cinderella before I knew it. The wonderful thing is that although you are the recipient of the Honour, it is really about all the people who have helped realise the dream. The Judge Rainbow Memorial Fund, of which I am now Patron, La Boite Theatre, The Rainbow Reid Endowment fund at Creative Industries (acting) for Artists in Residence, and of course my beloved Actors Benevolent Fund.

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Athan: You are Vice-President of the Actors & Entertainers Benevolent Fund in Brisbane, Australia. How did you become involved in the Fund? What makes you most proud of being a member of the Fund?

Lynn: It seems I have been involved with the Actors Benevolent Fund all my life. I was on the ABFNSW for two 10 year stints and another continuing stint when I moved up to Queensland. I became involved with the fund in the late sixties.  It is such a wonderful group who help their fellow performers and is totally confidential. Recently, and long overdue, we have amalgamated (while retaining each States autonomy) into the Alliance of Australasian Performing Arts Benevolent Funds, AAPABF with Cate Blanchett as our Patron. During this pandemic when so many people in the Arts are hurting, it never ceases to amaze how generous the Public is.

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Athan: Do you have any upcoming projects of which you would like to tell readers?

Lynn: Not really, just more of the same. If something new comes up.  I’ll let you know.

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Thank you so much today for your time Lynn, and for the insight you have provided into the art of acting, NUMBER 96, theatre, the Order of Australia, and the Actors & Entertainers Benevolent Fund. It has been wonderful to have you on CINEMATIC REVELATIONS. You are welcome to return whenever you wish.

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Lynn Rainbow links

+Lynn Rainbow IMDb Actor Page

+NUMBER 96 movie IMDb page

+Order of Australia page 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours

+Actors & Entertainers Benevolent Fund page Vice-President Lynn Rainbow