Crafting success: Author Rosalie Ham talks The Dressmaker
AUSSIE author Rosalie Ham will see one of her novels, The Dressmaker, turned into a film starring Kate Winslet as the lead. Trinity College Foundation Studies students Clara Choo and Nicolette Lim caught up with the author to talk about the book, the upcoming film and more!
For an Australian novelist, Rosalie Ham is remarkably accomplished. Not only is Rosalie a writer, she is also a part time Literature teacher as part of the Trinity College Foundation Studies programme. Furthermore, her first novel, The Dressmaker, has won and been nominated for many awards and is in the process of being produced as a movie.
Born and raised in Jerilderie, New South Wales, Rosalie now calls Melbourne home. During her career as a writer, she has also written other books including Summer at Mount Hope and There Should be More Dancing.
The Dressmaker is a gothic novel about love, hate and haute couture which sees the book’s heroine, Tilly, returning to the town she grew up at in rural Australia. Armed with a sewing machine and her sense of style, Tilly makes over the women in the town all the while plotting her revenge on those who had done her wrong for a murder she accused of as a child.
The movie has already cast a star of famous faces, the likes of which include Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth. Winslet, best known for her role in Titanic, has been cast as the lead, Tilly. Liam Hemsworth, younger brother to Thor’s Chris Hemsworth and also a star in The Hunger Games series, takes on the role of the charming Teddy who is Tilly’s love interest. Meanwhile, Judy Davis (Barton Fink) will also join the cast in The Dressmaker.
Tentatively dated for an October 2015 release, the motion picture will be filmed around Melbourne, Mount Rothwell and the Wimmera region.
Check out the above video for an interview with Rosalie about the success of The Dressmaker, her feelings on the invaluable opportunity for her novel to make it onto the big screen and her plans for the near future.