'There were so many secrets.' I asked Cate Blanchett to tell me the surprising story behind her new movie.

In the midst of COVID lockdowns, Cate Blanchett called Warwick Thornton and said, "life is too short, I really want to make a movie with you".

The result is The New Boy, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Thornton, which he began creating more than 18 years ago when he sat down to draft a script about a lone Indigenous boy who finds himself in a Christian monastery in 1940s Australia. 

A story that pulls together moments from his own childhood where, as a young boy, Warrick's mother sent him away to a remote missionary-style boarding school run by Spanish monks.

Set in the middle of World War II, The New Boy begins when a young Indigenous boy (played by Aswan Reid, in his first film role) is captured by a horseback police patrol and hauled off to a remote monastery orphanage in the middle of the night. 

The monastery is run by the fiery, and often unconventional, Sister Eileen (Blanchett), who, along with two Aboriginal staff – George (Wayne Blair) and Sister Mum (Deborah Mailman), keep the property's farm running while also caring for a small group of orphaned boys.

Sister Eileen has long been keeping the goings on at the monastery a secret from the prying eyes of the church but when the new boy arrives, with a unique set of gifts, everything she and this small chosen family know about spirituality and survival are called into question.

Watch the trailer for The New Boy here. Article continues after video.

When it came to creating the film, Blanchett told Mamamia she and Thornton built their professional relationship away from the spotlight and after a while, the Samson and Delilah filmmaker shared with her the story he had secretly been toiling away at for decades. 

"There was a desire to work together, but with no particular outcome in mind," Cate said of what prompted her to make that call. "Our conversations began during COVID, when no one knew if there was an end to it in sight.”

Warwick agreed, saying: “We didn't know if it was the beginning of the end, would we ever work again?”

"So it was quite a great place to start a creative conversation," Cate continued. "Because it meant there were no cameras involved, it was just an old-fashioned telephone call. We started out talking about childhood stuff and then after a while, you just pulled out this script you'd been working on for a long time," Cate said, turning to Warwick. 

“But then you weren't sure what it meant to you or to anybody else anymore, and you entrusted us to read it.”

Blanchett's role in the film was originally supposed to be a male one, but after looking at the optics of the film as a whole, Thorton decided this needed to change.

"The movie was originally called Father and the Son, not The New Boy and it was about a priest," he explained. “But then it became apparent that if you had seen that poster for a movie, it would come with some very dark connotations. 

“And we can't stand out the front of every cinema and tell people ‘no, the movie's not like that’," he continued. "Even I don't want to watch that film. So even though my film is not about that, there are connotations, so we flipped the gender of the main character. Which was a beautiful idea from Cate and her husband, Andrew (Upton, who produced the movie alongside Blanchett). 

 Warwick Thornton and Cate Blanchett. Image: Roadshow. 

With a career that spans decades and a slew of industry awards to her name, including two Academy Awards, Blanchett is an actor faced with a sea of projects she can choose to work on and characters she is invited to portray. 

When faced with the choice of which film projects she ties herself to, I ask if she's motivated by fear or by challenge, if at this stage of her career, her motivation really lies in taking on a role unlike anything she has done before.

She shakes her head to say no before I can really finish asking the question, alluding to the fact that there's never a performance she's feared.

Instead, she's looking for something much more specific. 

“I know this sounds strange, but for me, the role is always secondary to the conversation," Cate explained. "I’ve played characters before who have died on page nine, and I did that because I didn't want to play the lead role. I wanted to play the role I thought would be the most interesting, the one that could add something to the conversation. 

“I've also always wanted to play a nun,” she continued, explaining why she was drawn to playing Sister Eileen. “My best friend at primary school was Catholic, and I used to go to mass every weekend with her because I was just fascinated by the ritual and what the ritual is hiding. 

"You know, there were so many secrets in the Catholic church, obviously not particularly pleasant ones as has come to light. But as a child and as an innocent, I found the ritual fascinating. 

“Sister Eileen is not a nun who's in an easy place and she's clearly got a problem with alcohol," Cate continued. "She’s also having a crisis of faith and into that crisis walks a boy with a vibrant and irrepressible magnetic spirituality.

"She thinks that he can reignite her faith and that he has been sent by God. Which is ultimately very misguided."

When it came to making the film, Thornton and Blanchett has prepared themselves for the remote Australian filming location and a condensed timeline when it came to their shooting schedule.

But what they hadn't quite factored in was the joyful chaos that would ensue when the younger cast, comprised of Shane McKenzie-Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Beau Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick, and Tyler Rockman Spencer, were let loose on a movie set for the first time. 

“While we were filming we had biblical plagues, rain, bees, and bushfires," Thornton said. "All sorts of strange things happened, but that's all part of the adventure. The most amazing thing about it all was my total naivety that we were about to work with eight children who had never been on set before.

"Then all of a sudden really reality hit," he laughed. "And this whirlwind of arms and legs arrived in an eight-seater bus, loud and screaming, and then all the blood just drained from my body because I did not prepare myself for this. 

“But they were all amazing, they were the most beautiful children."

"Amy Baker's production design was also remarkable,” Cate added in about the filming experience. “And we had the blessing of being in one location the whole time. So for the boys it very quickly became their home. 

"They all knew which bed they could go and sleep in, and the detail of the art direction was extraordinary," she continued. "There was a suspension of disbelief they didn't have to make because it was just where they lived. It became all our of our home very quickly."

Warwick Thornton and the cast of The New Boy. Image: Roadshow

As we near the end of our interview, I ask Blanchett and Thornton to share why they think it's so important for audiences to see The New Boy in cinemas and support Australian-made films. 

In my head, I pictured the many think pieces being churned out in recent years, bemoaning the fact that audiences are more reluctant than ever to see movies on the big screen. Coupled with the fact that a flood of high-budget blockbusters are currently doing the release rounds, I didn't want to think that movie-goers would somehow miss out on this compelling and beautifully made new film.

But I quickly discovered that when it came to The New Boy "important" was the last way Blanchett and Thornton wanted their movie described.

“Important is always such a loaded word," Cate said in response to my question. "It makes it sound as if the movie is just going to be good for them.

"It's a really funny movie and it's a war movie. It's also very open-hearted in an unexpected way. 

"Of course, this story brings with it the weight of a certain pocket of Australian history. Which always follows us and in a way, as a filmmaker, you always reference this part of Australian history in some way. 

"But this movie is by no means a history lesson or a lecture."

 “I promise you there will not be an exam at the end of this movie," Warrick added.

The New Boy is in cinemas now, it is rated M.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here.

Feature Image: Getty/Roadshow