Abbie Cornish finds her characters through divining the smallest of details. For 2004’s Somersault, her acclaimed breakthrough role, it was a matter of figuring out how Heidi, the haltingly hopeful teenage girl she played, would grasp a schooner of beer. But to play Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, the favoured lady-in-waiting of Cate Blanchett’s Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, it was a far more difficult process of discovery.

Shekhar Kapur’s vivid melodrama was the first period piece of the 25-year-old’s short but successful career. The prospect made her nervous. Yet production staff were able to supply information, including a portrait of the real lady-in-waiting, where Cornish saw a dancer’s graceful hand and realised how gentle the character was.

The key revelation came in the first week of shooting in England this year.

Check out a new Elizabeth: The Golden Age article at News.com.au. Here’s the bit on Abbie:

While Elizabeth newcomer Clive Owen adds hunk factor to the film, it is Newcastle farm girl Abbie Cornish who has big-name Hollywood directors talking.

Sultry good looks aside, Kapur says it was the 25-year-old’s Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award-winning performance as a teen runaway in Somersault that drew him to her.

“How could you not find Abbie after seeing Somersault?” Kapur says when asked about discovering her exceptional acting talents.

“I saw Somersault and was so taken that someone at this young age could actually give such an internal, but stirring performance.

“I had been thinking about her since then and I was surprised when she called me and her agent said she would like to do this part, because I heard that every part in Hollywood had been offered to her.”

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