By Rochelle Siemienowicz
October 2009

 

Danielle Catanzariti

It’s been nearly a year since Danielle Catanzariti took to the podium to receive the 2008 L’Oréal Paris AFI Young Actor Award. Honoured for her performance as an endearingly awkward Jewish schoolgirl in Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger the award put Danielle amongst a promising young alumni of previous winners including Kodi Smit-McPhee (2007), Emily Browning (2002) and Abbie Cornish (1999).

The $20,000 cash prize that came with the award enabled Danielle to make a sponsored visit to Los Angeles where she met with a cavalcade of casting directors including those for Paramount/Dreamworks, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Sony. Along the way she also managed a stroll up Sunset Boulevard and a whole lot of fun at Disneyland.
Here we catch up with the very charming and bubbly 17-year-old Danielle. She tells us about her journey into acting from being a wide-eyed little girl at local theatre shows, about her most recent roles in 2009 and about her dreams for the future.

AFI: It’s been a big year for you. What have you been up to?

Danielle Catanzariti: Well I’m finishing up my final year of high school. I’ve only got 14 actual days of school left, and then exams, so I’m quite excited! Apart from that I’ve appeared in a supporting role in Closed For Winter and also had a guest role in All Saints on television.

AFI: You recently came back from a three-week trip to LA to meet casting directors and agents. Can you tell us about that?

DC: It was just such an exciting opportunity, and all thanks to the prize money. I got to meet some amazing people over there. I was just pinching myself half the time. It was very full on. But I wanted to stay longer.

AFI: So what exactly happens when you meet these casting directors?

DC: It was quite weird because the first one I went to I was shaking because I had no idea what to expect. But it was good. Very casual. You go into a room and they have a chat to you, and they asked me what I’d been up to in Australia, what sort of projects I would like to work on in the future. That kind of thing. You give them your headshot and your CV or bio, and they look over that, and if they like you they get you to come back and test for something. A lot of them did ask me to come back and test, and even though they knew I probably wasn’t right for the role that they were asking me to test for, it was just so they had me on their records. They were all so nice. I was really scared. I was thinking ‘here we go, they’re all going to be like, ‘who’s this little country Australian girl?’ but they were really intrigued, really nice people and it was a great opportunity to get out there and meet them. I’m just waiting to hear about some projects that I tested for.

AFI: How old were you when you became involved in acting?

 

Danielle Catanzariti in

Hey Hey it’s Esther Blueburger

DC: I was probably about eight when my Mum and Dad started taking me and my sister to some local theatre shows where I live – which is in Murray Bridge, about 80kms out of Adelaide. I loved it, and then when I was about 10, they were calling for auditions for Annie, and I begged and begged to be part of it, and that was the start. After that I started doing a lot of work with one of the directors, Wendy Danforth, who is amazing, and she did a lot of lessons with me – monologues, and Shakespeare and all this crazy arty stuff. She guided me and got me doing things in Adelaide, and then there was the audition for Esther Blueburger, which was where it all really started.

AFI: Is it hard to combine acting with being in school?

DC: I don’t know, I’ve been juggling it for such a long time that it seems very natural. When I’m away on a shoot the school sends my work by email or fax or post and I keep up like that. Right from the start my Mum said that ‘if your marks fall, then your acting has to go,’ so I made sure my marks were good so I could keep doing what I love! It hasn’t really been an issue, I think partly because acting’s not really a chore for me, it’s fun. Sometimes it’s a little bit sad to think I’m missing out on things, when I hear my friends talking about things that happen while I’m away, but I would never change what I’ve been doing. No way.

AFI: What’s your least favourite part of acting?

DC: I suppose it’s the whole thing when you have to do interviews and presenting – not that I mind doing interviews like this – but I think I act because I love becoming somebody else, and when you’re doing interviews or presenting on stage, you’re yourself and that’s when I get most nervous.

AFI: So you see yourself pursuing acting as a full time career?

DC: I would love to if I had the opportunity. But it’s a very hard industry to crack, as a lot of people know. But yeah, it would be a dream come true if that happened.

AFI: Tell us about attending the AFI Awards last year.

 

Danielle Catanzariti

DC: It was such a blur. Just being in a room with all these amazing people that you see on television and film, and thinking, ‘where do I look?’ I had Eddie McGuire sitting in front of me, and Michael Caton next to us. It was fun. Such a beautiful night. My legs were shaking after I won the award and I remember going up to the media room and Vince Colosimo yelling out and saying ‘Catanzariti!’ and giving me a big hug. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, how do you know who I am?’ I absolutely adored him in Wogboy, so it was like ‘whoa!’ I was probably a bit of a rabbit in the headlights. But it was a wonderful night.

AFI: Thanks so much for talking with us. And we can’t wait to see you what you do next.