Kylie, who got her first big break in entertainment on Aussie soap opera “Neighbours,” told Reuters’ Michelle Nichols she’d really like to make a leap into movies, but feels it would take just the right director.
The Grammy-winning singer said she dreams of a director crafting a role for her the way musician Nick Cave developed their 1996 alternative rock duet and music video for “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” which was quite a contrast to her pop roots.
“[Cave] saw me in a totally different way, believed in me and had this idea and a vision for a number of years before he contacted me and we worked together and it was just absolutely perfect,” Minogue told Reuters.
“My daytime fantasy is that there is a director somewhere who will be thinking that kind of way but putting it into the context of a film,” she said. “I would love to do more movies. I really got waylaid and sidetracked. I started out as an actress and I thought that’s what I would do.”
Guess Kylie has the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit machine (Bananarama, Dead or Alive, Rick Astley) to thank for that detour. The trio of producers signed her to a recording contract in 1987 and the rest is history.
Still, the singer has managed to work a little bit of acting into her world domination plan, with big-screen roles in “The Delinquents,” “Street Fighter,” “Bio-Dome,” “Moulin Rouge!” and, most recently, Indian composer A.R. Rahman’s Bollywood extravaganza “Blue.”
Minogue’s small-screen excursions include “The Vicar of Dibley,” “Men Behaving Badly,” “Kath and Kim,” and a scene-stealing turn as a waitress aboard a spacefaring version of the Titanic in the “Doctor Who” episode “Voyage of the Damned” which helped earn the show its highest ratings since 1979.
And what does Kylie have to say about attaining the same level of success on the concert stage in the States as she has everywhere else? To borrow a phrase from British comedian Catherine Tate, she’s “not bovvered.”
“It doesn’t frustrate me,” she said. “It’s frustrating being asked about it and the assumption that it’s something really missing in my career and in my life.
“It just so happens that I live in London and my time is spent more throughout Europe and then there’s the Asian connection through Australia but the U.S.A. has remained at arms length.”
So why tour North America at all if she doesn’t need success here to feel complete? For people just like me.
“I wanted to finally make it here for the fans that are here,” she said. “They are not that great in numbers as far as the U.S.A. goes but they have been so loyal and patient.”
Thanks Kylie!
Minogue’s six-city North American tour kicks off September 20 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif.
Here’s a clip of Kylie and Nick Cave performing “Where the Wild Roses Grow” on “Top of the Pops” in 1996.